GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

THE BANK CAPITALISM OF YOUNG BENGAL 131'
institutions are just commencing but the A.B.C. of a new
life. The functional growth 'Will need a long series of
bold experiments and adventures. There is a third weak~
ness in our present condition in addition to these numeri~
cal and functional weaknesses, and that is as a rule likely'
to be ignored by theoreticians as well as by practical men.
But comparative statistics will not fail to exhibit that defect
in the Bengali system and suggest a new direction of
growth as well.
Eccmomic Units in Banking
We are speaking of the shortcoming in the business
organisation, the morphology of banks, their structural
characteristics. T o~day indeed we 'are getting used to
joint~stock enterprises, the limited liability principle and
company management. But there is an important aspect
of business administration which remains yet to be
ma'stered by our financial heads. They have to remember
that there is a limit below which the size of a commercial
or industrial business as of a land~holding cannot be made
to go without losing in efficiency. And so far as banks
are concerned, that limit is pretty high. If" cottage
industries" have disappeared and have been disappearing
from the world it is mainly because of this law of limits in
regard to size. In order to be paying concerns, i.e.,
economically worth while propositions, the undertakings
must have to be sufficiently large in dimensions. Until
they reach these dimensions they would fail to be real
"~conomic units." "Sman holdings" must not be too
small.
It is difficult to say exactly what should constitute
an economic unit in regard to banks under the present