ABSTRACT
The obverse of concentration in a banking system is branch banking. This, as we mentioned earlier, was a development in which Scottish bankers led the way; indeed, for long, they were so far ahead that branch banking was regarded as one of the prime distinguishing marks of the ‘Scotch system of banking’. It had appeared even before the end of the eighteenth century, but it was in the nineteenth century that it went forward most rapidly. In the present century the number of bank offices continued to rise up to the outbreak of the Second World War. There was a particularly rapid growth in the interwar period with the establishment of branches in the new suburban areas. The Second World War not only brought this to an end but partially reversed it by an agreed policy of closures to economize manpower. Since 1945 there has been a further, slight decline in the total number of bank offices although, as we shall see, the stagnation of the global figure masks a considerable amount of change within the structure. Number of Bank Offices in Scotland, 1844–1961 https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
1844
375
1872
912
1895
1,015
1914
1,253
1921
1,343
1938
1,831
1951
1,699
1961
1,683
