| dc.contributor.author | Bunbury, Daniel L. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:36:55Z | |
| dc.date.available | 1995 | |
| dc.date.issued | 1995 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINN05255 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/55057 | |
| dc.description | The intense period of philanthropic endeavour, the "Age of Improvement" of the late 18th century, prompted thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Malthus to foster ideas that became the progenitors of the first British savings banks, established in 1800-1810. By the late 1820's and 1830's notions of social reform and progress were expressed through more formal institutions like the asylum, poor house, penitentiary. During this time savings banks were founded in all the colonies of British North America and in the United States. The founding of Maritime savings banks exhibits the initiation and application of reform ideology through local actors and circumstances. They reflect the unique ways in which influential ideologies and movements were transplanted, adapted or maladapted to early colonial society. | en_US |
| dc.description | Maritime, and later Canadian savings banks, were never simply institutions to improve the poor's lot while inculcating morality. Nor were they solely financial entities providing market driven monetary services. They were admixtures of two competing tendencies. To address the human factor in the institutional equation several groups of depositor data were assembled and analyzed. The resultant information on occupation, age, location and account size, in conjunction with other sources, was used to identify the major components and trends of the savings bank clientele in various towns and cities for both pre- and post-Confederation periods. | en_US |
| dc.description | This study seeks also to extend temporally existing frameworks used to analyze colonial financial policy. The structure and organization of the savings banks predates responsible government. In Nova Scotia much evidence exists to suggest that public development was an important part of the savings bank agenda as early as the 1830's. In both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick "conservative" and pre-responsible government administrations moved to increase the deposit base and administrative efficiency of savings banks. This suggests that certain assumptions about the timing and nature of colonial finances stand in need of revision. | en_US |
| dc.description | During the federal era, savings banks played a key role in the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This has important regional repercussions since after Confederation the Maritimes were relatively over-burdened with savings banks. To the extent that the allocation and price of credit were distorted, small, regional banks especially were adversely impacted. Thus as a federal policy savings banks might be viewed as a structural impediment that hindered the development of Maritime capital markets. | en_US |
| dc.description | By 1890, the function of savings banks in Canadian society had come to reflect their original purpose, i.e. acting as a safety net and/or educative body, rather than as an aid to development. Now penny savings Banks, inspired by late 19th Century scientific charity and 'Social Purity' ideas, received the sanction of governments who preferred indirect intervention over direct aid or relief. | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1995. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | History, Canadian. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Canadian Studies. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Business Administration, Banking. | en_US |
| dc.title | From region to nation: Government savings banks in the Maritimes and Canada, 1824-1900. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
