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EARLY SCOTCH BANKERS.

In England, fche first bankers were goldsmiths ; bufc in Scotland they were, in a great many instances, tradesman of a very different class, such as drapers haberdashers, and corndealers. Of themany firms risen tb eminence, from these pursuits, the old house of Coutts — the trunk, so to speak of the English and other Coutts — is the most remarkable. The founder of the house was Patrick Coutts, a native of Montrose, who settled at Edinburgh at the beginning of the 18th century. He arrived on mercantile speculations with France, Holland, and America, by which he acquired a fortune of £30,000 Scots, which represented a considerable sum in those days. After the death of Patrick Coutts, his son John carried on the business, enlarging it considerably, and taking a cousin as partner. Their business was dealing in corn, buying and .selling goods on commission, and the negotiation of bills of exchange on London, Holland, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The latter part of the trade was a yery profitable one, so that Mr. John Coutts grew rapidly rich, and was chosen Lord Provost of Edinburgh in consequence. He distinguished himself in that capacity by setting up as the first Lord Provost who entertained pubhc guests at his own house, it having been the custom previously to do the honors of the city at some convenient tavern or alehoue. Unfortunately, tliese hospitalities led the worthy merchant into excess of the table, to whicli he sucenmed in 1750, at the age of 51. This brought the third generation ofthe Coutts' on the stage—corn merchants and commission agents, gradually ■ coming to be bankers. The two sons of John 'Coutfcs, Partick and Thomas, on whom devolved the business of the father, were not yet able clearly to: discern the advantages resulting from •banking. They knew that their bill transactions were very profitable, and they even wenfrso far as ito hold money on trust from private persons, and to invcab it in securities of various Mnds, to the advantage of /both their clients and themselvsy yet they held to corn -dealing as the chief part of fcheir business, only dabbhrig a little now and then in smuggled goods, tea spirits, tobacco, and the like. V To asist in defrau ling his Majesty's revenue iwas held a perfectly legitimate matter, as is well known, in the 'good old times." Of the way /in which; the firm of; Patrick and Thomas Coutts carried on .their business, in the middle of the last century, an interesting accounts is given in the- " Memoirs of a Banking house," drawn up from the manuscript of Sir William Forbes; the subsequent head of fche establishment. Half bankers arid -half-corn dealers, the brotherfc Coutts had a large number bf .'clients from whom ' they held moneys in trust, and for whom they negotiated bills, and the whole of these, often very j important transactions was- carried on in a couple of small rooms/on the second floor of a house in Parliament-close, Edinburgh. This very unostentatious tenement likewise formed the residence : of the' brothers/ arid from here likewise they directed thoir transactions in corn, which were on a considerable scale. They had a settled agent in Northumberland, who was employed to make purchases for the house; and for no one else iri that county; and they had a great many other commission agents iri the chief agricidtural districts bf England and Scotland. Among the latter miniber was a somewhat celebrated character, a Mr. ■ Ooopto.Thorphill, who at tha* tfjn© bajitj •&» Bell

notice in the Railway, News, as a man who had travelled' at railway speed forty years prior to the birth of George Stepheiisori." His greatest feat in tliis respect was. a ride, from Hilton to London, back to Hilton, and thence to London again, tho whole distance being 225 miles, which hb per formed— date April 29, 17£5— in twelve hours, or at the rate of very nearly 19 miles ajr hour. This i 3 double tha speed of a. certain bi'an-new metropolitan lino, on which , we had the misfortune to travel a few days ago, which took two hours and a half to carry us over 26 miles of ground. It must be . said, however, that Mr. Cooper ThprnhUl's rapid locomotion was regarded as something absolutely wonderful in his days. Tlie road over which he passed on the memorable 29th of April was lined with spectators almost over its wholo length and fche traveller was received with such enthusiastic hurrahs as if he had been a great .king, .or a man who had killed thousands— what people call a conqueror. A mezzo-tiiito print ofthe famous exploit is still preserved at the Bell Inn, afc-Hilton. The Messrs Coutts, at the periodhoro sketched stood by no means alone" in* being both bankers and cornfactors. • Messrs. Fairholme, Of Edinburgh, whose banking house had long been eminent, were also corndealers; on a large scale ; and 60 were the firms of Fordyce, Malcolm, and Co., Arbiithnbt and Guthrie, Gibson and Hogg and many others. The only houseß at Edinburgh, a century ago, who confined themselves strictly to banking, were the two firms of Mansfield and Co., and William Cuming. The founder of the firstnamed house, commonly called " old James Mansfield, ' began fife in a very humble way, as a little draper in a' back -street, from which; locality he; emerged as a dealor in bills of exchange. This led to more extended moriey transactions, ending in the- establishment of a banking house- of the first celebrity in Scotland. The firm of Mansfield, Ramsay, and Co M continued to be of the highest eminence till 1807, when it riierged its nameinto Ramsays, Bonars, and Co., In a similar manner the banking house of Cuming rose into existence. Old Patrick Cuming thafc ■is Cuming the first kept a cloth shop in Parliament Close, which his son and heir, William,'; converted into a counting-house where he confinedhimself entirely' to the trade in bills and money with. io much success, that after a long— probably also ahard— life, he died the possessor of a very considerable fortune. These individual examples show the differences in the origin of the English andthe Scotch banking firms. It was the failure of many of their corn and other speculations which opened at last the eyes ofthe members ofthe firm of Coutts and Co., to the value of banking, as the throughout mosfc profitable of their occupations. The personal experience of Mr. James Coutts, the son of John, the hospital Lord Provost, did much to accelerate the accomplishment of this design. Mr. James Coutts, who had never been out of Scofclanl, went on a visit to some, friends in London, in August 1754. and while there fell in love with ayoungdamsel called MiBS Polly Pcagrimneicebf G. Cambell, banker in the Strand. After but- a few weeks courtship, Polly got wedded to James, and the event was followed by the entrance of the bridegroom into the firm of Cambell, henceforth called Cambell and Coutts. Hiß London experience soon showed Jameß Coutts that banking was better than corndealing, even when taken in connection with smuggling tea and brandy,- and he advised his friends in Scotland accordingly. Perhaps the advice would not havcVbeen so quickly taken, but some simultaneous warnings in the shape of mercantile disasters. The partners of the Scotch firm of Coutts and Co., among whom was now Sir WilUam Forbes and Mr. Hunter, the latter a very enterprising man, undertook various operations which. they did not understand, -vAth the consequence — to use an expressive cohquiol phrase — to " burn their fingers. " They set up a large paper mill afc Melville at very considerable cost ; but, when all was ready, discovered that they could not make paper, and had to consign their imperfect produce to America, from whence they learnt, through their their agent, " that the printers of the newspapers had bought some of the paper, because they could not find any of a better quality, and the apothecaries had bought the rest because they could not find any -lhat was worse. " Not more fortunate then in papermaking were the partners in a lead-mine speculation. They sunk gold but got no lead in return ; and though the phenomenon might have been explained in a physical sense, by the fact that gold is much heavier than lead: and will-conse-quently have a much greater tendency to sinking, the adventurers had bufc little comfort; from ifc. Bufc they took the wise resolution of keeping henceforth to banking, . giving up all the_ other branch occupations, even smuggling. This was about the year 1770 ; and the movement was followed by a number of other Scotch houses, previously devoted to trading speculations as well as banking. Probably, the number thus starting into existence, all at once, was too great, for there soon came a tremendous crash, which ovcrtoppled ; one-half of the new bankers. The disastrous' event, as sudden as an earthquake, is still well remembered in Scotland, and generally spoken of as ' theßlack Monday ' — namely, Monday, the Bth of June, 1772.— The Railway News.

Permanent link to this item
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18641015.2.29

Bibliographic details
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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 59, 15 October 1864, Page 5

Word count
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1,509

EARLY SCOTCH BANKERS. Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 59, 15 October 1864, Page 5

EARLY SCOTCH BANKERS. Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 59, 15 October 1864, Page 5

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