574. German Imperial Banking Laws
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61ST CONGRESS ) / DOCUMENT 2d Session } SENATE I No. 574 NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION German Imperial Banking Laws EDITED BY DR. R. KOCH Former President of the Reichsbank Together with the German Stock Exchange Regulations Washington : Government Printing Office : 1910 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION. NELSON W. ALDRICH, Rhode Island, Chairman. EDWARD B. VREELAND, New York, Vice-Chairman. JULIUS C. BURROWS, Michigan. JOHN W. WEEKS, Massachusetts. EUGENE HALE, Maine. ROBERT W. BONYNGE, Colorado. PHILANDER C. KNOX, Pennsylvania. SYLVESTER C. SMITH, California. THEODORE E. BURTON, Ohio. LEMUEL P. PADGETT, Tennessee. JOHN W. DANIEL, Virginia. GEORGE F\ BURGESS, Texas. HENRY M. TELLER, Colorado. ARSENE P. PUJO, Louisiana. HERNANDO D. MONEY, Mississippi. ARTHUR B. SHELTON, Secretary. JOSEPH W. BAILEY, Texas. A. PIATT ANDREW, Special Assistant to Commission. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS. PART I.—BANKING LAWS. Page. Introduction by Doctor Koch 1-27 Notes to the introduction 29~33 BOOK ONE. I. Bank act of March 14, 1875*. Chapter I.—General provisions 35-38 II.—The Reichsbank 38-53 III.—Private note issuing banks 53-60 IV —Penal provisions 60-62 V.—Final provisions 62-64 Notes on the bank act 65-89 Appendix to section 9 91 II. The Reichsbank statute of May 21, 1875 93-103 Forms of Reichsbank certificates of stock 105-108 Notes on the statute 109-112 III. Treaty between Prussia and the German Empire concerning the transfer of the Bank of Prussia to the German Empire. 113-119 Notes on the treaty ,. 121 IV. Law of June 7, 1899, concerning changes in the bank act__ 123-127 V. Law of February 20, 1906 128 VI. Law of June 1, 1909, concerning changes in the bank act__ 128-134 BOOK TWO. I. General provisions concerning business relations with the Reichsbank 135 II. Purchase of bills of exchange: A. Purchase of bills on Germany 135-138 B. Purchase of bills and checks on foreign countries,_* 138-153 III. Sale of bills and checks on foreign countries 153-157 IV. Purchase of redeemable bonds 157-158 V. Loans on pledges: A. Provisions 158-165 B. Classification of securities which may be hypothe cated in the Reichsbank 165-171 VI. Deposit and transfer of bank-accounts transactions (Giro- verkehr): A. Unlimited giro transactions 171-176 B. Limited giro transactions 176-178 in Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis National Monetary Commission Page. VII. Clearing houses and their members 179-182 VIII. Transfer to accounts and remittances: A. Domestic banks 183-186 B. Foreign countries 189 IX. Business on commission 187-191 X. Mortgage transactions 192-195 XI. Acceptance of noninterest-bearing deposits 196 XII. Sealed deposits — 197-201 XIII. Open deposits of securities: A. General provisions 203-204 B. Conditions for safe-keeping of open deposits 204-213 C. Conditions for the safe-keeping of deposits of wards and minors 213-217 XIV. Collection of bills by means of checks 218 PART II.—STOCK EXCHANGE REGULATIONS. I. Stock Exchange law, as amended May 8, 1908 221-252 II. Regulations for the Berlin Exchange of December, 1908 253-276 III. Announcement concerning the listing of securities on the Exchange, Berlin, 1896 277-286 IV. Provisions concerning brokers on the Berlin Exchange, July, 1906 287-298 V. Regulations of the Clearing Association for investments in futures on the Berlin Stock Exchange, February, 1909 299-310 VI. Regulations of the clearing office of the Berlin Kassen-Verein for investments in futures on the Berlin Stock Exchange, February, 1909 311-318 Index to German Banking Laws 319-328 IV Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PART I German Banking Laws Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis GERMAN IMPERIAL BANKING LAWS.a INTRODUCTION. By Dr. R. KOCH, Former president of the Reichsbank. The conditions which prevailed in Germany, not much more than a generation ago, with regard to the media of circulation—coins, paper money and bank notes—afforded a striking picture of our political confusion. The constant effort towards a uniform coinage system brought no satisfactory result. The Vienna Monetary Convention of the 24th of January, 1857, which was a result of the Dresden Monetary Convention of the States of the Zoll- verein of July 30, 1838, had indeed adopted the single silver standard, at that time the prevailing one in Ger many, and had introduced for the contracting States (the Zollverein and Austria, including Liechtenstein) the Zollverein pound of 500 grams as the standard coinage weight. But within these limits there were still three distinct standards: the thaler standard in North Germany (with various subdivisions of the thaler), the 523^-gulden standard in South Germany, and the 45-gulden standard in Austria (including Liechten stein). In addition there were the earlier coinage a The English translation has been prepared for the National Monetary Commission by Frank F. Rosenblatt, A. M., of Columbia University. 1 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis National Monetary Commission standards of the country in the States not belonging to the Zollverein. Thus, up to the year 1871 Germany had, together with the French standard of Alsace-Lorraine,1 seven coinage systems. The situation was no better with regard to the paper money system. Of all the German States only six of the smallest (Lippe-Detmold, Lauen- burg, Liibeck, Bremen, Hamburg, and Alsace-Lorraine) had issued no paper money. In the States of the North German Confederation there were outstanding in the year 1870, 40,652,742 thalers,2 besides the paper money of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, which had been issued to the amount of 2,000,000 thalers by the Oldenburg Landesbank. In all the States of the German Empire, according to the reports of the Federal administrations of October, 1872, there were in circulation 61,374,600 thalers of state paper money of different kinds.3 The objection against the so-called "wild bills" (wilde Scheine) which could be passed beyond the limits of the States which issued them only with difficulty and loss, and which no one could help accepting, was general. We must also take into account the more acceptable, though not consider able, amount of paper money which was issued upon special concessions 4 by railroad companies, municipali ties, and other corporations. The amount of circulating paper money constantly increased, after the middle of the fifties, through the development of bank notes. Thus the Bank of Prussia,5 which in 1846 had grown out of the former Royal Bank (a pure state bank), was vested with the unlimited right of note issue in 1856, and, as a result of its services during the great crises of 2 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis German Imperial Banking Laws 1857, 1866, and 1870, it developed into a central note bank for the greater part of Germany. On considering the importance of this bank, the nine private note banks in the old provinces of Prussia, with their privilege of note issue, limited always to 1,000,000 thalers, must sink into insignificance. At the same time, the other German sovereigns made very liberal use of their author ity of granting the privileges of note issue, and often on a scale quite exceeding the amount justified by the extent of their State. The effort of Prussia to protect itself by forbidding the circulation of such foreign notes 6 was unsuccessful, especially in middle Germany, because of the various and changing business relations of the territories. Thus, disregarding Bavaria, the circulation of uncovered notes—that is, uncovered by bullion—in Germany increased, according to the monthly records, from about 15,000,000 marks at the beginning of the fifties to an average of 202,296,000 marks in 1867, to 342,543,000 marks in 1870, and to 400,284,000 marks in 1873.7 At the end of 1870 the uncovered note circulation in Germany, including Bavaria, amounted to 448,159,000 marks; and at the end of 1873 the total note circulation was 1,352,548,000 marks, of which 426,808,000 marks were uncovered.8 More than 140 kinds of paper certifi cates (bank notes and paper money in its different denominations) were in circulation in the German Empire in 1873.9 The newly united Germany soon realized that such conditions could not be endured any longer, and the con stitution of the North German Confederation, of the 26th 3 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis National Monetary Commission of July, 1867,10 had already provided, in article 4, for enact ments subjecting such matters as the following to the supervision and legislation of the Confederation: "SEC. 3. The regulation of the measure,monetary, and weight systems, as well as the provisions for the emission of funded and unfunded paper money. "SEC. 4. General provisions regarding banking.'' These provisions were repeated in the constitution of the German Confederation,11 which went into effect on the 1st of January, 1871, and in the constitution of the German Empire of the 16th of April, 1871.12 The first step in the direction of preventing a further voluntary increase of bank notes and paper money was taken by means of a law passed on the 27th of March, 1870,13 concerning the issue of bank notes.