You can see by what I have told you how difficult it was for the people to find secure places wherein to deposit their money, and how ruinous was the interest demanded if, on the other hand, they desired to borrow. Great, indeed, was the need of some establishment capable of advancing money at a reasonable rate on the security of Parliamentary grants. One or two private bankers of high repute strove to improve matters. Especially may I mention Child and Hoare. To the former by common consent belongs the celebrity of having the first banking house, which was established in 1620 on the site of the present building; and I am proud to bear testimony to the fact that from that year to the present day, all through the troublous times of banking, it has maintained the high position and respectability in which Mr. Francis Child left it.[2] Hoare’s bank was established in 1680. These men did something towards steadying the money market; but it was left to me to clear the country of the insecurity and rapacity which had so long obtained. Before proceeding with my personal history, I should like to explain a certain method of keeping accounts before I came into power, which accounts I strictly paid up as they fell due. It was known by the name of _tallies_,[3] or _tally_. “The word ‘tallies’ is derived from the French, and signifies cutting. The tallies were pieces of wood cut in a peculiar manner to correspond or tally. For example, a stick of hazel or some other wood, well dried and seasoned, was cut square and uniform at each end. The sum of money which it bore was cut in notches (a notch signifying so much, according to the size) in the wood by the cutter of the tallies, and likewise written upon two sides of it by the writer of the tallies. The tally was cleft in the middle by the deputy chamberlain with a knife and mallet, whereby it made two halves, each half having a superscription and a half-part of the notch or notches. Thus cut, one part was called a tally, the other a counter-tally. When these two parts came afterwards to be joined, if they were genuine they fitted so exactly as to be parts one of the other.”[4] You will understand, therefore, “that the notches corresponded to the sum for which it was an acknowledgment; the writing on the other sides containing the date and the payer. The rod was so cut that each half contained one written side and half of every notch. One part was kept in the Exchequer and the other was circulated. “When the time of payment arrived, the two parts were compared, and if they tallied or corresponded all was right; if not, there was some fraud, and payment was refused. Tallies were not finally abandoned in the Exchequer till 1834.” Having thus cleared the ground, I will proceed with my story.