FRENCH BANKS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 November 1924, Page 6

FRENCH BANKS.

MTDDLEGDASS DISTRUST.

'Tnew regulation of the French i\fi nisfry of Oommerde allowing bill® of exchange tec be p'aid by cheque may possibly make this method of payment more common in France, where hanks have Meyer enjoyed tlie popularity that siiriilar institutions enjoy in England. Although nowadays the number of French people having hanking accounts and icvccoiinfs. is very eonsideiiaible, says a. Manchester Guardian correspondent, the majority of French tradesmen do not have banking accounts, and often u 2W OU a c ‘b GC lue with suspicion. The well-filled stocking, is not merely a figure of speech, and the distaste of the miqqle-claßs public for entrusting its money to hanks bias not been lessened by the war. The very drastic terms ot the moratorium and the way the French hanks applied them will not soon he 1 forgotten. None of the early • French, banks proved a success. The' father of banking in France was John Law, who m 1716 obtained royal authority to start the Bqnqne Generale, which issued bank notes payable at sight to bearer in denominations of 50, 501) and 5000 lires discounted bills, and received, current and deposit accounts, on which a small charge was made. Lwo years later it was renamed the Banque Royale, and ran on different lines. Thenceforward its history is mainly merged with that of the illstarred Mississippi Company, and the downfall of the latter brought 'about the rum of the Banque Royale. The next bank established in France —the d Elscompte—had a still shorter hie; it was established in 1767 and and .suppressed in 1769. Most other banks founded before the Bank of 1 1 aiice (which, dates from 1800) proved unstable, and . this fact may account for the distrust with which hanks are regarded by many French people