Welsh Journals

THE RECRUITMENT, APPRENTICESHIP AND MOBILITY OF THE MID-VICTORIAN CLERK: A STUDY OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH WALES BANK, 1850-75 TO THE Victorians, the status of the bank clerk within the field of nineteenth-century clerical labour was generally recognized as being a high one. It was widely acknowledged, given the hierarchical structure of the industry, including careers with many stages affording a quick and steady climb, that the profession held out opportunities for real upward career mobility. One popular handbook for bankers' clerks observed, 'A person employed in the practical business of banking is engaged in an arduous profession; and yet, perhaps, there is none which offers greater inducements, or more certainly rewards with success a due share of perseverance and attention in its pursuit'.1 Any bank clerk, it was believed, might become the 'branch manager or manager of a joint-stock bank, if his talents and assiduity qualified him for office'.2 Apart from economic opportunity, another influence reinforcing the Victorian view of the bank clerk's status was social origin and background. It was natural, given the nature of a business which involved the use and transmission of money and financial securities, that preference would be given when recruiting to those who were respectably connected. In 1844, for example, the Bank of England endeavoured to make its recruiting rules and regulations more stringent, 'not primarily with the view to the increased efficiency of the clerks but more especially for the purpose of excluding from the service all but those of the highest character'.3 This principle lay at the heart of the recruitment policies of all nineteenth-century banks. It was the 'moral qualities which the bank clerk had carefully to cultivate in order to secure the respect of those who were placed over him and to obtain promotion in the bank'.4 A respectable social background helped to determine that the clerk brought those 'moral qualities' with him when he joined the bank. 1 The Banker's Clerk (Houlston's Industrial Library, 1877), p. 126. Ibid., p. 126. W. M. Acres, The Bank of Englandfrom Within, 1694-1900 (1931), p. 550. Ibid., p. 550.