the world of private banking

‘HAUtE BANqUE’ AND tHE INtERNAtIONAL EcONOmy 137
alliance among a number of major private banks. As for the Banque de l’Union
Parisienne, this was created at the start of 1904 by five houses of the Haute Banque
(Heine & Co., Mallet Frères & Co., Mirabaud & Co., de Neuflize & Co., Vernes
& Co.), in association with the Société Générale de Belgique. Due to these links,
the Haute Banque continued to retain a not insignificant share in the placing of
securities issued by foreign governments and companies.
We would add that these houses still played an often dominant role in the
delicate negotiation of the agreements which made the preparation of this type of
issue necessary, then in the introduction of these securities to the Paris Bourse, and
afterwards they often guaranteed the ensuing regular payment of the coupons. And
one again finds the names of some of the major banking families when studying
the financial relations between France and distant countries which had attracted
French capital, for example Mallet and Mirabaud in the Balkan States or Mirabaud
again in Argentina. 10 Even the presence in these regions of the Imperial Ottoman
Bank or the BUP had not resulted in the disappearance from these deals of the
names of the old banks; in fact quite the contrary, as they were part of the team at
the head of these new commercial banks.
A quick examination of the inventories of Mallet Frères & Co. around 1910–13
confirms the fact that this Protestant bank was not content with participating in the
BUP, showing an astonishing dynamism on the part of an old firm.
Table 7.2
Inventory of Mallet and Co. on 31.12.1913 (in millions of francs)
– Balance Sheet total: 45
Liabilities; – Share capital: 5 + reserve: 1.4
+ deposits from associates: 0.722
– Creditors’ accounts: 19.887 (in 1,280 named current accounts
and the names of stockholders)
–Acceptances (331 Notes payable in circulation): 18
Assets;
– Debtors’ current accounts
(350 names): 22.54
of which foreign accounts: 15.6
– Commercial portfolio: 9.78
of which 279 bills of exchange on Paris: 6
70 on the provinces: 1.95
10 on London: 0.318
57 foreign: 1.474
– Public funds and industrial securities: 12.36
of which foreign securities:
around 10.
10
Cf., e.g., A.M. Regalsky, Marchés financiers, groupes d’investissement et élites locales.
Les investissements français en Argentine, 1880–1914 (thesis, University de Paris I, 1997).