Jeremiah Smith, Jr. and Hungary, 1924–1926: the United States, the League of Nations, and the Financial Reconstruction of Hungary

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Jeremiah Smith, Jr. and Hungary, 1924–1926: the United States, the League of Nations, and the Financial Reconstruction of Hungary Zoltán Peterecz Jeremiah Smith, Jr. and Hungary, 1924–1926: the United States, the League of Nations, and the Financial Reconstruction of Hungary 1 Versita Discipline: History, Archeology Managing Editor: Katarzyna Ślusarska Language Editor: Victoria Symons Introduction 2 Published by Versita, Versita Ltd, 78 York Street, London W1H 1DP, Great Britain. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Copyright © 2013 Zoltán Peterecz ISBN (paperback) 978-83-7656-006-9 ISBN (hardcover) 978-83-7656-007-6 ISBN (for electronic copy) 978-83-7656-008-3 Managing Editor: Katarzyna Ślusarska Language Editor: Victoria Symons Cover illustration: Jeremiah Smith, photo from 1924-1926, as appeared in Tolnai Világlapja journal, Tolnai Printing House. www.versita.com 3 Introduction Contents Foreword ...............................................................................................................8 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... 10 Abbreviations ................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 12 The International Landscape in the early 1920s ................................................12 Chapter 1 An American in Paris ....................................................................................... 16 1.1 The Last months of World War I in Europe ....................................................16 1.2 Smith at the Paris Peace Conference ................................................................22 Chapter 2 The United States, the League of Nations, and the Postwar Financial Scene .................................................................................................................. 32 2.1. The New World Order after the War .................................................................32 2.2. The US and the Financial Advisory System ...................................................42 Chapter 3 The Beginning of the European Financial Rehabilitation ....................... 53 3.1. The First Steps .............................................................................................................53 3.2. The Austrian Reconstruction ...............................................................................64 Chapter 4 Hungary’s Appeal to the League of Nations .............................................. 81 4.1. The Postwar Situation ..............................................................................................81 4.2. The Economic Situation and Attempts for a Loan .....................................89 Chapter 5 The Selection of Jeremiah Smith, Jr. ..........................................................101 5.1. Search for the Commissioner-General .........................................................101 5.2. Enter Mr. Smith .........................................................................................................108 4 Chapter 6 Raising the Hungarian Loan ........................................................................119 6.1. The Unsuccessful Attempts................................................................................119 6.2. Flotation of the Reconstruction Loan ...........................................................125 6.3. The Adviser to the New National Bank ........................................................133 Chapter 7 The Technical Side of the Hungarian Reconstruction ...........................139 7.1. The First Year .............................................................................................................139 7.2. The Year of 1925 .....................................................................................................155 7.3. The Closing Accords of the Great Work .......................................................178 7.4. Balance Sheet ...........................................................................................................186 Chapter 8 The Personal Side of the Hungarian Reconstruction .............................190 8.1. The Human Side at Work .....................................................................................190 8.2. Smith’s Great Magnanimity ...............................................................................196 8.3. Difference of Personalities .................................................................................203 Chapter 9 Post-Reconstruction Relations between an American and Europe ....206 9.1. Smith and Hungary .................................................................................................206 9.2. Smith and the League of Nations ...................................................................211 9.3. The Last Years ..........................................................................................................217 Chapter 10 The Financial Reconstructions in Europe .................................................220 10.1. Two Schemes, One Aim: The Comparison of the Austrian and Hungarian Reconstructions .............................................................................220 10.2. Other Schemes in Europe by the League ................................................228 10.3. Reconstruction Programs outside the League ......................................232 10.4. The Three American Financial Controllers in Europe in the 1920s ..244 Conclusion .......................................................................................................250 Index .................................................................................................................258 Appendixes .....................................................................................................262 Pictures ............................................................................................................302 Works Cited .....................................................................................................313 5 6 In loving memory of my parents. 7 Jeremiah Smith, Jr. and Hungary, 1924–1926: the United States, the League of Nations, and the Financial Reconstruction of Hungary Foreword The present world economic situation with all its detrimental effects is said to have many common features with the Great Depression, which started in 1929 and lasted for the better part of the 1930s. That does not mean that there are not huge differences as well between the two crises. Obviously, one has to be careful with drawing too close parallels between two eras separated by 80 years of quickened globalization, still one cannot escape the feeling that history seems to repeat itself again in the sense that the root of the evil is almost identical: artificially created credit boom both in the banking and customer sector, sometimes wild gambling on the stock markets, and most importantly creating the bubble effect that was so useful a metaphor in describing the late 1920s. If the problems are really very similar to those of the past century, the remedies should show some similarity as well. Hungary, for example, the main target of this book, had recourse both in 1924 and 2008 to outside financial help. In both instances, Hungary became a member of influential and worldwide organizations: in 1922 it joined the League of Nations, while in 1999 and 2004 it joined NATO and the European Union, respectively. The League of Nations’ loan in 1924 and the International Monetary Fund’s financial help in 1928 tried to serve the same end: to provide a monetary frame under which Hungary would be able to launch all sorts of fiscal reforms, achieve a stable currency and a balanced budget. Without wanting to unduly stress the point that the two actions are identical, or very similar, however, the two cases deserve attention and provide basis for a historical study. The Central European countries, historically speaking always in a weaker situation than those of the West, had to and have to once more ask for financial help outside their borders, even if reluctantly. Much has changed in Central Europe since after World War I, but many basic attitudes and the general worldview have not. An additional aim of this work is to serve a useful basis for continual studies by others in the different countries of Central Europe. It is of importance how one wants to define Central Europe. Without going into details and controversy, for the purpose of my study I included four countries as making up Central Europe: Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Poland. Although Czechoslovakia belongs to Central Europe geographically, from the political and the monetary points of view in the years following World War I, it represented a different situation; therefore it was not included in my study. As a further refinement, I chose Austria and especially Hungary for the object of this study. Since the general topic is that of the League of Nations, Central European financial reconstruction, and the involvement of the private American sphere, it was an obvious choice that Austria and Foreword 8 Zoltán Peterecz Hungary should have the limelight in the region. Moreover, as an account of an American as the financial controller in Hungary, the bulk of the book deals with Hungary and the reconstruction there with a special emphasis on Jeremiah
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