GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

THE BANK CAPITALISM .. OF YOUNG BENGAL J 27
.6,000. For every 7,400 persons then there is a bank office
in japan. This is to be· compared to the 4,777 in Great
Britain and 4,338 in the U.S.A. For certain purposes,
then, japan may be said to have already reached the
British and American levels. Accordingly, she is already
too high for the Bengali people, who possess some 800
institutions only for about 47 million persons, and whose
bank capital per head is yet negligible as a figure, being
less than two Rl}.pees.
But modern banking in japan dates from the
National Bank Act of 1872. By 1876 there were only
150 banks. And in 1907 there were altogether 2,194 institutions
with 921 branches, i.e., nearly 3,115 bank offices
throughout the Empire. The total paid-up capital of
these institutions could be calculated at 444,204,041 yens.
Twenty five years ago the population was about 50.
millions. Every japanese had at .his or her command
bank capital to the amount of about 9 yens (i.e.~
Rs. 11-4-0). One yen=Re. 1-4-0 (1930).
In other words, the growth of japan during the first
35 years of her modernism evolved a condition of per
capita bank capital at Rs .. 11-4-0. This rate is, comparatively
speaking, quite modest by the progress achieved
during the next two decades (1907 -19~7), namely, the con-·
clition of Rs, 41, as registering the value of banking capital
per head of the population. Evidently, Bengal to-day is:
way behind japan, as she was in 1907.
Diversity 0/ thl! Gre~t
POuJers
There are, as we have seen, differences in the level
as well as the rate of progress between the •• great
powers. "But lor all. practical purposes, .we may consi-