the world of private banking

PRIVAtE BANKS AND INtERNAtIONAL FINANcE 143
Kleinwort Benson, Brown Shipley, Hambros and Antony Gibbs – are much more
piecemeal, although still of great value. Most are deposited in the Manuscripts
Department of Guildhall Library in the City of London, but a few collections
are elsewhere – most notably those of Huths at University College London and
Brandts at the London School of Economics and Nottingham University.
Baring Brothers
Barings traces its origins to a German family of merchants who established a textile
merchanting and manufacturing business at Exeter in 1717. In 1762 a London
branch was formed and quickly emerged as the merchant bank of Baring Brothers,
a partnership of Baring family members to which outsiders were from time to time
admitted when new leadership was needed. In 1890, following a liquidity crisis, the
business was reconstructed as a limited-liability company, Baring Brothers & Co.
Ltd, but in essence it remained a private bank in Baring family ownership until the
end of the twentieth century, when its equity was transferred to a charitable trust.
From the outset the firm acted as international merchants, but soon also provided
agency services for other merchants trading internationally. From this base the firm
branched into merchant banking through the finance of international trade, mostly
through the provision of acceptance credits but sometimes through advances. During
the War of American Independence, Barings began to market British government
securities, a function which grew in importance during the European Wars, 1793–
1815, when the securities of other governments were also issued. By now the
firm was reckoned to be the leading merchant bank in London; its influence in the
markets was such that in 1818 it was likened to the sixth Great Power in Europe.
This position was consolidated in the nineteenth century; its issuing and trade
finance activities prospered, although merchanting was in steep decline by midcentury.
In the twentieth century issuing and trade finance continued and activities
such as corporate finance advice and asset management were added.
The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century archives of Barings fall into two very
broad groups; general and customer ledgers and supporting accounts on the one
hand and correspondence with customers, agents and correspondent banks on
the other. The ledgers are virtually complete from the 1760s; a record exists of
almost every transaction for customer or house account through to the 1990s.
The correspondence archive is also remarkably complete, but has two significant
gaps. Much is missing from the 1760s to the 1820s, while most papers relating to
Series-level descriptions of merchant bank archives are available in J. Orbell and
A. Turton, British Banking: a Guide to Historical Records (Aldershot, 2001).
For detailed accounts of Barings’ history, see P. Ziegler, The Sixth Great Power:
Barings, 1762–1929 (London, 1988); R. Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade
and Finance, 1763–1861 (Cambridge, Mass., 1949); and J. Orbell, Baring Brothers & Co.
Limited: a History to 1939 (London, 1985).