Abstract

The City of Glasgow Bank’s collapse in 1878 was the largest bank failure of its time. The causes of the crash and its impact on joint-stock banking and the Scottish and British economy have been well-studied, but how its liquidation was concluded remains under-explored. At the same time, the legal and commercial milieu of nineteenth-century Britain spawned a new type of commercial entity—the investment trust. At the intersection of these two historical moments lies the Assets Company Ltd, which is both the legal device that finally concluded the liquidation of the City of Glasgow Bank and a fascinating case study of an early investment trust. Employing little-used archival sources—primarily the Assets Company’s records kept by the Board of Trade and published court judgments—this article investigates the significance and legacy of the Assets Company, from its incorporation in 1882 to its winding-up in 1956. Beyond merely concluding the legal process of liquidation, the Assets Company would go on to manage and profit from the recovery of the City of Glasgow Bank’s assets as well as conduct its own investment activities well into the twentieth century. This article concludes that the Assets Company provides a noteworthy example of how the Bank’s shareholders responded to the winding-up of a large failed bank, particularly, one with unlimited liability, and how an investment trust can be used to maximise the proceeds of liquidation. The winding-up of the City of Glasgow Bank was thus unique relative to previous bank failures in how its shareholders were able to avoid the prolonged liquidation experienced by other Scottish banks. Finally, the Assets Company is an interesting case study of the diversity of the early investment trust industry, and a company that would go on to inspire numerous successor enterprises.

中文翻译：

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从灾难中获取利润：The Assets Company Ltd和格拉斯哥银行市的来世

摘要

格拉斯哥银行市于1878年倒闭是当时最大的银行倒闭事件。崩溃的原因及其对股份制银行，苏格兰和英国经济的影响已经得到了很好的研究，但是如何结束其破产清算仍有待探讨。同时，十九世纪英国的法律和商业环境催生了一种新型的商业实体，即投资信托。在这两个历史时刻的交汇处是资产有限公司，这既是最终结束格拉斯哥银行市的清算的法律手段，又是早期投资信托基金的一个引人入胜的案例研究。利用很少使用的档案资源（主要是贸易委员会保存的资产公司的记录和公开的法院判决），本文研究了资产公司从1882年成立到1956年结束的重要性和历史。在完成清算的法律程序之后，资产公司将继续管理并从格拉斯哥市银行的资产中获利，并在20世纪之前开展自己的投资活动。本文的结论是，资产公司提供了一个值得关注的例子，说明了银行股东如何应对一家倒闭的大型银行，特别是无限责任银行的清算，以及如何利用投资信托来最大程度地清算收益。因此，相对于以前的银行倒闭，格拉斯哥市银行的清算是独特的，其股东如何避免其他苏格兰银行经历的长时间清算。最后，资产公司是一个有趣的案例，研究了早期投资信托业的多样性，该公司将继续激励众多继任企业。