PROVINCIAL BANKING IN THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY AND SUCCESSOR STATES 1913 /1925 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Damir Jelic School of Historical Studies Leicester University May, 2007 UMI Number: U601264 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U601264 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I Abstract Provincial banking in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy prior to the First World War was well developed. It fulfilled important economic and social functions as well as holding a significant share of the banking sector. In the successor states, after the collapse of the Monarchy, provincial banking lost some of its strength, but remained an important factor. However, the historiography of provincial banking remained underdeveloped due to the limits of archive material, the small number of case studies and a generally low level of knowledge about provincial banking. This thesis aims to fill the gap by reconstructing the broad structure of provincial banking and its place in the overall banking systems of several selected regions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and successor states for the sample years 1913 and 1925. General knowledge and understanding of provincial banking can be improved by analysing the business structure of the provincial banks based on the analysis of balance sheets and the reaction of provincial banking to economic, monetary and political disturbances caused by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This dissertation has two parts. The first part presents the general framework of the research, through a survey of the existing historiography and an outline of the methodology of the research. It also offers some necessary introductory information about credit cooperatives, provincial banking and the economic and financial framework in which provincial banks operated. The second part consists of an analysis of the database containing information on all financial institutions within the assessed territory and information from the balance sheets of provincial banks. The Appendix to the thesis contains a glossary of the terminology used in balance sheets, and the main database. The database and thesis is designed to serve as a useful foundation for future case studies of the historiography of provincial banking in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. II Content Abstract....................................................................................................................... I Content of Volume I ..................................................................................................II Content of Appendix (separate volumes) ................................................................ VI List of tables ........................................................................................................... VII List of maps ............................................................................................................. IX List of figures ........................................................................................................... IX Abbreviations .............................................................................................................X Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. XI Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Part one................................................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 1 - METHODOLOGY..................................................................................14 PRINTED SOURCES..................................................................................................15 COMPILING THE DATABASE.................................................................................18 Regional division ......................................................................................................18 Levels of financial importance ................................................................................ 20 Classification of levels of financial importance .................................................. 21 Local provincial banking ..................................................................................... 22 THE IDENTIFICATION DATABASE...................................................................... 27 The identification of banks and towns where banking institutions existed .............27 Elements of the identification database ................................................................... 28 The analysis of the identification database .............................................................. 30 THE BALANCE SHEET DATABASE............................................................... 33 Statistical analysis of the balance sheet database .................................................... 38 MAPS...........................................................................................................................42 CONCLUSION.............................................................................. 44 CHAPTER 2 - INTRODUCTION TO PROVINCIAL BANKING............................... 45 THE CREDIT COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT......................................................... 45 Main credit cooperative interests ............................................................................. 46 Legal and organisational problems...........................................................................51 Networks of credit cooperatives .............................................................................. 54 Metamorphosis of the credit cooperative movement .............................................. 55 Results of the credit cooperative movement ............................................................ 57 PROVINCIAL BANKS.............................................................................................. 59 Leitha - a small river marking great differences ..................................................... 60 Who started provincial banks? .................................................................................66 The strata of financial users ......................................................................................72 BUSINESS OPERATIONS OF A PROVINCIAL BANK......................................... 79 Liabilities..................................................................................................................80 The bank’s own resources ....................................................................................80 Attracting savings .................................................................................................82 External resources .................................................................................................85 Assets........................................................................................................................89 ECONOMIC NATIONALISM AND PROVINCIAL BANKING............................. 92 CHAPTER 3 - THE FRAMEWORKS........................................................................... 99 Ill AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN FRAMEWORK................................................................100 Economic geography of the region .........................................................................100 Post office savings banks network ..........................................................................106 Network of the Austro-Hungarian Bank (central bank) .........................................107 Commercial banking networks ...............................................................................110 Viennese banks ...................................................................................................110 Prague .................................................................................................................114 Budapest .............................................................................................................117 Other commercial networks ................................................................................120 Source PROVBANK DATABASE ....................................................................124 Limits of commercial banking network and provincial banking ........................... 125 AFTER THE COLLAPSE..........................................................................................128 Czechoslovakia .......................................................................................................130 Liberation from domination by Vienna ..............................................................130 Strengthening of Prague .....................................................................................131 Slovakia - integration with the Czech financial market .....................................132