"Building societies again are now firmly established in all great centres of industry, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham," noted the authors of an 1867 book called "Progress of the Working Class". These newfangled societies had sprung up in just 20 years. One group had received millions of small deposits. Yet "not a penny had been lost by error or default." Astonishingly, this was achieved by groups among whose managers "there are not more than two or three middle-class men and not one of the upper classes."
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