Here’s a story for our times. Two hundred years ago, entrepreneurs in many Welsh towns set up banks to to support their businesses.

 

The most famous was the Black Ox Bank or Banc yr Eidon Ddu of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire. It eventually became part of Lloyd's Bank.

 

Many of these banks printed their own notes. In the whole of Britain, only the Carmarthen Bank had ones worth £8. An example is shown on this page.

 

In the stock market crash of 1825, the Bank of England was blamed when 70 banks failed. A local vote of confidence kept the Carmarthen Bank open, but disaster finally struck in 1832.

 

It was declared bankrupt after big London financiers refused help. With debts of £300,000, people said that the bank had lent money against ‘every principle of common sense and common safety’.