the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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128<br />
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING<br />
evolved over <strong>the</strong> course <strong>of</strong> time. As long as <strong>the</strong>se banks remained <strong>private</strong> <strong>the</strong>y were<br />
not obliged to publish a balance sheet and for a long time remained preoccupied<br />
with keeping <strong>the</strong>ir business secret. They have <strong>the</strong>refore left very few archives.<br />
Only four or five have apparently preserved any papers, which are moreover very<br />
incomplete, and when <strong>the</strong>y were entrusted to <strong>the</strong> National Archives were quickly<br />
transferred into storage at Roubaix. This has rendered it difficult for most French<br />
and foreign researchers to consult <strong>the</strong>m. As for historical works based on <strong>the</strong><br />
consultation <strong>of</strong> archives, <strong>the</strong>se are very few in number. The main works are those,<br />
already ra<strong>the</strong>r dated, by Bertrand Gille on <strong>the</strong> house <strong>of</strong> Rothschild; but this house<br />
held an exceptional place in <strong>the</strong> <strong>world</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque, and is <strong>the</strong>refore not<br />
truly representative <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> whole <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> group. Unfortunately, Gille’s study also<br />
finishes in 1870. <br />
In this chapter, which aims above all else to incite a revival in research into<br />
an historic subject which is too little studied, we wish first to recall how, as soon<br />
as <strong>the</strong>y were formed at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> eighteenth century and <strong>the</strong> start <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
nineteenth, <strong>the</strong> majority <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> houses were businesses with international interests.<br />
We will <strong>the</strong>n attempt to analyse <strong>the</strong> period during which <strong>the</strong>y reached <strong>the</strong>ir peak<br />
(1840–60) and understand <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir foreign activities in <strong>the</strong> very<br />
complex totality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir operations. Finally, we shall question <strong>the</strong> alleged decline<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century and start <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> twentieth,<br />
and its real position, at least in <strong>the</strong> international field.<br />
The Men: a World Open to Foreigners<br />
According to <strong>the</strong> lists established in <strong>the</strong> middle <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century, <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>banking</strong> families which made up <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque could overall be taken to be <strong>of</strong><br />
foreign origin. It is certainly true that those which were <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Protestant or Jewish<br />
religions were <strong>of</strong>ten from foreign countries.<br />
The Protestant families, who were <strong>the</strong> most numerous, were <strong>of</strong>ten descended<br />
from French Huguenots who had been refugees in <strong>the</strong> Swiss cantons, or especially<br />
Geneva, not a canton till 1814, before establishing <strong>the</strong>mselves in Paris, <strong>of</strong>ten only<br />
after some time: from 1723 in <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Mallets, at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> century<br />
<br />
B. Gille, Histoire de la Maison Rothschild, vol.I, Des origines à 1848, and vol. II<br />
(1848–1870) (Geneva, 1965 and 1967). On <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque also refer to H. Bonin, ‘The<br />
Case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> French Banks’, in R. Cameron and V.I. Bovykin (eds), International Banking,<br />
1870–1914 (Oxford, 1991).<br />
The Rothschild archives have been deposited in <strong>the</strong> National Archives, where <strong>the</strong>y<br />
are classified under series AQ as are <strong>the</strong> Mallet papers (which we have consulted). The<br />
Mirabaud papers, which we have also consulted, have recently been deposited in <strong>the</strong><br />
National Archives, where <strong>the</strong>y are currently being classified, and in <strong>the</strong>ir turn transferred<br />
to Roubaix. The archives <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> house <strong>of</strong> Seillière, subsequently Demachy et Seillière, are<br />
preserved in Paris by <strong>the</strong> recently formed Foundation for <strong>the</strong> History <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque.