It would appear it was not only distilling the Steins were involved with and they even ventured into banking, with disasterous results. In 1800 The Workington Bank was founded by Messrs Wood, Smith and Stein & Co. Little is known about this bank and only a few copies of their bank notes exist today.
It was not a good time for country banks . As agriculture was going through a boom and bust period, coupled to the fact Workington’s major customers were connected to the manufacture of arms and the iron trades, a brief period of peace with France did not help. The Workington Bank went into recievership in 1812 with debts totally £120,000 (approximately £20,000,000 today).
See copy of Legal Case raised by The Royal Bank of Scotland against the Steins.