Virtuous banking: the role of the community in monitoring English joint-stock banks and their managements in the nineteenth century

Following the financial crisis of 1825¬–26, liberalizing legislation led to the establishment of joint-stock banks (JSBs) in competition with the existing private banking institutions. JSBs successfully established themselves from 1826 onwards, to the extent that they eclipsed the private banks by the end of the century and became the dominant form of bank in the UK. This chapter considers the behaviour and decision-making of the directors and managers of the new JSBs. It was in the interests of JSBs to govern themselves responsibly and honestly/virtuously in order to establish a trustworthy reputation and to remain accountable to the communities that they served. But did such moral obligation also lead to moral practice?