In this connexion the history of the Bank of Burma, the first Bank of the new order to be founded, is instructive. This Bank was started in 1904 under European management by a firm engaged in floating oil companies and other highly speculative enterprises. The Bank’s capital was £117,500, and by 1911, when it failed, deposits had been attracted to the extent of £792,701, a large part of which is said to have come from Bombay and Calcutta. To obtain these deposits the Bank had offered interest at the rate of 6 per cent for deposits placed with it for a year; and many persons, it seems, were deceived by its title into believing that it was in some sense a Presidency Bank. In the autumn of 1911, after a year in which the Burma rice crop had been good and had sold at very high prices, and when the province generally was prosperous, the Bank failed. The balance sheet turned out to be false, and one–third of the assets had been advanced against worthless security to a firm in which the directors were interested. 23. Both in the case of the Exchange Banks and in that of the Indian Joint Stock Banks, the “Cash Balances” include, I think, balances held at other Banks.[119] It is impossible, therefore, to summarise accurately the figures for the Indian Banking System as a whole—Presidency Banks, Exchange Banks, and Joint Stock Banks together. The figures given below state accurately the total of private deposits; but in the total of cash balances some items must be counted twice over. ┌──────┬──────────────────–┬────────────–┬──────────–┐ │ │ Total Deposits in │ │ Cash Per │ │ │ India, excluding │ Total Cash │ Cent of │ │ │ Public Deposits. │ Balances. │ Deposits. │ ├──────┼──────────────────–┼────────────–┼──────────–┤ │ 1890 │ £16,650,000 │ £11,310,000 │ 68(a) │ │ 1895 │ 19,430,000 │ 7,570,000 │ 39 │ │ 1900 │ 20,970,000 │ 5,750,000 │ 23 │ │ 1905 │ 34,230,000 │ 9,150,000 │ 27 │ │ 1906 │ 38,100,000 │ 11,700,000 │ 31 │ │ 1907 │ 40,880,000 │ 11,350,000 │ 28 │ │ 1908 │ 42,920,000 │ 11,050,000 │ 26 │ │ 1909 │ 48,930,000 │ 12,430,000 │ 25 │ │ 1910 │ 54,870,000 │ 12,340,000 │ 22 │ └──────┴──────────────────–┴────────────–┴──────────–┘ (a) An exceptional year. The steady deterioration of the position, as shown in the above figures, is exceedingly marked. These figures flatter the Banks, rather than the reverse. For I have excluded the Public Deposits (amounting in 1910 to £2,820,000), and have included the whole of the cash balances (at the branches as well as the head offices) held by the Presidency Banks against them. If the figures could be worked out accurately, the present proportion of cash available against the private deposits would come out, I suspect, lower by far than appears superficially from the above table.