F 397
British Finance and Commerce.
Industrial Finance.
By Robert Mackay.
18
The aggregate clearing figures of the provincial clearing
banks of Great Britain in April was £97,439,000, the best for
seventeen months. This represents a rise of 2.7 per cent in daily
transactions over the daily transactions during April, 1938, if
allowance is made for the fact that April, 1939, contained one
working day less than April, 1938. These figures are striking
evidence of the expansion of trade and industry in Great Britain,
more especially as provincial ban: clearings are composed of trade
and industrial transactions, as distinct from operations of a
purely financial nature. Provincial clearing totals have indeed
been improving steadily since the closing months of last year,
and for the first four months of this year they amount to 3330
millions, an aggregate which is only slightly below the correspond-
ing figure for 1938.
That the financial resources of the nation are ample to
support the present expansion of British industry is apparent in
the latest returns of the Electricity Commissioners.
These returns
show that public authorities in Great Britain were authorised to
3 borrow over £1
212 millions for electricity supply purposes during
the four weeks ended the 22nd of April. The total borrowing
sanctioned in the twelve months ended the 31st of March was over
3 £25 millions, and this compares with a figure of 519 millions
for the twelve months ended the 31st of March, 1938, so that there
was an increase of 35 millions in 1939.
was for a very wide range of purposes
4
The money thus raised
from the purchase of prop-
erties and plant for generation and distribution of electricity
down to domestic installations.