Chapter 75: Opening of the Royal Bank (Seeking first subscription!)

On February 17th, 1901, a crowd gathered on a street in Sydney, eagerly awaiting.

One by one, people smiled, sometimes looking gratefully at the government and where Arthur was.

Right in front of the crowd, a building had been simply refurbished and had the sign of the Australian Royal Bank hung up, officially opening for business today.

A mere bank opening would not attract so many spectators and supporters. What really brought these people here was a policy that Arthur introduced alongside the bank's opening: every Australian family could borrow up to 200 pounds unconditionally from the Royal Bank, and an additional loan of up to 1,000 pounds could be secured based on their assets.

When the two types of loans were combined, the maximum loan amount that each family could obtain reached 1,200 pounds.

Even in the affluent homeland of the British Empire, this sum was the kind of saving that only high-income families could afford.