COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 41
Without attempting to give in detail the comprehensive British
financial organization for foreign trade a few of the more striking
features should be sufficient to suggest its great advantage to British
commerce.
As practically every bank of importance in the United States has a
correspondent in New York and maintains a New York account, so
almost every bank of importance anywhere in the world has some
British bank as its agent in London and maintains an account there.
If it does not carry an actual balance in London sufficient to handle
the ordinary transactions of its clients which may be settled in London
it has arrangements with some other bank to take care of its London
business. Many London banks are agents for scores of banks located
in all parts of the world. Thus, before the war, the great London
City &amp; Midland Bank (Ltd.), was the London agent for Aalesunds
Sparebank; Adams Express Co., New York; Alktiebolaget Sverige
Privata Centralbank, Stockholm; Akt. Géteborgs Handelsbank;
Aktiebolaget Noorlandsbanken, Stockholm; Allgemeine Deutsche
Credit Anstalt, Leipzig; American Express Co., New York; Amsterdamsche
 Bank; Anglo and London Paris National Bank, San Francisco;
 Anglo-Californian Trust Co., San Francisco; Anglo-Egyptian
Bank (Ltd) ; Anglo-Maltese Bank; Azow-Don Commerzbank, Petrograd
 and Libau; Banco Commercial Espafiol, Valencia ; Banca Commerciale
 Italiana; Banca d'Italia, Rome; Banco de Cartegena ; Banco
de Castilla, Madrid; Banco de Chile; Banco de la Repiiblica Oriental
 del Uruguay; Banco de Sonora, Guaymas; Banco del Ecuador,
Guayaquil ; Banco di Roma, Rome; Banco do Ceara; Banco do Commerico,
 Rio de Janeiro; Banco do Recife, Pernambuco; Banco
Italiano, Valparaiso; Banco Nacional de Bolivia, La Paz; Banco
Popular del Peru; Bank of Italy, San Francisco; Bank of the Manhattan
 Co., New York; Bank of Rangoon, Rangoon; Bank of Toronto;
 Bank fiir Handel und Industrie, Berlin; Bankaktiebogalet
Norra Sverige, Stockholm; Bankaktiebolaget Sodra Sverige, Helsingborg;
 Bankers’ Trust Co., New York; Banque Commerciale
Hongroise de Pest, Budapest; Banque Continental de Paris, Paris;
Banque de Commerce de Siberie, Petrograd; Banque de Commerce
de Volga Kama, Petrograd; Banque de Marchands de Moscow;
Banque d’Epargne et de Crédit, Antwerp; Banque de I’ Union
Parisienne; Banque de Moscou, Moscow; Banque d’Outremer, Brussels—and
 so on through the alphabet to the Wiener Bank-Verein of
Vienna, Constantinople and Smyrna.?!
This is typical of the connections which the important London
banks maintain with financial institutions all over the world.