ABSTRACT
The description of the new methods which have evolved in the sphere of the financing of the big industrial units would indeed be incomplete, if the role of banks were not duly taken into consideration. Industrial development, outside England, became from the eighties onwards a hunting ground for financial ventures. This was the case, firstly where new industrial activities were developed, the units of which were from their beginning in need of a greater amount of capital than had been needed in the past by industrial undertakings. There can be no doubt that British banking stands in many ways above criticism, especially when viewed internationally. As the Chairman of the National Provincial Bank, Ltd., pointed out at the annual general meeting of January, 1935, the position of the British banks was never called in question, and even the upheaval in 1931 left the system unscathed.
