Bank Clerks in 19th Century Britain

            The history of firms like Rothschild, Barings, J.P. Morgan, and others are often interchangeable with the biographies of their founders, managing partners, and other chief executives. The work of the humble bank clerk often goes unnoticed. Yet, the growth of banking in the 19th century could not have been achieved without them, and without large numbers of them too. The clerical worker was a growing form of occupation in the 19th century and, especially in banking, the position was perhaps surprisingly esteemed and well remunerated.

Growing Employment

           Even large banks had small staffs in the late-18th century. The Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh had a staff of just ten or eleven before 1774, whereas that bank would have over 350 employees, 76 of which were at its head office, by 1880. Growing numbers of entry-level bank clerks handled various minor tasks for banks. The more senior bank clerks included accountants keeping the books maintained and cashiers serving customers. Some clerks eventually became bank inspectors or branch managers or obtained senior posts at the head office of a British bank.

           The Bank of England, which among other things was responsible for managing interest payments on Britain’s debt, which grew significantly with the Napoleonic Wars, became a more labor-intensive operation. There was also a growing need to detect counterfeit banknotes around this same time. The Bank of England’s bill discounting business, advancing money against private receivables to provide liquidity for commercial businesses, was also expanding. So, the Bank’s workforce grew from around 300 in the 1780s to 900 in 1815.

           The workforce growth of the namesake banks of England and Scotland was not unusual. As the 19th century went on, British banks grew in complexity, fostering a need for more clerical staff. Banks offered services in securities brokerage, foreign exchange, trusteeship, etc. and more bank branches were opening, creating new clerical positions and promotion opportunities. Across all industries, between 1861 to 1891, the number of male clerks in Britain increased from 91,000 to 370,000.

Qualifications

           To fill one of these new positions at a bank, a prospective clerk had to demonstrate math and bookkeeping skills. They must understand double-entry bookkeeping and, because correcting or erasing records might be seen as suspicious, clerks were required to keep mistakes to a minimum. Easily understood handwriting was also important. Lloyds Bank dismissed an employee in 1848 for poor handwriting and even well into the age of the typewriter, in 1932, some clerks at the London private bank Hoare’s, including a member of the Hoare family, were sent to a writing school to improve their penmanship.

           Clerks must also be financially stable so that they could be relied on to work in an environment that involved access to money or the ability to conceal frauds. The Bank of England asked candidates interviewing for posts early in the 19th century if they had any debts. Drunkenness was also, understandably, a cause for concern; the Glamorganshire Banking Company dismissed one clerk who had been fined for drunk and disorderly behavior.

           While seemingly simple, those who met all of these requirements, at least in the early-19th century when education was quite poor, were not always easy to find. Early in the century, few prospective clerks had a university education. Yet, the rarity of good clerical talent made the position of bank clerk a fairly prestigious role nonetheless. Even those who had a reasonable amount of schooling often lacked practical skills important to banks. Getting a job with one was no small feat.

           To ensure it was hiring qualified candidates, the Bank of England subjected job applicants to three tests. They examined candidates’ ability to deal with money, essentially identifying banknotes and metal coins, and accounting, as well as reviewed a sample of their handwriting. These were not straightforward; records show that only 3-4% of candidates completed the test on money without any errors. Back then, candidates had to identify, not just the most common British coins, but historical ones and foreign monies too. The London and County Bank required an entrance examination as well. That bank, the Bank of England, and the Rothschilds in London also required personal recommendations at least for part of the century.

            Recommendations often came from someone known to the bank. Indeed, prospective hires were often related to present employees. Early in the century, when the Bank of England conducted 794 interviews with 729 unique individuals between 1800 and 1815, ninety-one of these were the sons of former or current clerks. Yet, the sons of clergymen, attorneys, farmers, innkeepers and industrial workers were also found in the interview records from the 1800-1815 period.

           Some aspects of the interview process might seem unfamiliar today. Candidates considered by the Bank of England were asked about associations to which they belonged; it seems the Bank avoided those engaged in political or religious activism, and Catholics were essentially barred until 1829.

Career

           Some banks, like the National Bank of Scotland, made use of an apprenticeship system which required new hires be between just fifteen and twenty years old. The Bank of England, which seems to have favored prospective hires with some work experience, required that new clerks be between seventeen and thirty years old, although exceptions to the maximum age were considered. Clerks applying to roles with the Bank of England between 1800 and 1815 were often already employed as clerks or bookkeepers elsewhere, otherwise held posts at counting houses or different banks, or worked for merchants and attorneys, among other firms.

           From being hired, clerks could remain with their bank for a long time. As it happens, prior to the implementation of a mandatory retirement age of sixty-five in 1870, employees of the Bank of England often worked to the age of eighty. Hoare’s also implemented a mandatory retirement age. To make retirement feasible in an era before state pensions, these banks provided pensions to their retired clerks.

Wages

             As for their wages, bank clerks were relatively well-paid and worked fewer hours compared to other clerical workers at the time. This extended to others working in financial services as insurance and stock brokers’ clerks were also better paid than most. Wages could be supplemented by overtime, bonuses, or gratuities from clients. Hoare’s even provided housing to some clerks who lived at the bank’s headquarters.

            Rothschilds paid its clerks £200 a year in 1874 and employees were given free lunches at the bank’s headquarters at New Court, London. Hoare’s also provided both a lunch and a dinner to employees. Meanwhile, the London and County Bank paid its clerks an average salary in 1880 of £163. Their clerks’ wages could grow by £10 per year before reaching a maximum of between £200 and £300 in the second half of the 19th century. Customer-facing tellers at the Bank of Scotland made £450 annually in the 1830-1880 period. As it happens, clerks must manage their personal finances carefully despite the high wages because clerks were paid on a quarterly frequency.

“The dinner, which was of a very substantial character, was served every day punctually at 5 o’clock when the bank doors were closed to the public and was usually attended by nearly the whole staff … all clerks sat at the table in strict order of seniority. Four bottles of wine were supplied each day, two of sherry and two of port … two of the porters waited at table and if the balance was agreed before the dinner was over one of the porters from downstairs was sent up to make the announcement, ‘Gentlemen, the balance is right’ and always received from the chairman a glass of wine for his pains” – Henry John Tilden, a clerk at Hoare’s, on the company provided dinners

            Wages increased over time, at least until the start of the 20th century. The best paid clerks at the London and County Bank made £500 by 1909. A senior clerk could make between £800 and £1,000 at Rothschilds by 1911. These best-paid among the profession could afford a daily maid or an evening cook, study in the evenings at a university, and buy or rent a nice terraced house in London or a house in the suburbs. Yet, there was a monetary price to taking such a job too. Clerks of the Bank of England were required to put up bonds starting at £500 to cover losses caused by their errors or dishonesty. This policy was common among banking institutions. One clerk at Hoare’s, named William Lloyd, had to put up a £1,000 bond in 1856.

Change

            Numerous changes came to the job of bank clerk at the turn of the century. Some changed the workplace. Telephones made an appearance in an office environment that could otherwise be behind the times. One clerk hired by Rothschilds reported there being just one typewriter at the office even in 1915. Women could be found at bank headquarters in larger numbers in the 1920s and 1930s; this was a process that had started at the end of the 19th century and was controversial, as the entry of women into clerical roles was perceived as diminishing the prestige of the job.

           The relative wages of bank clerks were also, unfortunately, diminishing. Consolidation in the banking sector meant more clerks were employed by large joint-stock banks as compared to smaller private banks, perhaps giving employers an edge over workers. Perhaps because of this, a union for bank clerks, the Bank Clerks’ Association, was formed in 1906 being more or less replaced by the Bank Officers’ Guild in 1918. The latter group sought to address a drop in real wages for clerical staff amidst the inflation of the First World War years. By the first decades of the 20th century, both the wages and social standing of clerks was falling.

Lesson

            The number of bank clerks grew rapidly in 19th century Britain. Despite this, the work continued to require fairly specialized talents; this was hardly unskilled labor. Being quick with reckoning sums of money, possessing good penmanship, and understanding finance was a combination of talents not common among the young people otherwise potentially suited for a job as a bank clerk. Accordingly, bank clerks, and especially the most senior clerical workers, could become very well paid and there were various career opportunities offered by the banks, from accountant to branch manager. Nonetheless, growing educational attainment among the larger populace and that the role was quite early among middle class jobs to see women fill its ranks seemed to reduce the relative standing of bank clerks at the turn of the century.

More from the Tontine Coffee-House

           Read about the 17th century English bank founded by Richard Hoare and what bank ledgers have to say about small bank clients in the 19th century. Consider subscribing to this blog’s newsletter or checking out book recommendations, which include many of the sources often referenced in my posts.

Further Reading

1.      Boot, H. M. “Salaries and Career Earnings in the Bank of Scotland, 1730-1880.” The Economic History Review, vol. 44, no. 4, Nov. 1991, pp. 629–53.

2.      Heller, Michael. “Work, Income and Stability: The Late Victorian and Edwardian London Male Clerk Revisited.” Business History, vol. 50, no. 3, Apr. 2008, pp. 253–71.

3.      Jeacle, Ingrid. “The Bank Clerk in Victorian Society: The Case of Hoare and Company.” Journal of Management History, vol. 16, no. 3, June 2010, pp. 312–26.

4.      Murphy, Anne L. “‘Writes a Fair Hand and Appears to Be Well Qualified’: The Recruitment of Bank of England Clerks, 1800–1815.” Financial History Review, vol. 22, no. 1, Apr. 2015, pp. 19–44.

5.      “Staff Wages File, 1874-1915.” The Rothschild Archive, Oct. 2016, www.rothschildarchive.org/collections/archivists_choice/october_2016_staff_wages_file_1874_1915.