FORBES, Sir William.

£375 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Memoirs of a Banking-House. First edition, privately printed, of Sir William Forbes's Memoir of Coutts Bank, which he had joined, aged 15, in 1754."Forbes was a prudent and influential banker who soon became a leading member of the Merchants' Company of Edinburgh, and advised the lord advocate in 1772 on the wording of a new bankruptcy act. His career produced two secondary virtues: it gave him significant wealth, as a platform for his benefactions, and resulted in his autobiographical Memoirs of a Banking-House, originally written for his eldest son, William, in 1803 and eventually published in 1860 [sic]. This book gives useful insight into the early mercantile and banking concerns of the Coutts family, and describes the origins of the London Exchange Banking Company of Robert Herries, in which both Forbes and Blair were to have a short-term interest" (ODNB).

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