We have seen that the history of the Bank of England may be divided into two periods. From 1708 to 1826 the Bank enjoyed the monopoly of joint stock banking in England. After 1826 it had to adapt itself to a constantly changing environment. England, in fact, outgrew the Bank, just as the financial world has outgrown London. The directors of the Bank of England were City merchants, whose ideas usually run in a particular groove. It is not, therefore, in the least remarkable that they stuck to old customs and neglected new opportunities. The directors of the London and Westminster Bank made the same mistake. So did those of the Union Bank of London, the London Joint Stock Bank, and one or two others, simply because their training was of the City: that is to say, like the streets around the Bank, narrow. To a very great extent the Bank of England is dependent upon the bankers' balances, for, unless it held them, it would not be able to finance the Government. If its directors had, however, thoroughly understood the movement of 1826, the Bank would now be a much more independent institution, and would be a power in every county in England and Wales. In 1826 the Government expressly desired the directors of the Bank to open country branches, and by 1830 it possessed eleven offices in the large provincial towns. But the innovation was not encouraged by those in authority, and to-day the Bank of England possesses only nine country and two Metropolitan branches. Unquestionably a golden opportunity was neglected, for, had the directors decided to open in the large provincial towns, Bank stock would probably be worth over five hundred at this moment. At first the joint stock bank movement was neither popular nor successful, but nobody questioned the credit of the Bank of England; and if that institution had quickly met the wants of the country by opening branches in the towns, it could have had the pick of the provincial business, for everybody, including both commercial firms and the leisured classes, would have been anxious to deal with a bank which was absolutely above suspicion. And who would dream of making a run upon the "Government" bank? The Bank would gradually have accumulated vast deposits, which would have made it independent of the "bankers' balances"; but the ground is now covered with banking companies, and the Bank of England's opportunity is gone, never to return. At present it is a great bank of discount. Had it farmed the provinces in earnest, it would have become a great deposit bank, deriving its power from its depositors and the Government account, instead of from the Government and the bankers, as it now does. But its directors were not trained bankers, and they failed to realise the important part that branches or feeders were to play in the new system, consequently, with the huge capital of the Bank, large dividends on its stock are now out of the question.