Scottish Banking(part 5)

This was  the plan the Edinburgh banks had adopted
 during their own feud against each other; and now
as friends they resolved to try it on the two young
Glasgow banks. Trotter accordingly came west on
his despicable mission, and took up his abode in
Glasgow. But he completely failed in his object.
The Glasgow banks stood their ground manfully,
 backed by the voice of public opinion, against the
 tyranny attempted towards them,and met all
 demands.
As a specimen of Trotter’s tactics,he insisted that
the Ship and Arms banks had no right to fix their
 hours of doing business, but were bound to pay
 their notes at any time these were presented—from
seven o’clock in the morning till ten o’clock at night;
and he therefore made his demands often at the most
untimeous hours. In order,however, to punish Trotter,
some of the payments were made to him in sixpences,
to his no small vexation, from the time it took to count.
But this was just what the Edinburgh banks had done
 themselves during their feud with each other; and,
moreover, silver was then a legal tender.
 This opposition lasted some years, and ended
in a lawsuit before the Court of Session, at Trotter’s
instance against Cochrane, Murdoch, and Co., the plead-
ings in which revealed the whole conspiracy.
 Latterly,Trotter was glad to compromise the case,
after having spent about £600 in law expenses.
 The Glasgow banks continued to prosper, and none
 of the Edinburgh banks ventured to place a branch
 here for upwards of twenty years after their repulse.

The Royal was the first stranger bank which seated
itself in Glasgow. This was in 1783. It did so in a
very humble manner. Its first office was on the one
side of a small shop in " Hopkirk’s Land," east side
of High Street,five doors north from the corner at

Glasgow High street images
http://www.vintagescottishimages.org.uk/#/high-street/4533991718


the Cross. The agent carried on his ordinary busi-
ness of a linen-draper on the other side of the shop.
The rent paid by the bank was £2,10s. annually. The
agent had been originally a herdboy, afterwards a
 weaver in Paisley,Hamilton, and Cambuslang;
thereafter a clerk to a silk-mercer in Glasgow;
and at the time the bank employed him he was,
as already said,a  linen-draper on his own account.

 The Bank of Scotland did not repeat their
experiment of a branch  here for many years after
 the Royal. They had only  a bill-collector,Mr.
Herbert Hamilton, agent for the Carron Company,
west side of Queen Street, and  had a room in
 his place of business. Their first  regular office
 was in Miller Street, the agent being  Mr.
Archibald Hamilton, jun. Afterwards they
bought the old Star Inn, Ingram Street, and
built their office on the site in 1826.


more to follow........

Scottish Banking(part 4)

 Mr. Carrick, with his wrinkled face and keen, piercing
 eyes, was usually attired in a brown coloured coat,
queerly made, with deep flaps on the outside pockets,
the broad skirts reaching down nearly to his heels,
and adorned with large brass buttons; drab knee-
breeches ; a striped woollen waistcoat, of hotch—potch
tinge,allowed a very moderate display of " ruffles " at
the breast; white neckcloth with longish ends; ribbed
white worsted stockings,and buckles in his shoes;while
a small brown wig covered the pate of this singular-
looking but able old financier.

Mr. Carrick was fond of music, and accustomed in
the evenings, as a relaxation, to play the violin, often
 with an old friend who performed well on that instrument,
in the queer and very plainly furnished house above the
 bank. This old musical friend laid Mr. Carrick’s head in
 the coffin, by special request of the ancient virgin
who long superintended the old banker’s household.

Glasgow arms bank ,One guinea note
(above)


As has already been mentioned, the Glasgow Arms
Bank was started in the same year as the Ship Bank,
and the success of these banks soon roused the ire of
their Edinburgh rivals,the Royal Bank and the Bank
of Scotland. In fact,the Ship and the Glasgow Arms
banks had scarcely been established when they were
fiercely attacked by the Edinburgh banks. These last
had long had a bitter feud between themselves, and
tried to drive each other off the field in Edinburgh. The
particulars of this contest may be seen in the pamphlets
 printed by their respective partisans, and in other
publications of the day. But now that Glasgow had
presumed to act herself, in a field peculiarly her own,
the Edinburgh banks, full of jealousy of the Glasgow
banks, quashed their own disputes, and resolved if
possible to crush the two new competitors. With great
arrogance,therefore, the Edinburgh banks insisted on
Provost Dunlop and Provost Cochrane, and the other
gentlemen associated with them, immediately discon-
tinuing the business of banking, under threat of their
notes being protested. This unwarrantable request
was firmly refused ; whereupon the two Edinburgh
stranger banks employed an agent, named Archibald
Trotter, to collect as many notes of the Ship and Glasgow
 Arms as possible, and suddenly present these at
the banks for payment.



Much more to follow........