[1] Thirteen authors contributed to the work, all of whom were considered "eminent as bankers, financiers and political economists".

[2] The title page bears the notice "Edited by the Editor of The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin" (i.e. William Dodsworth).

The first volume, dedicated to the history of banking in the United States, was written by William Graham Sumner (who in many library catalogues is mistakenly listed as the editor of the series).

The third volume provides contributions on the history of banking in the "Latin Nations" by Pierre des Essars (covering France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal), in Alsace-Lorraine by Arthur Raffalovich, and in Canada by Byron Edmund Walker.

The fourth volume contains chapters on banking in Germany and Austria-Hungary by Max Wirth, in The Netherlands by Richard van der Borght, in the Scandinavian nations (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) by the Danish economist and statistician Adolph Jensen, on Japan by Juichi Soyeda, and on China by Thomas R. Jernigan, American consul general in Shanghai.