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D an ish Banking. Danish banking in the course of time has developed a tendency of concentration, of which the consequence has been, th a t the two Thirds of the aggregate bank-balances are found inside the four so-called »Big Banks«, Nationalbanlcen, Kjabenhavns llande/sbunlc■, Privatbanken and Landmands- banlcen. These four banks have their headquarters in Copenhagen, some of them having branch-offices in the provinces, while a t the same time local banks are established all over the country, only a few of them, though, being of more than local interest. According to the law of 1910, all banks are placed under the supervision of a Bank-Inspektor, appointed by the Go­ vernment and to whom monthly reports are to be submitted. There are about 500 Savings Banks in Denmark with a total deposit capital of about 1800 million kroner. These banks are all private undertakings, there having been no desire for the establishment of post-office savings banks in ■ Denmark as has been the case in various other countries. Tn Copenhagen, there are 0 Savings Banks, in the provin- j cial towns 96 and in the country-districts 392. T hat the Savings B anks-Institution is a very popular one, : is proved by the fact, th a t the aggregate number of Savings- j accounts is 1,550.000, which shows th a t nearly every second : of the inhabitants of the country owns an account in a Sa- : vings Bank. ; * *

Nationalbanken (The National Bank) was founded in 1813 as a State-Bank, but was tranformed, in 1818 al­ ready, into a private Compa­ ny, now a joint-stock-compa­ ny, and is the only Danish bank having the right of is­ suing notes. The share-capi­ tal is 27 million kroner and there are five directors, two

of which are appointed by the Government. According to the charter the bank is bound to have a gold-and sil­ ver reserve for the note cir­ culation of a t least 33*/3 per cent, bu t this reserve really is much liigler and as a rule amounts to more than 50 per cents. The National Bank is situa-

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