the world of private banking

132
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING
operations, bank and credit business and sale of public and private securities, and,
very rarely, engaged in industrial business. This collection of diverse operations
still mainly concerned the French economic and financial markets. The majority
of the bank’s resources came from the investments of its associates, the sums that
they left in their current accounts, the current accounts of their relatives and those
of the independently wealthy French clients whose fortunes they managed.
Their relations with foreigners can be seen through some entries in each
inventory, which allow a little insight into their relative importance. This is how
one of them is presented.
Table 7.1
Inventory of Mallet and Co. on 31.12.1860 (in millions of francs)
– Balance Sheet total: 17
Liabilities; – Share capital: 3.6 + deposits from associates: 1.372
– Net profit: 0.291
– Creditors’ accounts: 9.9 for 775 named current accounts; 0.514 for 480
named stockholders (see comment, fn. 4).
– Acceptances (Notes payable): 1.503
Assets; – Debtors’ current accounts: 5.467
of which foreign accounts: 2
– Commercial portfolio: 6.718
of which 647 bills of exchange on Paris:
849 bills of exchange on “the provinces and abroad”: 3.783
– Public funds and industrial securities: 4
of which foreign securities: 0.6
We will attempt to isolate the entries which are able to explain the foreign
operations, and to measure their relative importance. First of all, liabilities,
under the heading acceptances in circulation (‘acceptances and dispositions on
ourselves’), an entry which represents approximately 9 per cent of the total balance
sheet at this point in time. An acceptance is a form of credit allowing the transfer of
a simple commercial document, a bill of exchange, as a method of payment. These
are drafts that the bank is committed to pay on their client’s account, therefore
giving the drawer the certainty that they will be settled on their expiry; although
favoured in the settlement of commercial and financial deals between France and
foreign countries, part of these acceptances would still be to finance commercial
settlements within France.
Translator’s Note: the French word ‘rentier’ translates either as someone who is of
independent means, or as stockholder. In this period the first translation is usually more
appropriate, but its appearance on the inventory suggests that there stockholder is the right
translation.