So far as the Indian deposits are concerned, these returns are very valuable. But the aggregate of deposits outside India is as nearly as possible useless. For Exchange Banks of both groups—the Banks primarily Indian and the agencies of huge European institutions doing business in many parts of the world—are lumped together, so that the total includes the whole of the French deposits of the Comptoir National d’Escompte and of the deposits, in whatever country, of the other Banks with Indian agencies enumerated on p. 206. The figures are, therefore, hardly relevant to questions peculiarly Indian; and I will content myself with quoting, from the table given in the official statistics, the total deposits of Exchange Banks made _in India_, and the cash balances held _in India_ against them. EXCHANGE BANKS ┌──────┬────────────────────┬────────────────────────–┐ │ │ Deposits in India. │ Cash Balances in India. │ ├──────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────────–┤ │ 1890 │ £5,000,000 │ £2,300,000 │ │ 1895 │ 6,900,000 │ 1,800,000 │ │ 1900 │ 7,000,000 │ 1,600,000 │ │ 1901 │ 7,900,000 │ 2,200,000 │ │ 1902 │ 9,100,000 │ 2,300,000 │ │ 1903 │ 10,800,000 │ 2,100,000 │ │ 1904 │ 10,900,000 │ 3,300,000 │ │ 1905 │ 11,400,000 │ 2,500,000 │ │ 1906 │ 12,100,000 │ 3,400,000 │ │ 1907 │ 12,800,000 │ 3,700,000 │ │ 1908 │ 13,000,000 │ 2,500,000 │ │ 1909 │ 13,500,000 │ 2,800,000 │ │ 1910 │ 16,200,000 │ 2,900,000 │ └──────┴────────────────────┴────────────────────────–┘ 17. Two facts emerge from this table with great plainness—the rapid rate at which in recent years Exchange Banks have been able to increase the funds raised by deposit in India herself, and the slow rate at which they have thought fit to increase their Indian balances.[107] The position has evidently changed a good deal in quite recent times. It is tantalising to think that two years must elapse before we can know how the Banks stood in these respects last December (1912). The _Statistics of British India_ do not lend their aid to ruder hands than those of the historian.