[113] There is also, on a smaller scale, the Bangalore Bank (1868).
[114] There are a few others on a very small scale, such as the Kashmir Bank (1882), and the Poona Mercantile Bank (1893).
[115] In 1901 the People’s Bank of India was founded, but it did not reach the 5 lakhs’ limit until 1908.
[116] The Bank of India has a paid–up capital of 50 lakhs and a reserve and rest of 5½ lakhs; the corresponding figures for the Indian Specie Bank are 75 lakhs and 19 lakhs. The Bank of Rangoon is on a smaller scale and has been less successful.
[117] This represents compound interest at the rate of about 8 per cent per annum.
[118] Here again it is tantalising that no later figures should be available.
[119] In the official statistics no definition is given of what precisely is meant by “cash.”
[120] The Co–operative Credit Societies are not important in this connexion, capital, reserves, loans, and deposits altogether being less than £1,000,000.
[121] At the time of writing, this Bill has not yet passed through its final stages.
[122] In the published balance sheet, which I have before me, of one of the largest of these little Banks, the cash is lumped together with the “investments,” i.e., with the Bank’s speculations.