Subject and context: A contribution to the interpretation of the history of the Pressburger Sparkassa
https://doi.org/10.61795/fssr.v26y2024i5.01
Abstract: The author chose a very demanding goal: besides the theoretical perspective on the historical importance of the banking sector and the financial elite in the 19th and 20th centuries, he also focuses on urban development processes and the modernization of the urban society in Bratislava. The paper analyses the existing, authorized interpretations of the history of the first commercial bank of the city of Bratislava, the First Savings Bank of Pressburg (Ger. Pressburger I. Sparkassa, Hun. Pozsonyi I. Takarékpénztár). Based on archival documents, it critically confronts the following issues: 1. the image of the bank (i.e., the issue of its capitalistic “character” and philanthropy); 2. the development of national orientation in Slovak banking history as to the establishment of the First Savings Bank of Pressburg (“the first Slovak financial institution”); and 3. the analysis of the type and development of savings banks in the context of the Hungarian banking sector. In addition, the paper also maps “products” of Slovak Marxist historiography, nationalistic concepts, and new, unfortunately inadequate, approaches after 1989.
Keywords: Bratislava; Pressburger Sparkassa; Bratislava Savings Bank; banking history; sources; historical clichés; ethnicity; identity.
*The present study was written as part of VEGA project 2/0069/21: The Role of the Bourgeoisie in Modernization Processes in Transition from Estates Society to Civil Society (Hungary Kingdom and Slovakia 1780–1918), implemented by the Institute of History Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Introduction
The city of Bratislava not only has a remarkable past, with a rich social and cultural history, but also old traditions of economy, trade, finance, and credit services. These traditions can be inspiring and helpful—although perhaps with a bit of exaggeration—even today when various, positively perceived identities and virtues of civil society are being formed, such as thrift, patronage, solidarity, altruism, and the philanthropy of business entities, and an organic urban environment, poetically called the “smell” of the city, is being born.
Three decisive factors motivated me to write this study: 1. the long-ignored archival material of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, which has survived in the best condition from among the oldest collections of the monetary institutions of Bratislava; 2. persisting stereotypes and canonized themes in research on the history of banking in Slovakia; and 3. a monograph on the history of this bank, which I am planning to write in the near future and in which my many years of research will culminate. With respect to this intention, the postulates of this study form building blocks of the planned book.[1]
Theses and Aspects: A Side Note on the Forgotten History of a Bank
During research on the history of so-called financial intermediaries (i.e., commercial banks, and even other alternative institutions such as private banking enterprises and credit cooperatives) in Bratislava, we encountered several problems, which are mainly related to methodology, concept, and sources. These difficulties are closely connected to the current dire state of economic history in Slovakia, including the history of entrepreneurship, the financial elite, and monetary institutions, and its lagging behind the latest trends abroad (Holec 2006: 41–42, 51–53; Michela 2011: 617–637; Pogány 1995: 146–149).[2] In our case, these difficulties persist partly because the history of credit services and their institutional background in Bratislava dates back to at least the latter half of the 18th[3] (not taking into account other forms of financial relations and lending in the Middle Ages and in the modern period) and has not been researched in detail yet (Gaučík 2014: 53–64). The long-accessible primary archival sources of the old monetary institutions of Bratislava have not been exploited, and the range of deficits is extensive also in other areas. There are no studies on the functioning of the credit market in the city, the social status of creditors and borrowers, or the social structure of the clientele. To put it simply, we have no knowledge of the mechanisms of credit distribution and of the “financial world” of the class system and the capitalist establishment of the city in the 19th century. On the other hand, there is still no high-quality, serious monograph on the history of financial institutions in Bratislava or their multinational elite, the image created of bankers, or the personal and power relations and self-image of this elite.[4] Nor does research exist on the possible positions and influence of Viennese private bankers, such as Arnsteiner & Eskeles or Salomon Rothschild, or the Sina Banking House (Sandgruber 1995: 219; Kövér 2012: 175–183).
Keeping in mind this tangled issue of research on savings banks, commercial banks, and business entities in Slovakia, why is the history of the Savings Bank of Pressburg an ignored topic, pushed to the periphery of research interest? For what reasons was one of the most important rural banks of Hungary and the dominant monetary institution of Bratislava, and thus even its “legacy,” negated in Slovak historiography?
Not only in the eyes of its contemporaries but also according to its rivals, the Savings Bank of Pressburg was the most powerful and most influential savings bank in the city, financially and morally supported by the local middle class, from its 1841 foundation until 1918.[5] Moreover, we must not forget that it was also one of the prominent urban institutions that continuously supported the social situation, the school system, and religious communities with its philanthropic financial subventions, and thus was also instrumental in the creation of a bourgeois identity in the city (Gaučík 2004: 59–82; Gaučík 2012: 161–177; Gaučík 2019: 190–214). Why did it disappear from the history of Slovak banking despite the fact that it played an indispensable role in the credit market of the city and was intensively involved in the development of the urban environment and the economic and cultural growth of the city through the loans it provided up until its forced liquidation in 1945?
In the following lines, I will try to elucidate the “prehistory” of the interpretations, and their sometimes tendentious ideological overlays, and point out the deficits of Slovak historiography with respect to the history of this savings bank. My aim is not to seek the truth but, in the “mirror” of the books and archival materials I have studied, to draw a more plastic and possibly more objective picture of this bank. On the other hand, I will keep in mind that the reasoning and disposition of historians who have occasionally mentioned the establishment of this oldest commercial bank of the city in their articles (forgetting or ignoring its context) are characterized by “qualities” such as self-interest, moral standpoint, and conviction and are moreover influenced by their world and the people around the bank.
In this study, I seek to answer the following question: How was this bank thematized and what ideological currents can we identify at least on three levels: in period texts, in narratives of the urban history of Bratislava, and in Slovak and Hungarian historiography?
I begin my analysis with the issue of the emergence of savings banks in Hungary in the first half of the 19th century and with questions around the birth of the Savings Bank of Pressburg and its possible influence on the genesis of other financial institutions. I present and discuss publications whose authors tried to elucidate the emergence and development of monetary institutions in Bratislava in connection with the history of banking in the territory of present-day Slovakia. Finally, after rejecting interpretations of the history of this institute with ethnic undertones, I try to arrive at a more objective view based on archival sources and utilize the latest results of specialized literature.
The Emergence of Savings Banks in Hungary and the Savings Bank of Pressburg
What influences and patterns can be identified with respect to the establishment of savings banks in the first half of the 19th century? What schemes of altruistic and commercial orientation were in existence? What role did, or could, the Savings Bank of Pressburg play in this process?
It cannot be definitively claimed that the first articles of association of the Savings Bank of Pressburg of 1842 became a generally accepted model for new institutions in Upper Hungary in an unchanged form, although the positive influence of the successful establishment of this bank and the philosophy of the joint-stock entrepreneurship presented in its articles, which spread rapidly even to other sectors of the economy (e.g., industry, railways), must not be underestimated. The funding of the construction of the Pest–Buda Chain Bridge (Lánchíd) over the Danube and the Bratislava–Trnava Horse-Drawn Railway, for example, was provided through joint-stock companies, in which the Viennese banker Georg Simon von Sina played a crucial role.
In general, the establishment of new financial institutions in Hungary was also influenced by the articles of association of the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest and, from 1841 onwards, also by those of the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest. A smaller group of savings banks purposely chose a joint-stock character as early as the 1840s or transformed themselves into joint-stock companies after their establishment, while their birth was strongly influenced by regional and local socio-economic factors and by the strength of the local business elite.
The Savings Bank of Pressburg and the savings banks in Sopron and Miskolc were the first joint-stock companies (because they were established according to Article XVII of 1840). According to Adolf Fenyvessy, the chronicler of the history of the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest, the articles of association of the Savings Bank of Miskolc imitated those of the Bratislava model but also pursued philanthropic goals (Fenyvessy 1890: 29; Szemere 1847).
Previous, initially non-commercial institutions were also quickly transformed into commercial companies. The Savings Bank in Arad, established on January 14, 1840, on an entirely philanthropic basis, was transformed four years later into a joint-stock company (partly because of the growing influence of local traders, the foothold of the bill of exchange trade, and the problems with making the reserve fund earn interest). In this case, the reference to the Savings Bank of Pressburg and its profit-making philosophy is clearly demonstrable: on August 18, 1844, Ignác Markovits, the chief treasurer of the institute, recommended to its management to transform the association (initially the Savings Bank Association) into a joint-stock company, which the management approved unequivocally. Nevertheless, just like the elite of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, proudly and without scruple, the Araders also regarded themselves as the first rural monetary institution in Hungary (Ottenberg 1901: 22, 56, 62).
The First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest (Pesti Hazai Első Takarékpénztár Egyesület), operating from January 11, 1840, onwards, changed its form of organization four years later, in September 1845. Some stockholders of this association had initiated the change as early as 1841, but the majority of the general assembly did not support it then. Thus, until 1845, the institute had simultaneously pursued both philanthropic and a speculative missions (Fenyvessy 1890: 24, 29, 30).
The plan for a savings bank in the city of Košice first emerged in 1840 thanks to the efforts of the local trader Károly Fiedler, who vigorously campaigned for its establishment. After the founding general assembly, held on January 18, 1844, he contacted the management of the Savings Bank of Pressburg regarding organizational matters. The direct communication between these institutes in bookkeeping and financial matters is demonstrable. Three officials of the Savings Bank of Pressburg provided expert advice on bookkeeping and were adequately remunerated by their Košice counterparts. With quite a lot of euphemism, the chronicler of the history of the savings bank remarked that the “friendly relations” between the two institutes continued even afterwards (Klimkovics 1895: 6–9).
In the case of the Savings Bank of Prešov (Eperjesi Takarékpénztár), established on August 27, 1844, on a purely commercial basis and with its internal agenda kept in German until 1864 and then bilingually in German and Hungarian, the influence of the Savings Bank of Pressburg cannot be traced at all. Its active transactions were identical to those of the institutes in Komárno and Nové Zámky, and it began to make philanthropic donations only in 1851 (Kónyai Kiss 1895: 21, 22, 28, 92).
The prehistory of the idea of a savings bank in Komárno dates back to 1841, when Komárno County received the balance sheet of the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest and the idea of establishing an independent institute for the town and its close vicinity emerged. Three years later, they secured the articles from the aforementioned savings bank of Pest-Buda, but for practical steps they nevertheless contacted the Savings Bank of Pressburg. They drew up their articles of association according to the model of the Savings Bank of Pressburg and had their shares and articles printed in Bratislava. In early 1846, an agreement was also made between these institutes on the dislocation of the new Komárno shares so that they “would not fall into untrustworthy hands.” The introduction to their first articles of association, from which philanthropic features are completely absent (their systematic provision of charitable endowments began only in 1863), did not specify the institutes that would have influenced the establishment of the Savings Bank of Komárno. It only mentions, laconically, the model of “already operating institutes.” Its main areas and conditions of lending activities, deposit-taking, provision of mortgages and loans for goods (specifically also for seeds and sheep’s wool), and bill of exchange business, as well as its organizational structure, were almost identical to those of the Nové Zámky institute. It is possible that the articles of association in Komárno became a prototype for the new articles of the Savings Bank of Nové Zámky (Csepi 1896: 13–15, 22, 32–35, 147).[6] The director, József Scherz de Vaszója, who was apparently related to the Bratislava entrepreneur Philipp Scherz, a recognized authority among businesses and associations in Bratislava, probably played a major role in the orientation of the Savings Bank of Komárno to the Savings Bank of Pressburg (Tóth 2009: 125–126, 171).
In 1845, the founders of the Savings Bank of Banská Bystrica (Hun. Besztercebányai Takarékpénztár), which bore the name of the Savings Bank of Zvolen (Hun. Zólyomi Takarékpénztár) until 1881, approached three monetary institutions (the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest, the Savings Bank of Pressburg, and the Savings Bank of Košice) to support its establishment, and the latter two were also given the opportunity to subscribe for shares. Eventually, these banks adopted the articles of association of the Savings Bank of Pressburg with minimal changes and also set a dual financial philosophy: humanitarian and entrepreneurial goals side by side, although they began to pursue philanthropy only from 1858 onwards (Tilles 1895: 27, 29, 98, 174).
The circumstances of the establishment of the Savings Bank of Trnava (Tyrnauer Sparkasse/Nagyszombati Takarékpénztár) were specific in a different way. The idea to establish an institute apparently influenced by institutes in Pest-Buda, Győr, and Bratislava came up as early as 1844, but, for unknown reasons, the municipal council hindered the establishment of a savings bank for a long time. Nevertheless, the founding general assembly took place in early 1846 and approved a joint-stock character of the institute. On the other hand, from the very beginning, the management consciously emphasized the humanitarian, philanthropic mission of the savings bank. Nevertheless, it began to provide actual subsidies only in 1856 (Szibenliszt 1896: 2, 5, 57).[7]
The 1847 establishment of the Savings Bank of Banská Štiavnica (Sparkassa in Schemnitz/Selmeczbányai Takarékpénztár) was positively influenced by the surrounding new institutes in Banská Bystrica (1845) and Kremnica (1847). In drawing up their articles of association, the officials in Banská Štiavnica drew from the examples of not only the Savings Bank of Pressburg, but later, in the neoabsolutist era, also of the Savings Bank of Buda (Budai Takarékpénztár; Pauer 1898: 5, 12, 13).
Historians Štefan Horváth and Ján Valach interpreted the character of such institution, a universal bank, seemingly unerringly despite the fact that, in the Hungarian context, savings banks (in fact, gradually emerging deposit credit institutes, or banks) constituted a special type of banking system (Horváth-Valach 1975: 41). Not least because of the 1840 package of commercial, financial, and credit laws[8]—and this is already a banality in specialized literature—their historical development did not move towards altruism but towards profit-making activities, and this made them diverge from the tendencies in Cisleithania. We should keep in mind that no specific government law or regulation regulated the activities of savings banks in Hungary at that time, so they created their own fields of operation and set for themselves a wide range of trades. Whether some of the weaker institutes in terms of capital had the capacity to do so is another story, though (Bácskai 1993: 118).
The divergence, deferment, or even resistance of the management of these institutes, including the Savings Bank of Pressburg, to repeated efforts of a directive nature and to the introduction of the Austrian savings banks model (the so-called Regulativum[9]) from 1844 onwards signaled that the development in Hungary was moving in a different direction: savings banks were not willing to transform themselves into new organizations of an altruistic character, submit to the centralist financial policy of Vienna, or give up their lucrative trades and the possibility to distribute their dividends. They wanted to retain their joint-stock form, which had already been tried and tested in practice and had been beneficial for them. On the other hand, from the 1850s onwards, the regulation in question had a positive effect on the implementation of charitable endowments but, in a significant number of cases, the articles of association of these institutes did not get approved, as the Governor’s Council kept returning them for modification.[10] Consequently, savings banks of a specifically altruistic character did not flourish in Hungary; in fact, they came into being only in isolated cases (Vargha 1895: 97).
From the 1850s onwards, so-called mobile banks (also called universal or mixed banks), which pursued not only traditional asset but also investment transactions and sold securities, were being established according to the French model of Crédits Mobiliers (Ger. Mobiliarbanken). This type quickly adapted to the conditions in European countries and began to appear in greater numbers in Hungary from 1867 onwards. These institutes (and also institutes of the Baubanken and Maklerbanken types) undoubtedly played an important role in the spread of new forms of speculative trading, large financial transactions, and the revival of stock exchange.[11] Therefore, the newer model of a universal bank did not exist in the first half of the 19th century, neither abroad nor in the Hungarian context. It should also be emphasized that savings banks naturally changed their businesses over time depending on the market opportunities, the changes in the legal environment, and the economic intentions of their managements (and this does not change the fact that a universal banking system in Hungary, similar to that in Austria and the German lands, was coming into being from the first half of the 19th century onwards).
One unanswered question still remains: how did contemporaries or, more specifically, the official chronicler of the history of the savings bank, János Jónás,[12] interpret the character or profile of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, and what image did he create of this savings bank in the late 19th century?[13]
Jónás’s booklet is an important historical source not only because it deals with the business activities of the bank and provides background information on the members of its board of directors and supervisory committee. It is an important work because it is the first, and probably the last, detailed attempt to interpret and convey the original, many times modified, concept of the savings bank and the background reasons and driving forces behind its establishment. This refers to the articles written by Paul Ballus,[14] a renowned public figure and entrepreneur in Bratislava society at the time, who published these plans in local periodicals (e.g., Pressburger Zeitung, Hírnök) in 1839 and 1841. Jónás undoubtedly emphasized the merits of Ballus but also stressed, without scruple, the importance of the initiators behind the scenes, albeit anonymously: renowned members of the entrepreneurial and commercial elite of the city (whose names were well-known to the public at the time, as they had been members of the managing structures and stockholders of the savings bank from the very beginning). Jónás characterized Ballus as a simple but “faithful and skillful interpreter” of the intentions of Bratislava traders, whose writings communicated the non-profit, altruism-based form of the savings bank (Jónás 1892a: 10).
However, Jónás’s claims and interpretations of Ballus’s theses confirm an important fact: the local plans to establish a municipal financial institute were motivated by the 1840 and 1841 reforms and rationalization of the imperial credit system, which affected the branches of the First Austrian Savings Bank in Hungary, including its Bratislava branch. This change indirectly generated the establishment of new, already independent, savings banks. In Bratislava, these plans were met with important support from representatives of the aristocracy, especially the influential Count Ferenc Zichy,[15] as well as from the Pressburger Casino, in whose premises the organizational work around the establishment of the savings bank took place in March 1841 (Jónás 1892a: 13).
The founding general assembly of the Savings Bank of Pressburg was held on October 10, 1841. The institute started its business activities on January 2, 1842, in a rented building at 78 Dlhá Street, with a registered capital of 40,000 guilders, of which the subscribers paid only half according to the articles of association and the applicable laws (Jónás 1892a: 14).[16]
Jónás accurately distinguished between the main, “association-forming” tendencies of the time, forms of mobile capital activation, and concepts and their contents. In terms of the development of savings banks and the banking sector, he emphasized the poor baseline situation in the empire and in the Hungarian lands (i.e., the negative impact of the ongoing Napoleonic wars, the disruption of the economy, increasing national debt, the devaluation of the Austrian currency, and the decline of public trust) but also the shortcomings of the economic standard and the backwardness of Hungary. On the other hand, he underlined the stimulating impulses of the emerging, philanthropy-based savings banks in Germany and Switzerland, as well as the influence of the first savings law in Great Britain in 1817. He did not see a uniformity in the bankers’ endeavors but observed, regarding the Hungarian conditions, the genesis and formation of two, ultimately closely interconnected models: the altruistic and the rapidly rising commercial/entrepreneurial one. Thanks to the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest and the agile propaganda of its initiator, András Fáy, Pest-Buda became the first center of these endeavors. With its Savings Bank of Pressburg, Bratislava became the “heart” of the other path, that of a quest for a joint-stock form, while Jónás, as a decent chronicler, often emphasized the extensive influence of the “Bratislava model” (Jónás 1892a: 3–6).
Contrary to tendentious interpretations in the latter half of the 20th century, he had already pointed out the realities of the time based on original archival sources. Savings banks, emerging on charitable foundations, were quickly transformed into joint-stock companies because that was a more acceptable form for their founding members-shareholders, most of them traders, as it opened up new fields of operation. On the other hand, specialized institutions that could meet domestic credit demands were missing, or their number was minimal. His other argument, the continuity of philanthropic endeavors, is questionable (Jónás 1892a: 7). It is these examples that reveal that the Regulativum, criticized by the actors of financial life, might still have indirectly caused that the philanthropic endowments of savings banks only began to manifest themselves to a greater extent from the early 1850s onwards and even became permanent components of their balance sheets.[17]
With exaggeration, he saw the uniqueness of the Bratislava joint-stock company in its unparalleled organizational form, allegedly untried anywhere else in Europe. According to him, the savings bank successfully “embodied” the types of Einlagebank and Wohlfahrtsbank, (i.e., deposit activities and social charitable mission; Jónás 1892a: 7). However, although grandiose at first glance, Jónás’s concept did not correspond to the realities in Germany. At that time, and even later, the Wohlfahrtsbank type was not widespread in German-speaking territories. The concept of this institute is difficult to define. It can refer not only to credit cooperatives but also to institutes that were established by the state and provided loans for social purposes. However, if we theoretically accept Jónás’s idea and think in alternatives to the Einlagebank, they could be institutes established on the principle of philanthropy; in Germany, precisely cooperatives of the Raiffeisen or Schulze-Delitzsch type.[18] Incidentally, from 1864 onwards, the so-called Genossenschaftsbänke, which financed credit cooperatives, were also gaining a foothold in Germany besides unions as umbrella interest organizations, although their activities, as those of non-profit-oriented institutes, were institutionalized only by the Cooperative Act of 1889. (On the cooperative type of banks [Ger. Genossenschaftsbank] see Emmons–Mueller 1997.)
On the other hand, Jónás’s desire, the combination of a credit cooperative and a deposit bank, could be achieved neither from a legal nor from a commercial political perspective. His concept essentially communicates the message of the management of the Savings Bank of Pressburg: philanthropic activities and endowments ensure service and dedication to the urban community and the city. After all, what the management of the bank repeatedly stressed, and apparently also believed, could have been the truth. The operations and the business intentions of the bank did dynamize the financial market and facilitate the economic growth and modernization of the city. Yet, the capitalist nature and the profit-making activities of the institute cast doubt on all this. That is why Jónás’s statements should be regarded as simple components, or building blocks, of the positive image of the savings bank, not least with the aim to counter the anti-capitalist attacks that underlined the “profit-seeking” and “inhumane” aspect of such institutes.
Latter-Day Crooked and Blocked Roads
Interestingly, a short history of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, or even just a brief remark about its significance, is absent from the pre-1989 generalizing syntheses of the history of Slovakia (Holotík–Tibenský 1961: 438; Holotík–Mesároš 1968: 356–368; Hapák 1986: 45–47). In 1992, after decades of silence, Roman Holec at last mentioned this savings bank seriously and characterized it as one of the “important credit institutions of Hungary” (Podrimavský 1992: 462). Until now, this monetary institution “has appeared” only as a mere vocabulary entry with all its lapses and grave shortcomings.[19]
Pre-1989 syntheses of the history of Bratislava—characterized by fluctuating quality rather than uniformity and a one-sided positivist focus and explanation of historical processes on the basis of Marxist historical scholarship in the context of the working class, class struggles, and the socialist nation-building narrative—at least briefly highlight the importance of the establishment of this oldest institute, although they do not deal with it in depth and even gloss over its significance for the city. Schematic theses and clichés of the confluence of industrial and banking (thus naturally alien, sometimes even “hostile” and “usurious”) capital, as well as of the guided ethnicization of the banking sector, also appear. Consequently, the lines of force of the credit market, and other traditional Bratislava banks and affiliates of Budapest-based monetary institutions, have not received due attention.[20] This phenomenon clearly fits into the interpretive framework of the national collective memories of the Central European region: forgetting the diversity of the national past and the conscious selection and exclusion of certain elements of history, such as the coexistence of social strata and ethnicities. These “surgical interventions” then lead to “amnesia” and to the fabrication of a homogeneous national narrative.[21]
In the late 1990s, the Savings Bank of Pressburg still did not appear as the subject of any well-planned research, but only as a partial, sidelined topic. The historical aspect and the authorial narratives remained limited, and a descriptive interpretation of the history of this institution prevailed, not to mention the Sisyphean search for a “pure” national principle in Bratislava banking.[22]
So far, the only sound Slovak study on the history of monetary institutions in Bratislava has been written by Ľudovít Hallon, and it has been published only recently (Hallon 2011: 179–202). However, it focuses on the period ranging from 1918 to 1948 and does not take into account the pre-1918 developmental trends and structuration of commercial banks in Bratislava. Conceptually, it fits into the traditional tracks of the historiography of banking entities in Slovakia (national institutes and institutes of other ethnicities, concentration process) and does not capitalize on recent economic theories of their multinationality, or “supranationality” (Curry–Fung–Harper 2003: 31–38). On the other hand, it positively mentions the establishment of the former Savings Bank of Pressburg, the importance of the branches of major Budapest banks, and the activities of the branch of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, and opens the door to research on the financial elite of the city.[23]
The Savings Bank of Pressburg has been clearly pushed into the background even in recent Hungarian writings, much fewer in number, in Slovakia. Its genesis and purpose in the development of the city have been bypassed.[24] An analysis of this institute is also completely absent from Hungarian historical syntheses (a survey of the pre-1945 publications would be beyond the scope of this study). The name of the Savings Bank of Pressburg does appear in exceptional cases, but always only in the context of the formation of the banking system and the network of savings banks in the first half of the 19th century, with other institutions sometimes coming to the fore (e.g., the Oedenburger Sparkasse/Soproni Takarékpénztár).[25]
The only detailed interpretation and evaluation of Paul Ballus’s plans was written in 1975 (Horváth–Valach 1975: 33–36). However, this short passage in the still “unsurpassed” syntheses of the history of Slovak banking is characterized by terminological ambiguities regarding the genesis and the operational concept of the savings bank, among others. According to Horváth and Valach, the establishment of this institute was a “significant event” because it became “the first and an independent one” in Slovakia and was also the driving force behind the spread of this new organizational form in this territory, becoming a model for other monetary institutions of a “universal type.” Paradoxically, they first emphasize the long tradition of the institute (and such continuity logically implies successful activities), whereas they later mention, “from a retrospective perspective,” the ambivalence and fallacy (i.e., the historical fiasco) of Ballus’s theses (i.e., the unsuccessful combination of a commercial profile and savings banking), not to mention that they limit the expansion of the joint stock type of companies only to the territory of present-day Slovakia.
The establishment of the Savings Bank of Pressburg was indisputably a significant event, and even its contemporaries and experts were aware of this at that time. What then gave rise to other, overly schematic ideas of primacy and of a special type of an institute, and why do they keep being uncritically repeated in modified forms to this day? What were the realities of the time (i.e., the birth of the first savings banks), and what potentially prefigured altruistic or commercial orientations in Hungarian banking?
To state that savings banks in Hungary in the first half of the 19th century can be considered universal banks is misleading, to say the least. It is true that their regulation by the authorities was benevolent and they could pursue a wide range of financial activities, but the field for pursuing already modern transactions characteristic of universal banks (a combination of deposit and investment deals, and especially industry financing) only came into being from the 1870s onwards. Although a legal background had already existed for savings banks to pursue universal banking operations, in practice only some of the largest institutions were able to do so. Most savings banks therefore dealt with deposit deals. This form of financial activity, however, involved not only the holding, management, and trading of deposits (securities) but also deposit-taking.[26]
It is also important to take into account the fact that, at least in the first half of the 19th century, the Savings Bank of Pressburg could not yet cross the boundaries of the city and the region because the domestic capital market was characterized by fragmentation and disunity. To put it another way, this institute had just begun to operate, as an integrator, on the credit market (Tomka 1999: 59, 64–65).
Ethnicity as a Curse?
Two important dates in the history of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, the year of its foundation (1841) and the year of its definitive liquidation (1945), appear to also signal some interpretive “obstacles” in Slovak banking regarding the so-called non-Slovak monetary institutions and their elite. According to some authors, the establishment of this financial institution as the “first” Slovak one (i.e., on the territory of present-day Slovakia) belongs to the bright side of banking history in Slovakia—and this would be—but they do not pay adequate attention to the broader context of its time and they ignore facts, especially the circumstances of the establishment and development of the banking system in Hungary in the first half of the 19th century. Moreover, this savings bank was not the first one to be established in Hungary, as its elite emphasized and later, for completely different reasons, historical scholarship also presented.[27]
Primacy definitely belongs to the Saxons of Transylvania and the savings bank operating locally in Brașov (Kronstädter Allgemeine Sparkasse, established in 1836), followed by the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest (Pesti Hazai Első Takarékpénztár Egyesület, 1839), a savings bank in Arad initially operating on a philanthropic basis (Aradi Takarékpénztár, 1840), and one of the most influential institutions of 19th-century Hungarian banking, the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest (Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank, 1841; Gunszt 1908: 11–12)
Unfortunately, this actually neglects a plastic presentation of the social and economic context of the period, not to mention the possibility of comparing the Hungarian conditions with the Austrian ones; the position of the Vienna-based imperial bank of issue (Erste Österreichische Sparkasse), established in 1819 and modelled after the first savings bank in Paris; the genesis of a capital and credit market; and an analysis of stimuli from other parts of Hungary and Austria.[28] From the perspective of the birth of the Savings Bank of Pressburg, we lack studies on impulses from the operations of the branch of the First Savings Bank of Austria and on the plans of a local foundation, although a concrete program for the establishment of a savings bank was drawn up by Paul Ballus as early as 1839.[29] There are thus several questions surrounding the establishment of this savings bank that have not been fully answered yet.
The other strong line of thought in Slovak historiography is linked to the year of 1945.[30] The birth of new Czechoslovakia, based on the national principle, also meant radical interventions in banking and finance, transformations of the banking system, and the nationalization of “foreign and hostile” capital and institutions. The German and the Hungarian financial elite, and their capital centers, were discarded definitively. In a figurative sense, this social and national break also caused a shift in Slovak historiography for many decades: research on so-called non-Slovak business entities and commercial banks was pushed into the background or ignored for ideological reasons.[31]
The fate of our subject of interest, from 1931 bearing the name of the First Savings Bank of Bratislava, was sealed after the liberation of Bratislava in April 1945. Slovak financial circles saw it as a “bastion” of hostile, “aggressive” Hungarian financial capital, while the institution had been an integral element of Slovak banking in 1918–1945. Moreover, it had intense business relations with monetary institutions in Slovakia, and its elite had numerous personal contacts with the Slovak financial elite, having even entered into various joint projects with them. Its alleged mission of economic support for the Hungarian minority in Slovakia was virtual and remained at the level of declarations. The reality was much more prosaic: on June 30, 1941, after the ratification of the Slovak-Hungarian Trade Treaty, which also included the reciprocity of so-called minority monetary institutions, it became an affiliate of one of the most influential institutions in Central Europe, the Hungarian General Credit Bank (Ránki 1983: 355–374). It entered its sphere of interest and secured clearing transactions between Slovakia and Hungary, while a confidant of the Slovak government became a member of its board of directors.[32] On the other hand, it is impossible not to notice the power-related and ideological tendencies after the Second World War. At that time, the Czech and the Slovak financial elite strongly instrumentalized the ethnic aspect (i.e., the “Hungarian character”) of the bank for tactical reasons on the one hand, whereas, on the other hand, they did not emphasize it vehemently during their diplomatic negotiations with the Soviet party in the matter of so-called trophy banks (Chudják 1999: 25–26).
In April 1945, the Soviet military command confiscated the assets of German and Hungarian monetary institutions in Bratislava as booty, while the intergovernmental Czechoslovak–Soviet agreement of March 31, 1945, on the transfer and use of these assets applied only to the so-called German Reich companies and to other enterprises that had supported the German military economy (Klimeš-Lesjuk-Malá-Prečan 1965: 563). The agreement did not mention Hungarian monetary institutions (namely the First Savings Bank of Bratislava and the Signum Credit Cooperative of Craftsmen, Merchants, and Farmers), or Soviet claims against them, at all. The Czechoslovak party wanted to take advantage of this omission to assert its intentions to obtain the confiscated capital. Regarding these companies, the officials of the Central Bank emphasized that they were traditional Bratislava enterprises whose character had not changed during the German occupation, and that they had not collaborated with the Germans, had not served German military objectives, and had always been majority-owned by Czechoslovak nationals.[33]
In Conclusion: Research Gates Open
In the past, the Savings Bank of Pressburg was given various ethnic attributes (Hungarian, German, Hungarian-German/German-Hungarian) that pointed to its ethnicity (and identity?) based on the nationality of its shareholders or senior managers. I would like to note that this was done without any specified criteria, without any explanation of terminology, and without using any research results.
I have tried to point out the risks of trivial grammatical association of ethnicity with the economic or business orientation of an organization (whether non-Slovak, Hungarianized, Hungarian-German, or Jewish), which can be found in historical texts and does not respect the social background of these institutions in the past.[34] It gives rise to unclear research interpretations, opens a gateway to “us and them” stereotypes, and makes its way into the texts of some historians. Such theses and constructs then result in an ethnic homogenization of history. Although so-called “ethnically different” banks is an artificial, unscientific category, it is still being pushed to the fore. That is why a group of foreign monetary institutions, or their branches, in the territory of Slovakia, which were instrumental in the modernization of the country, is pushed to the background (Hahn Henning–Mannová 2007: 18–19, 21–22).
It is justified to ask what the author of this study means by the term Savings Bank of Pressburg and whether he attributes any ethnicity to it. The schematic notions presented above are certainly imprecise and do not bring us any closer to the essence of the issue or to a better understanding of the historical phenomenon of finance in Central Europe and the emergence and development of commercial banks in the 19th century and—what is of interest to us—in the urban milieu of multiethnic Bratislava. An opportunity therefore arises to conceive new interpretations.
Two theses about the 19th-century banking system of Hungary may offer a way out of this maze: (1) Transnational, foreign consortia operated at the level of lending and investment in industry and trade on a larger scale. Credit packages created contacts between domestic entrepreneurs and foreign investors. In this context, nation or national context exist only as a framework or an intermediary element. The city actually acted as a specific entity, as an internally integral social organism. (2) I believe that this notion can be applied even to research on the domestic capital market and in the context of the unification of urban and regional markets, in which savings banks played a crucial role.
I therefore view the Savings Bank of Pressburg as a classic urban, transnational financial institution that came to represent modern banking operations, investment, special financial services and transactions, and entrepreneurship; activated untapped finances; and thereby improved the local and the broader capital markets. I do not attribute an ethnic or national “character” to this financial organization, because this ambiguous and nebulous designation cannot be applied to serious research on rational forms of entrepreneurial activities.
Literature
1847-dik évi augustus 30-án szabados Érsekújvárott alakult Takarékpénztár alapszabályai. Esztergom, Esztergami Beimel J. betűivel, 1847.
A Soproni Takarékpénztár ötven éves története 1842–1892. Sopron, Rónai Fr. Nyomása, a Takp. Kiadása, 1892.
Bácskai, Tamás 1993. A Magyar Nemzeti Bank története I. Az Osztrák Nemzeti Banktól a Magyar Nemzeti Bankig 1816–1924. Budapest, Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó.
Berend, T. Iván – Szuhay, Miklós 1975. A tőkés gazdaság története Magyarországon 1848- 1944. Budapest, Kossuth Könyvkiadó – Közgazdasági Könyvkiadó.
Chudják, František 1999. Trofejné banky. Biatec, 1999, Vol. 7, Issue 5, s. 24–26.
Csepi, Dani 1896. Emléklapok a Komáromi Első Takarékpénztár ötvenéves történetéből 1845. július 1-től–1896. június 30-ig. Komárom, Kiadja a Komáromi Első Takarékpénztár, Schönwald Tivadar könyvnyomdai műintézete.
Curry, A. Elisa – Fung, G. Justin – Harper, R. Ian 2003. Multinational Banking: historical, empirical and case perspectives. In: Mullineux, W. Andrew – Murinde, Victor (eds.): Handbook of International Banking. Cheltenham – Northampton, Edward Elgar, 31–38.
Cvetková, Tatiana 2003. The Bratislava Savings Bank. Biatec, 2003, Volume 11, Issue 6, 24–26.
Dejiny Slovenska. Dátumy, udalosti, osobnosti. Bratislava – Praha, Slovart – Libri, 2007.
Dokumenty z Archívu Národnej banky Slovenska. Bratislava, Národná banka Slovenska – Odbor verejných informácií, 2001.
Ďurica, S. Milan 2007. Dejiny Slovenska a Slovákov v časovej následnosti faktov dvoch tisícročí. Bratislava, Lúč.
Emmons, William – Mueller, Willi 1997. Conflict of Interest between Borrowers and Lenders in Credit Cooperatives: The Case of German Cooperative Banks. (http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/1997/97-009.pdf)(last accessed 2024.06.30.)
Faltus, Jozef – Průcha, Václav 1969. Prehľad hospodárskeho vývoja na Slovensku v rokoch 1918–1945. Bratislava, Vydavateľstvo politickej literatúry.
Fenyvessy, Adolf 1890. A Pesti Hazai Első Takarékpénztár-Egyesület ötven éves története 1840–1889. Budapest, Franklin Társulat Nyomdája.
Fiala, Anton 1998. Z dejín peňažníctva a bankovníctva. Zborník Mestského múzea v Bratislave, 1998, Volume 10, 71–73.
Forbat, Eugen 1958. Dejiny bratislavského obchodu. Bratislava, Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
Francová, Zuzana 2010. Jurenákovci a Fischerovci. Dve prešporské meštianske rodiny vo svetle múzejných dokumentov. Bratislava. Zborník múzea mesta Bratislavy, 2010, Volume 22, 118–135.
Gaszner, Géza 1904. Városi takarékpénztárak. In A város, 21 October 1904, Vol. 1, No. 6, 1.
Gaučík, Štefan 2004. A Pozsonyi I. Takarékbank hitelpolitikája és a városok (1919–1929). Limes, 2004, Volume 18, Issue 4, 59–82.
Gaučík, Štefan 2010: A határ mint gazdasági probléma. A Pozsonyi I. Takarékbank helyzete az első bécsi döntés után. In: Simon, Attila (ed.): Visszacsatolás vagy megszállás? Szempontok az első bécsi döntés értelmezéséhez. Nógrád Megyei Levéltár – Selye János Egyetem, Balassagyarmat, 140–150.
Gaučík, Štefan 2012. Sociálno-kultúrne a podporné stratégie finančných elít 1867–1945 (Bratislavská prvá sporiteľňa verzus Slovenská banka). In: Dudeková, Gabriela –Mannová, Elena (eds.): Medzi provinciou a metropolou. Obraz Bratislavy v 19. a 20. storočí. Bratislava, Historický ústav SAV, 161–177.
Gaučík, Štefan 2013. Lemorzsolódó kisebbség. A csehszlovákiai magyarság jogfosztásának gazdasági háttere (1945–1948). Pozsony, Kalligram.
Gaučík, Štefan 2014. Uhorská kráľovská úverová hlavná pokladnica v Prešporku (1772–1784). Bratislava. Zborník Múzea mesta Bratislavy, 2014, Volume 26, 53–64.
Gaučík, Štefan 2019. Kultúrne stratégie elít Prešporskej I. sporiteľne (1883–1918). In: Hudek, Adam – Šoltés, Peter (eds.): Elity a kontraelity na Slovensku v 19. a 20. storočí. Kontinuity a diskontinuity. Bratislava, VEDA, 190–214.
Gaučík, Štefan 2020. Integrácia mestského finančného trhu v Prešporku (1841–1867). Bratislava. Zborník Múzea mesta Bratislavy, 2020, Volume 31, Bratislava, Múzeum mesta Bratislavy, 116–131.
Gaučík, Štefan 2021a. Diferenciácia a špecializácia bánk v Prešporku v 60. a 70. rokoch 19. storočia. In: Hallon, Ľudovít – Duchoňová, Diana (eds.): Od denára k euru. Fenomén peňazí v dejinách Slovenska. Bratislava, Veda – Historický ústav Slovenskej akadémie vied, 181–202.
Gaučík, Štefan 2021b. Za hranicami filantropie. Prvé roky Prešporskej sporiteľne (1842–1849). Historický časopis, 2021, Volume 69, Issue 3, 439–464.
Good, F. David 1986. Der wirtschaftliche Aufstieg des Habsburgerreiches 1750–1914. Wien –Köln–Graz, Böhlau.
Gunszt, Ladislaus 1908. Die ungarischen Sparkassen. Borna – Leipzig, Buchdruckerei Robert Noske.
Hahn Henning, Hans – Mannová, Helena 2007. Nationale Wahrnehmungen und ihre Stereotypisierung. Beiträge zur historischen Stereotypisierungsforschung. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften.
Hallon, Ľudovít 2007. Úroveň spracovania tematiky hospodárskych elít v slovenskej historiografii. Česko–slovenská historická ročenka, Brno, Masarykova univerzita, 51–74.
Hallon, Ľudovít 2011. Obchodné banky v Bratislave. In: Medvecký, Matej (ed.): Fenomén Bratislava. Zborník z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie Bratislava 21.– 22. septembra 2010. Bratislava, Ústav pamäti národa, 2011, 179–202.
Hapák, Pavel 1986. Dejiny Slovenska IV. (od konca 19. storočia do roku 1918). Bratislava, Veda.
Holec, Roman 2006. Hospodárske dejiny na Slovensku – stav a problémy výskumu. Česko-slovenská historická ročenka, Brno, Masarykova univerzita, 41–58.
Holotík, Ľudovít – Mésároš, Július 1968. Dejiny Slovenska II. Od roku 1848 do roku 1900. Bratislava, Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
Holotík, Ľudovít – Tibenský, Ján 1961. Dejiny Slovenska I. Od najstarších čias do roku 1848.
Horváth, Štefan – Valach, Ján 1975. Peňažníctvo na Slovensku do roku 1918. Bratislava, Alfa.
Horváth, Viliam – Lehotská, Darina – Pleva, Ján 1978. Dejiny Bratislavy. Bratislava, Obzor.
Jirkovszky, Sándor 1939. Takarékpénztáraink és a Regulatívum. Adalék a magyarországi pénzintézetek történetéhez. Budapest, TÉBE.
John, H. Arnold 2005. Történelem. Nagyon rövid bevezetés. Budapest, Corvina.
Jónás, János 1892a. Visszapillantás a Pozsonyi Első Takarékpénztár ötven évi működésére 1842–1891. években. Pozsony, Stampfel – Eder.
Jónás, Johannes 1892b. Rückblick auf die fünfzigjährige Thätigkeit der Pressburger ersten Sparcassa in den Jahren 1842–1891. Pressburg, Stampfel – Eder.
Klimeš, Miloš – Lesjuk, Petr – Malá, Irena – Prečan, Vilém 1965. Cesta ke květnu. Vznik lidové demokracie v Československu. 2. zväzok, Praha, Nakladatelství československé akademie věd.
Klimkovics, Elemér 1895. A Kassai Takarékpénztár története 1844–1894. Kassa, Nyomatott Werfer Károly Akad. Könyv- és Kőnyomdájában.
Komáromi Takarékpénztár szabályai. Pozsony, Nyomatott Schmidt Antalnál, 1845.
Kónyai Kiss, Géza 1895. Az Eperjesi Takarékpénztár ötven éves története 1844–1895. Eperjes, Kósch Árpád Könyvnyomtató Intézete.
Kováč, Dušan 1998. Kronika Slovenska 1. Od najstarších čias do konca 19. storočia. Bratislava, Fortuna Print&Adox.
Kövér, György 2012. Rothschild – Sina – Wodianer. Bécsi bankárok az ún. magyar konzorciumban. In: Kövér, György (ed.): A Pesti City öröksége. Banktörténeti tanulmányok. Budapest, Budapest Főváros Levéltára, 175–183.
Lacina, Vlastislav 2000. Zlatá léta československého hospodářství (1918–1929). Praha, Historický ústav AV ČR.
Lehotská, Darina – Pleva, Ján 1966. Dejiny Bratislavy. Bratislava, Obzor.
Lexikón slovenských dejín. Bratislava, Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo, 1997.
Mannová, Elena 2006. Historiografia Bratislavy. Diferencovaná prezentácia minulosti multietnického mesta po politických zlomoch 19. a 20. storočia. In: Czoch, Gábor – Kocsis, Aranka – Tóth, Árpád (eds.): Kapitoly z dejín Bratislavy. Bratislava, Kalligram, 49–62.
Martuliak, Pavol 2003. Vznik a vývoj slovenského ľudového peňažníctva do roku 1918. In: Ľudia, peniaze a banky. Zborník z konferencie 6–8. novembra 2002. Bratislava, Národná banka Slovenska, 2003, s. 215–230.
Michela, Miroslav 2011. Strážcovia strateného času. Diskusie o dejinách a historici na Slovensku. Historický časopis, 2011, Volume 59, Issue 4, 617–637.
Nagy, Iván 1865. Magyarország családai czímerekkel és nemzedékrendi táblákkal. Pest, Kiadja Ráth Mór.
Östör, József 1942. Széchenyi István és Sopron. Soproni Szemle, 1942, Volume 6, Issue 1, 6–7.
Ottenberg, Tivadar 1901. Az Aradi Első Takarékpénztár hatvan éve. Az első magyar vidéki pénzintézet története 1840–1900. Arad, Az intézet kiadása.
Pálmány, Béla 2005. A reformkor pozsonyi követei. In: Czoch, Gábor – Kocsis, Aranka – Tóth, Árpád (eds.): Fejezetek Pozsony történetéből magyar és szlovák szemmel. Pozsony, Kalligram, 353–354.
Pauer, János 1898. A Selmecbányai Takarékpénztár ötven éves története 1847–1897. Selmeczbánya, Nyomatott Joerges A. Özv és Fia Könyvnyomdájában.
Podrimavský, Milan 1992. Dejiny Slovenska III. (od roku 1848 do konca 19. storočia). Bratislava, Veda.
Pogány, Ágnes 1995. Hungarian Banking – Research and History. In: Fase, M. G. Martin – Feldman, D. Gerald – Pohl, Manfred (eds.): How to write the History of a Bank. Aldershot, Scolar Press – EABH, 146–149.
Pressburger Zeitung, 5 October 1841, Vol. 77, No. 80, 1.
Pressburger Zeitung, 7 January 1842, Vol. 78, No. 3, 12.
Projekt einer Sparcasse in Pressburg. In Pannonia, 16 August 1839, Vol. 3, No. 66, 1.
Ránki, György 1983. The Hungarian General Credit Bank in the 1920s. In: Teichová, Alice – Cottrell, L. Philip (eds.): International Business and Central Europe, 1918–1939. New York, Leicester University Press – St. Martinʼs Press, 1983, 355–374.
Révai Nagy Lexikona. XII. kötet, Budapest, Révai Testvérek Irodalmi Intézet Rt, 1915.
Révai Nagy Lexikona, XIX. kötet, Budapest, Révai Testvérek Irodalmi Intézet Rt., 1926.
Rózsa, Mária 2005. Pozsony a német nyelvű helyi sajtóban (1850–1920). In: Czoch, Gábor – Kocsis, Aranka – Tóth, Árpád (eds.): Fejezetek Pozsony történetéből magyar és szlovák szemmel. Pozsony, Kalligram.
Ryník, Jozef 2002. Cesta slovenského bankovníctva k centralizácii 1945–1950 (Koncentrácia a špecializácia bánk). Historický časopis, 2002, Volume 50, Issue 4, 619–632.
Samarjay, Károly 1887. A pozsonyi Casino félszázados ünnepe. 1887. július 1-én. Das 50-jährige Jubileäum des Pressburger Casino am 1. Juli 1887. Pozsony – Pressburg, Wigand F. K.
Sandgruber, Roman 1995. Ökonomie und Politik. Österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte von Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. Wien, Verlag Carl Ueberreuter.
Sas, Andor 1995. Pozsony, az egykori koronázó város. A bécsi kongresszustól a nagy márciusig 1815–1848. Pozsony, Pannónia Könyvkiadó.
Slovenský biografický slovník. Zväzok II., Martin, Matica Slovenská, 1987.
Slovenský biografický slovník, Zväzok VI., Martin, Matica slovenská, 1994.
Szemere, Bertalan 1847. Figyelmeztetés a Miskolczi Takarékpénztár jótékonyságára. Miskolc, Kiadja a takarékpénztár.
Szibenliszt, Géza 1896. A Nagyszombati Takarékpénztár története 1846–1896. Nagyszombat, Winter Nyomda.
Šášky, Ladislav 1992. Bratislava mesto na Dunaji. Bratislava, Smena.
Tilless, Béla 1895. A Besztercebányai Takarékpénztár ötven éves története 1845–1895. Besztercebánya, Machold ny.
Tilly, Richard 2003. Geld und Kredit in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag.
Tkáč, Marián 2006. Bratislavské banky. Bratislava, Albert Marenčin Vydavateľstvo PT.
Tomka, Béla 1996. A magyarországi pénzintézetek rövid története 1847–1945. Budapest, Gondolat.
Tomka, Béla 1999. Érdek és érdektelenség. A bank-ipar viszony a századforduló Magyarországán 1892–1913. Debrecen, Multiplex Media – Debrecen University Press.
Tóth, Árpád 2009. Polgári stratégiák. Életutak, családi sorsok és társadalmi viszonyok Pozsonyban 1780 és 1848 között. Pozsony, Kalligram.
Ubiria, Michael – Kadlec, Vladimír – Matas, Jiří 1958. Peněžní a úvěrová soustava ČSR za kapitalizmu. Praha, Státní nakladatelství politickej literatúry.
Vargha, Gyula 1895. Magyarország pénzintézetei. Visszapillantás hitelviszonyaink fejlődésére és a hazai pénzintézetek négy évtized alatti működésére. Budapest, Pesti Könyvnyomda Részvénytársaság, 1895.
Wandel, Eckhard 1998. Banken und Versicherungen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. München, Oldenbourg.
Wolff, Gerő 1907. Gazdasági haladásunk. In: Fischer, Jakab – Ortvay, Tivadar – Polikeit, Károly (eds.): 1856–1906. Emlékmű kiadja a Pozsonyi Orvos-Természettudományi Egyesület fennállásának ötvenedik évfordulója alkalmából. Pozsony, Az egyesület kiadása.