One cannot subject these banks to a rigid comparison; each of them conducts its business for the benefit of clients of its own nationality, and in consequence must accede to their usages. The English banks, for example, have as their clients railway companies, a large number of export houses, and steamship lines, on account of the ties which connect them with the London market and its principal financial groups. The German Bank principally serves German industrial houses, and also German exporters. The French Bank of the Rio de la Plata, owing to its relations with the Paris market, and its strong position in Buenos Ayres, is of inestimable service to French commerce in the Argentine. The Italian banks share the custom of the Italian colony, which, on account of its numerical importance, gives rise to a great deal of small business. _The Banco Español del Rio de la Plata_, which has branch establishments in Paris, London, Genoa, and Madrid, is in direct relation with the financial circles of those cities, and facilitates all banking operations between the various Spanish-speaking countries. Founded by the financiers of Buenos Ayres, and afterwards enlarged by French capital, the Spanish bank, which has admirable premises, has succeeded in surrounding itself with a _clientèle_ of great landed proprietors, by offering them all kinds of facilities for the conduct of business operations connected with the sale of national produce. Their branch establishment in Paris is the favourite bank of the numerous Argentines who go yearly to Europe on business or for pleasure. In this congeries of banks the Argentine is represented by two great establishments: one of these, the _Banco de la Nacion Argentina_, is a State institution which, in addition to the business transacted with the Government, runs cash and deposit departments like other banks; the other is the _Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Ayres_, whose origin was in the reconstruction of the historic bank of the same name, the collapse of which was provoked by the terrible financial crisis of 1890. The excellent results of the last three years which we shall presently consider in detail, allow us to predict a brilliant future for this institution. We shall give, in the following table, a list of these banks, in the order of their establishment, with details as to their capital, reserves, transactions, and dividends.