Loading ...PREFACE By The Author
AS a general principle I am opposed to the Preface. I do not believe in telling people what I propose to say; I prefer to say it. But there are cases where an introduction proves a useful and illuminating adjunct to a book. In the present instance it serves a two-fold mission. It enables me to indicate briefly the object with which this work has been undertaken, and to acknowledge certain sources of information that have been drawn upon, and at the same time expressing my obligations to those whose labours and experiences in the same field have aided in the compilation of these pages.
My object, then, has been to present as clear, concise and accurate an account of the People’s Banks movement throughout Europe since the days of the inauguration in Germany during the early fifties in the last century — when those two redoubtable reformers, Schulze-Uelitzsch and Raiifeisen, first started their daring crusade — up to the present adoption of similar institutions in the United Kingdom. The lesson that this history teaches — a history covering a period less than man’s allotted span — is both suggestive and great. It is the story of a noble struggle of earnest, energetic and high-purposed men against the petty meddlings and tyrannies of pragmatical officialdom, and it shows what wonders for the democracy may be achieved by concerted action, even in the face of apparently insuperable impediments. It proves also the advantages of private enterprise over bureaucratic control. And it is a lasting monument to the fact of how struggling and persecuted peoples may lift themselves by dint of co-operation and self-help out of the slough of poverty and misery to a higher moral, political, financial and social level. It embodies teachings which, if rightly studied, the British people might well take to heart and apply to their own case of the masses of suffering citizens in our midst.
The channels through which I have been enabled to arrive at a full survey of this vitally fascinating movement have been manifold and culled from various literatures, official documents. Blue Books of many kinds, and converse with authorities alike, all of whom are duly acknowledged in the text.
But there are two authorities whom I desire particularly to name. The first is that of Mr. Egmont Hake. To the reading of his several works (some of which were written in conjunction with Mr. 0. E. Wesslau), to his public speeches, and to much private talk with him, I owe not a little that is embodied in this work. Mr. Egmont Hake was the first to advocate the introduction of People’s Banks into this country. His address to the Institute of Bankers some years ago on this subject attracted widespread attention, and led to a fierce controversy in the columns of ” The Times,” in which many of the most illustrious public men, chiefly economists and financiers, took part. Mr. Egmont Hake, while recommending People’s Banks for this country, had been careful to accentuate and enforce the point that such institutions, if established in our midst, should not be slavish imitations of the German associations, but so modified and improved as to adapt themselves to the conditions ruling m the United Kingdom. He particularly emphasised the importance of engrafting upon them the best features of the old Scotch Banks and the banquier system in France, both of which have proved of such great prosperity-producing power. It was this that led to the remarkable controversy in “The Times.” But though attacked from many sides, the advocate won his case. And he doubly won it some years later, when, at a full meeting at St. James’s Hall, bankers from all parts of the country came to hear him, and passed a resolution, not only endorsing his apparently daring views, but welcoming his proposals for the introduction of the new system.
It is these and other facts and experiences that have induced me, like many others— among whom may be numbered the most distinguished economists of France, Italy and Germany — to regard Mr. Egmont Hake as among the greatest authorities on Banking and other economic subjects of the day. And it is for this reason that I have thought it right to set forth in these pages the views on People’s Banks which he has so sturdily and steadfastly championed.
This work may in a sense be described as a sequel to “The Moneylender Unmasked,” in which the evils of usury were so ruthlessly laid bare as to produce a Government enquiry and the Act of Parliament regulating the practices of moneylenders, and to evoke a general demand on the part of the public for the initiation of a constructive reform movement.
It is to be hoped that the outcome of the present publication will be the accomplishment of practical and serviceable ends in the latter direction, including the increased popularity of and confidence in well-organised People’s Banking institutions.
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