ABSTRACT
The public discourse of contemporary English bankers concerning their professional environment is predominantly found in the Bankers Magazine, the 'trade journal' of the banking profession. The monthly journal Bankers Magazine was first published in 1844 as part of an attempt to spread sound banking practices (Collins, 1988: 85). The Magazine published a variety of opinions, often printing conflicting views, and in using this source over forty years of changing responses to developments in banking may be examined. Another professional journal was that of the Institute of Bankers, a body established in 1879 with 2000 members at a time when professional bankers were pressing for reform and reorganisation of the domestic banking system after the crisis induced by the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 (Green, 1979: 51). The/ottrna/ of the Institute of Bankers was distributed to its membership, which increased rapidly to nearly 4000 by 1900 and reached 10 542 by 1914 (Green, 1979: appendix). Bankers also expressed their opinions regarding concentration to the Colwyn Committee and in the debate surrounding its findings. This Treasury committee was established in 1918 in order to examine amalgamations and provide recommendations as to possible future legislation concerning banking concentration. Appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
it comprised Lord Colwyn and a number of leading bankers and industrialists.3 In compiling its report, the Committee examined a body of witnesses mainly made up of bankers but also including an academic, a member of the Board of Trade and representatives from other financial institutions.4
