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 From 1955 until the late
1980s, Finance for Farmers and
Growers is a hit publication and a great legacy for Martins Bank, as it
continues to be published well beyond the merger with Barclays. Each new edition is eagerly anticipated, and the
key to its success is that the advertising message is subtly and almost
humbly underplayed.
In fact, NO
advertising is allowed within the pages of this publication, save for a
small amount of generic advertising copy for the Bank itself, within or
near to the inside front and back covers.
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WHY NOT ALSO VISIT THESE FEATURE PAGES
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Issue
No 1 -1955
Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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 The real meat of this booklet
is its attention to detail - reviewing just about everything a Farmer or
Grower will need to think about that will help them succeed
financially. Working closely with
the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Advertising and
Economic Information Department of Martins Bank is able to supply up to
date details of agricultural finance available in the United Kingdom.
The effects of
the latest changes in taxation and allowances are also provided, and clearly
set out to help the farming community find the best and most tax efficient
ways of funding their operation.
As each
edition of the booklet builds upon the last, the back copies have become a
useful historical record of how agriculture in Britain is run and
regulated, and with more than thirty
years’ worth of Finance for Farmers
and Growers to look back on, we can also trace developments innovations
and changes in farming and growing methods over the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and
80s.
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How it
all begins…
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1955
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At first the booklet is called simply - Finance for Farmers - twenty pages
long, and directing its readers to external
sources of information that will actually, in time, become part of the
booklet itself. We can see here that
from a few headings and no contents page in 1955, the guide has built year
on year to a large contents menu by 1969 (by which time the booklet has
also grown four times to almost eighty pages).
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1969
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In 1955, rationing, which has been in place since the end
of the Secon d World War, has only just been abolished, and this is a new
beginning for most farmers, whose focus will now predominantly be on the
supply of crops and meat for the home market, rather than having to meet the
Government’s post-war commitment to feed the starving peoples of Europe. The
first edition of Finance for Famers has a very long foreword, which sets the
scene for the publication and its aims, and includes examples of the Bank’s
advertising to farmers…
  Maybe you are a farmer's son or daughter
or an agricultural worker saving up to start on your own. Perhaps you are a
smallholder, a pig breeder or a small farmer ready and able to work more
acres, or a large farmer looking for more stock, a merchant, a seedsman, a
machinery stockist needing finance for a growing business, or you are just
“In Agriculture”. The purpose of this booklet is to put in simple terms the
ways and means open to farmers to meet their financial problems in the best
interest of themselves and of their great industry in general. In doing so we
would emphasise that changes are constantly occurring and even in one season
certain particulars may become out-of-date. The most we can do is to ensure
that the information contained herein is correct at the time of going to
press. Whatever your financial problem may
be, we invite you to call on the manager of any one of our 600 branches. You
will find him helpful and understanding.
surprising though it is, we still hear of people who keep their
savings in their houses, despite the risk of loss through fire or theft. At one time it used to be
the practice to stress the use of a bank for reasons of safety but with the
spread of the banking habit the use of a banking account has come to be
regarded as an ideal and indispensable method of dealing with business
affairs by providing an orderly and systematic method of recording financial
transactions. For a farmer a banking
account is essential. Into it can be paid direct, for example, the monthly
sums from concerns such as the Milk Marketing Board and, of course, all
cheques received from sales. From it the farmer pays his various accounts and
arrangements can be made by the signing of standing instructions whereby the
bank will attend to the payment of regular outgoings such as insurance
premiums, The bank statement, which can be obtained on demand, thus forms a
record of income and expenditure.
 The receipts you collect may be needed by your accountant
or Income Tax adviser, but so far as you are concerned the record of the payments
will appear on your bank statement as evidence of payment. In addition to the
account described above, which is a current or “running” account, you may
like to have a certain sum readily available for emergencies which will,
nevertheless, show you some interest in the same way as an investment. To do
this you open a deposit account and the rate of interest and any procedure
regarding withdrawal will be arranged with you at the time of deposit. A banking account is also
of benefit in creating an incentive to save and special provision is made for
small savings by the issue of Home Safes, which are particularly suitable as
a means of developing the habit of thrift in the younger generation.
There
are other useful services also available to account holders. Every branch of
the' Bank has a safe or strong-room as a matter of course and customers may,
if they wish, deposit their own valuables therein free of charge. We like
customers to have a deed box but we can accept valuables in other properly
sealed containers. Sometimes a farmer may have a transaction involving
business with another country or maybe he wants to take a holiday on the
Continent. The Bank can obtain foreign currency, issue Travellers' Cheques
and through its Overseas branches attend to all the procedure connected with
foreign trade and travel. Arrangements can also be made for your cheques to
be cashed anywhere in these islands where there is a bank.
Another
very important service which the Bank renders is to act as Executor or
Trustee. The Will or Trust Deed is drawn up by the customer's solicitor after
the Bank has been told of the provisions, to make sure that they are such as
can be undertaken by the Bank; no fees are payable to the Bank until after
the death of the testator. The advantages over naming a friend or other
private person as Executor or Trustee are that the Bank goes on year in and
year out and skill, secrecy and continuity of management are ensured at very
moderate cost to the estate. We have left until the last the mention of
the important services a bank can render its customers by way of overdraft.
In a business such as farming where so much depends upon the weather and
where seasonal outgoings drain the ready cash, the time generally comes when
the farmer needs financial help to tide him over these periods or to enable
him to expand his operations.
 In view of the importance of farming to the
national economy the Bank will always give full and sympathetic consideration
to requests from farmers for overdrafts and will often lend without security
where the circumstances warrant it. It does happen, however, that sometimes
propositions are put to the Bank in which we just cannot help. For example,
banks do not like their money to be locked up indefinitely and when money is
lent a prime factor governing the decision will always be the method and time
of repayment.
You
may have a perfectly sound proposition for the improvement of your farm, for
extending your holding, increasing your stock, modernising your plant or
buildings, or for some other purpose, yet after examining all the relevant
factors we may feel unable to help owing to the long term prospect of the
required loan. In such cases, however, it may be that some other means of
obtaining the finance will appeal to you and we give in the following pages
brief particulars of financial assistance available to farmers and certain
other facts relating to farming finance.
Full
information about financial assistance available to farmers is contained in
the National Farmers' Union Guide to Prices and Services, which is supplied
by the Economics Department of the Union, and in official leaflets and
publications available from County Agricultural Executive Committees or from
Her Majesty's Stationery Office, or from other sources indicated in the
following pages which will form a useful introduction…
A legacy of information…
Finance for
Farmers and Growers becomes a mainstay of British Banking for more than
thirty years…
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Getting the message across…
 The Good Earth – “a bold peasantry their country’s pride…” It does
sound rather like something from a Soviet era manifesto, but no, this is
how Martins Bank views farming in the late 1940s - through rose-tinted, and
rather bucholic spectacles! From
this time onwards however, both Martins and Barclays recognise the
importance of finance for farmers and growers, and the value to the banking
sector and the economy of well run farms and smallholdings. In the 1990s Barclays will go on to
create dedicated Agricultural Banking Centres where specialist staff with a
knowledge of farming and growing put on their wellies and visit the
customer! We have compiled the
following display of advertisements which covers more than twenty years in
order to show just how the message changes with the times – from the
somewhat staid, bucholic and pompous, to the more practical, hands-on
approach…
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Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections and Barclays
Group Archives, and with special thanks to the late Beryl Creer
Getting the message out…
Whilst Martins Bank did not have Branches in ALL parts of
the United Kingdom, it did go to extremes to be represented by its fleet of
Mobile Branch caravans at Agricultural and other shows and events throughout
the land. For much of the 1950s a set advertisement style was used, featuring
an image of a Mobile Branch, some standard wording, and a sentence or two to
personalise the advertisement for the area in which a show or event was
taking place. We have dozens of
examples in the archive, and here we have attempted to display a good
cross-section of advertising styles AND show/event location…
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1954 – Lancaster Agricultural
Show
Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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1950 – Lincolnshire
Agricultural Show
Image © Northcliffe Media Limited
Image created courtesy of
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
BOARD Image reproduced with kind
permission of The British Newspaper Archive
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1961 – Royal Lancashire
Agricultural Show
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1959 – Bath and West and
Southern Counties Show
Images
© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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1956 – Royal Counties
Agricultural Show
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The advertisement here for the
Great Yorkshire Show is from 1932. The Bank attends this particular event
every year, and by the early 1960s it is felt that a permanent sub-Branch
should be built at the Great Yorkshire Showground. Opened in 1962, the GYS
SUB-BRANCH is staffed by
arrangement with Harrogate Branch, and operated by the Bank’s centralised SHOW AND EXHIBITION BRANCHES DEPARTMENT.
Image © Northcliffe Media Limited
Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD Images reproduced with
kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive
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