the world of private banking

‘HAUtE BANqUE’ AND tHE INtERNAtIONAL EcONOmy 131
in Austro-Hungary. Russia, including the Grand-Duchy of Warsaw, held around
twenty accounts, and such countries as Greece or Romania also supplied a small
group of agents. If the European countries, and above all the countries close to
France, are the most represented in this inventory, one also finds some agents in
the Middle East, the United States, in Bahia and Rio-de-Janeiro, Havana, Bogotá
or Calcutta.
We know very little of the foreign distribution for the networks of the majority
of the other major Parisian private banks, though one may suppose that the Catholic
banks would not have benefited from such a diversified international base. It is
always the case that the international spread of all these firms was largely a function
of the existence of such networks of agents. The agents constantly reported to the
Parisian establishments important information on exchange conditions, the position
of the different financial markets and the opportunities to be exploited, and were
also able to place considerable capital at their disposal should the need arise.
The Place of International Operations in the Activities of the Houses of the
Haute Banque (1840–70)
The available sources do not allow a precise estimate of the volume of business
carried out in foreign countries by the major banks based in Paris. Nevertheless, we
may shed some light on the subject by analysing the annual inventories available
for the house of Mallet for the period around 1860, even if in these inventories the
presentation of the different entries for the assets refers to the type of operation
(advances on current account, acquisition of drafts and other bills of exchange,
and other transferable securities) without establishing any distinction between the
parts relating to France and to foreign countries.
Mallet Frères and Co. was of average size in the world of the Haute Banque
judged by the size of their capital, which was 3.6 million francs in this period
before rising to 4.5 million by 1865. Under the July monarchy, the houses of the
Haute Banque for which we have information were founded on share capital of
between 1.5 and 5 or 6 million. Périer’s was 1.4 million in 1853, increasing to
4 million in 1857 and 5 million in 1865, Davillier’s was 2.6 million from 1844,
Paccard, Dufour and Co.’s was 3.7 million in 1854, and fell to 2.8 million at the
start of 1861 (by which time it was called Mirabaud, Paccard and Co.). The capital
of the Paris branch of Rothschild reached far higher figures – 8.4 million from
1818, then 37 million in 1825, and finally, according to our calculations, around
50 million francs under the Second Empire. It therefore had exceptional power at
its disposal.
Mallet, like the other houses of the Haute Banque, was a bank that operated in all
fields, provided a complex group of services, such as commercial traffic, exchange
A. Plessis, Régents et gouverneurs de la Banque de France sous le Second Empire
(Geneva, 1985), pp. 110ff.