the world of private banking

CHAPTER 7
The Parisian ‘Haute Banque’ and the
International Economy in the Nineteenth
and Early Twentieth Centuries
Alain Plessis
The world of private banking, which was more prevalent than is generally thought
in France during the last century, can be separated into essentially two very different
groups. On the one hand, the countryside abounded with small local bankers (to
which some regional banks can be added), scattered throughout a large number of
French towns (a number close to three thousand can be counted), which supplied
the whole of the national territory with loans. On the other side was the very small
group of powerful houses which formed what is referred to as the ‘Haute Banque’.
This expression first appeared during the Restoration in the world of the finance
professionals before being widely used by the supporters of the July Monarchy
and so entering into current usage. It referred to a small number of ‘private’ houses
established in Paris: these were sometimes individual businesses, but more often
a partnership, usually organized as a general partnership. Even if the heads of
these businesses were amongst the first to become interested in the new limited
companies, none of them were ever tempted to transform their own bank into a
joint-stock company.
The term ‘Haute Banque’, which recalls an eccentric world and implies a
considerable, sometimes quasi-magic, power, remains difficult to define. The
lists of members of this financial elite, the ‘crème des crèmes’ according to R.
Cameron, were never official, because they did not subscribe to any statutory
admission requirements, which explains why their composition may vary a little
at any point in time. The membership of the Haute Banque depended on the image
made by such and such a house, its reputation, its respectability, a valuation placed
on a certain number of factors making up an honourable reputation. The ability to
carry out credit activities beyond France certainly featured amongst these factors.
The international breadth of the operations of the houses of the Haute Banque
seems to fundamentally distinguish them from those bankers who mainly operated
in the local, regional or even national markets.
If it is undeniable that the international dimension is one of the specific criteria
for the Haute Banque, it is difficult to define what it consisted of, and how it
R. Cameron, La France et le développement économique de l’Europe, 1800–1914
(Paris, 1971), p. 116.