"decentralised" establishments, i.e., their influence extends to a greater number of localities, to more neglected spots, to wider fields. An American commission has collected the following data on the growth of deposits in banks and saving banks.29
| BRITAIN | FRANCE | GERMANY | |||||
| Year | In Banks |
In Savings Banks |
In Banks |
In Savings Banks |
In Banks |
In Credit Ass'tns. |
In Savings Banks |
| 1880 | 8.4 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.6 | |
| 1888 | 12.4 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 4.5 |
| 1908 | 23.2 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 7.1 | 2.2 | 13.9 |
As they pay interest at the rate of 4 per cent. (4¼ per cent. on deposits), the Savings Banks must seek profitable investments for their capital, they must go in for speculation, mortgages, etc. And so the frontiers between the Banks and the Savings Banks become more and more effaced. The Chambers of Commerce at Bochum and Erfurt, for example, demand that Savings Banks should be prevented from engaging in "purely" banking business, such as endorsing bills of exchange. They also demand the limitation of the "banking" operations of the Post Office.30
The banking kings seem to be afraid lest the State monopoly should unexpectedly catch them up. But it stands to reason that this fear does not make them go any further than the limits of competition between two department managers in the same office, if we may use the comparison; for, actually, it is still the same set of banking magnates who handle the billions entrusted to the Savings Banks, while State monopoly in a capitalist society is never anything else than a means of guaranteeing the income of millionaries who are
