BANKS. The opposition to banks was so strong in Vermont at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries that there were DO banks until 1S06. In that year a State bank was established. which was owned and man aged by the State. The conditions imposed upon it were so stringent that it had little success, and a law was passed to wind up its affairs in 1812, but the final settlement came only in 1845. In 1817 the first private State bank was char tered, and by 1827 there were ten of them. There was no general banking law. and each was governed by its charter. The act of 1831 in troduced a safety fund system for the purpose of guaranteeing the circulation. The fund was made up of payments by the banks to the amount of per cent. of their capital stock. A 10 per eent, tax on profits was imposed at the same time. In 1842 another act was passed, relieving from this contribution all banks that should execute bonds guaranteeing all their obligations in specie. A free banking act was passed in
1851, allowing note issue only on deposits of reliable State securities. All these measures put the banks on a very sound foundation, and Vermont did not suffer any serious bank calamities. The introduction of the national banking system gradually reduced the number of State banks, and none were known to exist after 1890. 'there have been savings banks since 1850. and they are popular. Some of them combine the business of a trust company with that of a savings bank. In 1902 there were 48 national banks, with capita], $6,400,000; sur plus. $1,515,000; cash. etc., $982,000; deposits, $12,620,000; and loans, $13,301,000. There were 41 mutual savings banks, with 128.529 depositors, and total deposits amounting to $41,987,407,