To those who have applied themselves to that branch of political economy which relates to
increasing the comforts and improving the morals of the inferior classes of society,
it must be obvious that every endeavour to encourage and enable them to provide for their own wants
rather than rely on the gratuitous gifts of the rich are of great advantage to the whole community.

Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor

Extract written 24 May 1804

H Oliver Horne in A History Of Savings Banks published in 1947
outlines the importance of the contribution of Priscilla Wakefield -
she was probably the first to conceive of a savings bank with free facilities
for deposit and withdrawal, open to all people of small means.

A History Of Savings Banks by H Oliver Horne, Oxford University Press, 1947