Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1880-01-16
THE GLASGOW BANK.
Report of the Liquidators OF the City OF
Glasgow Bank-The Misery Caused
by the Process Of Paying Creditors.

From the London Daily News, December 10.
The report of the liquidators of the
City of Glasgow Bank carries q good
| deal further one of the most painful
stories ever told in modern times. As a
mere business statement, and apart from
the glimpses it gives of widespread
social ruin, the report may be regarded
as singularly satisfactory. The bank
closed on the second of October, 1878,
and its unfortunate shareholders re-
solved on voluntary liquidation TWEEN
ty days afterward. They already saw
ruin before them, and this report tells
how wide and hopeless it has been.
When the bank failed its debts to de-
positors and others amounted to 49,
S54,560. The assets were not known.
During the first year of the liquidation
the sum of "a $50, 666 has been realized
from these assets, and 94,452, 366 has
been collected from the unfortunate
shareholders. or this 100000 odd q
little more than 100000 has been ex-
pended in the costs of liquidation, and
the rest, with the exception of Il bal
ance of f150,000, has been paid to the
creditors. The preferable and secured
creditors have received over FL 100000,
and three dividends, making together
IS shillings and 4 pence on the pound,
have been paid to the unsecured credit
ors, absorbing rather more than
e. ,250, 900. The remaining debts amount
in round numbers to 3,840,0 00 and the
assets, with the sum still to be recov-
cred from the shareholders whose means
are not utterly exhausted, amount to
about "a, 30S000 leaving balance of
G468000 to meet the interest payable
on claims and the further cost of liquid
alton. These figures are regarded by
the liquidators as leaving no doubt thai;
the creditors of the bank will eventually
be paid in full. They promise that a
further payment shall speedily be
made which will bring up the total Of
the dividends to Is shiIlings on the
pound; hut the 5 shillings may be post
poned for a considerable period, as the
further process of liquidation, which
consists first of the disposal of assets
very difficult to realize, and second, of
the further squeezing of q fast dimin.
ishing list of contributors not yet abso-
lutely ruined, will necessarily be q te-
dious process.
The terrible story of the recovery OF
this f4,000000 from the shareholders
of the bank is full of suggestions Of
suffering and ruin. The list of the
persons liable to contribute consisted
of $40 separate individuals. There
were only 1908 shareholders in their
own rig t, and there were 1872 bodies of
trustees which comprised 4S4 individual
names. There were 10S persons who had
been brought in by holding stock belong
ing to their wives, ond thirty-four share
holders or bodies of shareholders. in
the second week of November in 1873
all these people received call to pay
G500 ON account of every G100 OF stock
they held in the bank. The amount
thus called up was "a 100000, and at
the date of the report little less than
half of it had been realized. The second
call was made in April last, and
amounted to demand of G2,250 for
every e100 of stock. BY the time this
was sent out the number of contribu-
| tors had seriously diminished. Litiga.
ton Lad resulted in the removal of sew
eral names from the list; others had
been entirely ruined by the fret call,
and the second call was, consequently,
sent to only l ,51S persons. It's nominal
amount was nearly 9S,Q00,000, but it
had only realized at the date of the re
port little more than e., 100000. The
list seems not to haye undergone much
diminution by the dishonest course of
running away. There are only half a
dozen whose addresses have not been
discovered and there are eighteen
| who since the stoppage have
left their places of abode and have not
been traced. The first call was paid in
full by 442 of the shareholders and 70
bodies of trustees; even the second call
found So persons ard 81 bodies of trus-
tees able to discharge it, and there are
still 6S who are expected to pay 1t in
full eventually. A large number seem
to have made their peace with the
liquidators by giving up the whole OF
their property at once. Of these sos
did not possess property enough to
enable them to meet the first call. They
paid about 80 per cent. of it, and had
then to ask for discharge. Some paid
| the whole value of their estates by the
help Of friends, and were then left in
undisturbed enjoyment of them. Others
made complete surrender of all they
possessed to the liquid4tors. The first
call resulted in foIty-eight bankruptcies
in addition to these settlements; and
there still remain about forty cases in
which it is expected the full amount
will yet be paid. The second call seems
scarcely to have been so crushing as
the first. The poorest had been weeded
out. There were, however, 240 contrib
utors who could only pay half mil
lion out of three millions and a quarter
demanded from them, and were then
ruined. The bankruptcies under that
call we're only five. Under each call,
however, there remain considerable
number of cases which have not yet
been dealt with, and the whole amount
of tie ruin spread among these 1000
people has not been fully accomplished,
even at the end Of the first year OF the
liquidation. The failure Of the Glasgow
Bank has therefore resulted in tie en-
Il