Act of Parliament for Erecting the Bank in Scotland.

$1,500.00

Item Number: 124034

Edinburgh: [Royal Bank of Scotland] , 1695-1719.

Rare 17th century printing of the Act of the Scottish Parliament erecting the Bank of Scotland. Octavo, original wrappers, the act is dated July 17, 1695 and approved a joint stock amounting to the sum of 120,000 pounds to be raised by a company thereby established to manage the first public bank of Scotland. Bound with Copy of a Signature For a New Bank which approved and act to settle yearly funds payable out of the Revenue of Scotland to satisfy public debts on an annual basis. In very good condition.

The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland was established by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland on 17 July 1695 the Act for erecting a Bank in Scotland, opening for business in February 1696. Although established soon after the Bank of England (1694), the Bank of Scotland was a very different institution. Where the Bank of England was established specifically to finance defense spending by the English government, the Bank of Scotland was established by the Scottish government to support Scottish business, and was prohibited from lending to the government without parliamentary approval. The founding Act granted the bank a monopoly on public banking in Scotland for 21 years, permitted the bank's directors to raise a nominal capital of £1,200,000 pound Scots (£100,000 pound sterling), gave the proprietors (shareholders) limited liability, and in the final clause (repealed only in 1920) made all foreign-born proprietors naturalized Scotsmen "to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever". John Holland, an Englishman, was one of the bank's founders. Its first chief accountant was George Watson.