This paper examines the consequences of branch banking for the Australian economy. There is little evidence to show that branching increased the stability of Australian banking. In 1893 Australia suffered the worst panic ever in a branch banking country. During the crisis, more extensively...

Wages in Australia have long been set by government tribunals. Although the system may create microeconomic inefficiency, it also may facilitate incomes policies, such as the 10 percent wage cut in 1931. This paper uses records from early to mid-career employees of the Union Bank of Australia to...

This paper uses wage records to examine salaries and career tracks in the English banking industry between 1890 and 1918. The main conclusions are as follows. First, unlike manufacturing and a number of other sectors, which experienced increasing wages prior to the First World War, real wages in...

The late 19th and early 20th century British labour market experienced an influx of female clerical workers. Employers argued that female employment increased opportunities for men to advance; however, most male clerks regarded this expansion of the labour supply as a threat to their pay and...

This paper explores a part of the systems used by the British-owned Union Bank of Australia in managing its labour force in the 1920s. The particular concerns addressed here focus on the opportunities presented to workers to 'cheat' arising from the nature of the tasks undertaken, which meant...

This article uses personnel, payroll, and other records from the Union Bank of Australia to examine internal labor markets. It is shown that employment was characterized by limited ports of entry, impersonal rules for pay and promotion, well-defined career ladders, shielding from the external...