ABSTRACT
In the late nineteenth century, banks were not required to publish a complete balance sheet. Only joint stock banks had a statutory duty to disclose information relating to shares, capital and dividends. Consequently no complete bank deposit series can be constructed from an aggregate of balance sheet figures. The series utilized as many bank reports and archive data as could be found and is a refinement of the approach used by Nishimura. The total deposit figures were swollen by inter-bank deposits, mainly held by the provincial, Scottish and Irish banks with their London agents. Most deposits were presented gross of cheques in transmission, although equally transit items were included with cash. While acknowledging that this ignored seasonality and that June deposits were usually less than the December figures, people believe that this is the best method of obtaining half-yearly figures, and it provided a significant extension to the amount of data that could be used.
