Knowledge that Transforms

R ECENT growth of branch banking in the United States has created considerable concern as to the fate of our independent unit banking system. This alarm is due, not to the total number of branches now in existence, but to their rapid rate of increase in the last few years. The extent of this growth can be seen when we consider the fact that in i900 there were only 6o branches in operation in the United States, as against 2,572 on January i, I926. Of the latter number, I,525 have been established since I920, and 329 of these in I925 alone. This has given rise to a consideration of the place of branch banking in the American system. The branch system is not new in this country. In the early period of our banking experience several states established branch systems modeled after those so widely used in Europe. Of all those early experiments that of Virginia is perhaps the most interesting, not only because it was in Virginia that the system reached its highest stage of development during this early period of our banking history, but because of its use under conditions peculiarly fitted to test its advantages. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and operation of branch banking in Virginia from i804 to i865.