ABSTRACT

Financial instruments are the subject of considerable interest. The supply of promissory notes has attracted the attention of financial historians, political economists and antiquarians, alike. We consider bank notes as a mechanism for building corporate identity. The article focuses on the bank notes that were issued in the early nineteenth century by newly established joint stock banks in the English provinces. Despite not having a legal personality, which could be separated from the bank’s owners, the banks did not use symbols of the owners, such as family crests or other personal means, to communicate their identity. The article shows that these notes displayed symbols of a collective culture and regional identity. We argue that this was crucial to building the bank’s position within the local commercial community and in generating a persona which customers could trust.

摘要

金融工具是相当受关注的主题。本票的供应引起了金融历史学家、政治经济学家和古物学家等的关注。我们将纸币视为建立企业形象的一种机制。本文重点关注 19 世纪初由英国各省新成立的股份制银行发行的纸币。尽管不具有可以与银行所有者分离的法人资格，但银行并未使用所有者的标志，例如家族徽章或其他个人手段来传达其身份。文章表明，这些笔记显示了集体文化和区域身份的象征。