The Lognormal Distribution.

Lloyds Bank has its main root in a substantial private bank founded in Birmingham nearly two centuries ago; one hundred years ago this Bank still had only the one office in Birmingham, with a related private banking house in Lombard Street. But by amalgamation it has absorbed scores of other eighteenth and nineteenth century banks, both private and joint-stock, and at least two of the former reach back into Restoration London, perhaps Cromwellian London. Although the records of these historic businesses have been gravely impaired, especially by bombing in 1940-41, the Bank still possesses rich material for the economic and social historian. This material has been at the disposal of Professor R. S. Sayers and, though the gaps in the records have prevented him from presenting a full and systematic history of the Bank, he presents in this book a picture of English banking development as illustrated in the records of Lloyds Bank.