Abstract

Antecedents and Foundation of the First Joint-Stock Banks in Hamburg

In nearly all states of the German Confederation, banks with note-issuing privileges were founded in the course of the first half of the 19th century, that is, in the late Forties and Fifties, above all in the relatively new organizational form of joint-stock companies. This also happened in the free imperial cities - the only exception was Hamburg and there, up to the establishment of the Reichsbank, there were in fact no banknotes of private institutions issued. There is no adequate explanation for this fact, which ıs remarkable not only from the standpoint of banking history. It is known, of course, that also the senate in office after 1848 was not exactly progressive, but on the other hand we are familiar with the strong liberal trend which found expression in the activities of the Commercial Deputation (predecessor of the chamber of commerce). The manner in which banking questions and bank reform were handled in this field of tension of political and economic interests is described in this study. Most people at that time became abruptly aware of this rivalry between economic interests and (very closely related) political views when at the end of July 1856 two joint-stock banks were suddenly founded in Hamburg: the Vereinsbank and the Norddeutsche Bank, each with a stock capital of twenty million Bancomarks. In the light of their early history (articles, personalities of founders and agitation surrounding their foundation), the two banks can be interpreted as alternatives in modern bank development as it were: on the one hand an institution that smacks of the Credit mobilier and presses for the issue of banknotes, on the other the conception of the modern commercial bank, to which incidentally the Hamburg merchants remarkably felt themselves more drawn from the very outset