| Capital belonging to the banks (millions fr.) |
Deposits (not belonging to them) in millions | ||||
| NUMBER OF BRANCHES & OFFICES | |||||
| i. In Paris | ii. In the provinces | Total | |||
| Year | |||||
| 1870 | 17 | 47 | 64 | 200 | 427 |
| 1890 | 66 | 192 | 258 | 265 | 1,245 |
| 1909 | 196 | 1,033 | 1,229 | 887 | 4,363 |
In order to give an idea of the business relations of a big modern bank, Riesser gives some figures on the number of letters that it dispatches and receives. The Disconto Gesellschaft, one of the most important banks in Germany and in the world, the capital of which amounted to 300,000,000 marks in 1914, had a correspondence the size of which is indicated by the following figures:
| Letters received. |
Letters dispatched. | |||
| 1852 | ... | ... | 6,135 | 6,292 |
| 1870 | ... | ... | 85,800 | 87,513 |
| 1900 | ... | ... | 533,102 | 626,043 |
In 1875 the Crédit Lyonnais (Paris) had 28,535 open accounts. In 1912 it had 633,539.26
These figures show, better than long explanations, how the concentration of capital and the extension of business is radically altering the importance which must be assigned to the banks. Thanks to them, scattered capitalists are now forming a collective capitalist unity. In running the current account of a certain number of capitalists, the bank may seem to be undertaking only a technical process; but when these operations assume extensive proportions, the result is that a handful of monopolists control all the operations, both commercial and industrial, of capitalist society. They can, by means of their banking connections, by means of knowing the state of current accounts, by means of
