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"Foreign Trade and the Money Market is a 1903 essay, read before the Institute of Bankers on Wednesday, December 16th, 1903, and reprinted by kind permission of the Council, by Felix Schuster a Noted London Banker. Sir Felix Schuster, Bt., of Verdley Place, Fernhurst, Sussex, who took an important part in great bank amalgamations, died on Wednesday at the age of 82. Felix Otto Schuster was born on April 21, 1854, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and was educated there and at the University of Geneva. One branch of his family had already been settled in England, and when Frankfort was absorbed in the German Empire his father, Francis Joseph, migrated with his family to England and became naturalized. Felix continued his studies at Owens College, Manchester, and at the age of 18 or 19 entered the banking firm of Schuster, Son and Co., into which the old family business had developed. In 1887 part of the business of Schuster, Son and Co. was taken over by the Union Bank of London, of which he was then elected a director. In 1893 he was elected deputy governor, and in the two years' time he succeeded as governor. In this position Schuster influenced every detail in the daily administration of the bank. Not only had he an intimate knowledge of every account of any size, but he kept a close watch, week by week, on every branch. He regarded it as his first duty to care for the interests of his shareholders (particularly the small ones) and to preserve and increase the security of his depositors. In these matters he had no thought of personal ambition or financial interest, considering himself as much a servant of the State as if he had been a Civil servant. He possessed a rare knowledge of the technical side of banking and bill-broking, both English and foreign. Though he attended so carefully to detail, his mind was not absorbed in little things. He was by nature and training Liberal as Liberalism was understood in the second half of the nineteenth century, and he cherished the ambition of helpings to direct, for public ends, the financial policy of the country. At the close of the nineteenth century many of the private banks were ill-fitted to withstand any violent and widespread strain. It seemed to Schuster that concentration of resources was necessary in the national interest. With this aim he negotiated with the proprietors of Smith Payne and Smiths and of their allied firms, which in 1902, largely through the help of Mr. Martin Ridley Smith, resulted in the amalgamation of those old and well-established businesses with Union Bank. It greatly increased Schuster's reputation. It was followed by similar operations with the London and Yorkshire Bank, an old customer of the Union Bank under the management of Mr. John Clutton-Brock, and with Messrs. Prescott, Dimsdale and Co. Some smaller private banks were also absorbed. The coping-stone was put on this policy when in 1919 Lord Inchcape and Schuster matured a scheme for welding together in one institution the National Provincial Bank of England and Union of London and Smiths Bank. Meanwhile the fiscal controversy became acute, and a pamphlet by Schuster entitled ""Foreign Trade and the Money Market"" had a great effect on opinion in the City and throughout the country. At the General Election of 1906 he was persuaded to stand for the City as a Free Trade candidate. He failed, but his speeches and writings contributed materially to the success of the cause, and a baronetcy was conferred on him in July. He had already been appointed by Lord Morley to a sat on the Council of India, which he held until 1916, acting as Finance Member. He served on a number of Government Commissions, and assisted in the management of several hospitals, of University College, and of the London School of Economics."

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