the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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xxiv<br />
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING<br />
In all countries, direct political involvement was unusual among Jewish bankers,<br />
though <strong>the</strong>y were concerned with politics and did enjoy a degree <strong>of</strong> influence,<br />
especially when <strong>the</strong>ir advice or services was sought by governments.<br />
The o<strong>the</strong>r major religious network, that <strong>of</strong> Protestant bankers, is analysed by<br />
<strong>the</strong> late Martin Körner, who rightly points out in chapter 13 that, unlike Jewish<br />
bankers, who were part <strong>of</strong> a religious minority in all <strong>the</strong> countries where <strong>the</strong>y<br />
traded, Protestant bankers became part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> majority in Lu<strong>the</strong>ran and Calvinist<br />
countries during <strong>the</strong> sixteenth century.<br />
Protestant <strong>banking</strong> came into being as merchants and merchant bankers<br />
converted from Catholicism to Protestantism. Its network <strong>of</strong> relationships became<br />
internationally visible as early as <strong>the</strong> sixteenth century, through <strong>the</strong> financial<br />
solidarity existing between European Protestants, especially Swiss, and <strong>the</strong><br />
Calvinist party in France – an international network which was older and wider<br />
than <strong>the</strong> more restrictive Internationale Huguenote, which was limited to <strong>the</strong><br />
Calvinist <strong>banking</strong> <strong>world</strong>.<br />
In non-Protestant countries, Protestant <strong>banking</strong> was particularly strong in<br />
France, as a result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> French state’s growing financial needs and <strong>the</strong> funds<br />
provided by <strong>the</strong> Huguenot International. In <strong>the</strong> second half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> seventeenth<br />
century, Swiss financiers set up branches in Paris where <strong>the</strong> Protestant bank became<br />
increasingly powerful, reaching its apex with Necker’s appointment as general<br />
financial controller in 1776. In Germany, by contrast, <strong>the</strong> most important merchant<br />
bankers remained Catholic after <strong>the</strong> Reformation, though <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> Protestant<br />
bankers, such as Metzler and Bethmann in Frankfurt, grew in <strong>the</strong> later eighteenth<br />
century. In Catholic Vienna, <strong>the</strong> dominant position reached by Protestant bankers<br />
and financiers such as Wiesenhütter, Steiner, or Johann Fries might well have<br />
been due to <strong>the</strong> government attempts at escaping Jewish finance. As a minority in<br />
Catholic countries, Protestants bankers displayed high rates <strong>of</strong> intermarriage and<br />
relied on <strong>the</strong>ir financial expertise and networks <strong>of</strong> relationships for <strong>the</strong>ir socioeconomic<br />
success. As a group, <strong>the</strong>ir significance waned in <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century.<br />
Social status has been an essential attribute <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> bankers – resulting<br />
from <strong>the</strong>ir wealth, family inheritance and gradual integration into <strong>the</strong> upper<br />
classes. From <strong>the</strong> late nineteenth century, respectability and connections in <strong>the</strong><br />
highest social circles still enabled <strong>private</strong> bankers to deal with <strong>the</strong> most exclusive<br />
customers, not least foreign governments, even though <strong>the</strong>ir firms were dwarfed in<br />
size by <strong>the</strong> joint stock banks. Social status entailed responsibilities. As Pat Thane<br />
clearly shows in chapter 14, elites were committed to philanthropy in Victorian<br />
and Edwardian England, a commitment led by <strong>the</strong> Royal Family. For <strong>the</strong> financial<br />
elites, especially <strong>the</strong> newcomers and parvenus, supporting <strong>the</strong> numerous charities<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Prince <strong>of</strong> Wales, <strong>the</strong> future King Edward VII, was <strong>the</strong> price to pay for gaining<br />
social respectability. However, she also shows that philanthropy cannot be entirely<br />
explained by <strong>the</strong> aim <strong>of</strong> checking <strong>the</strong> advance <strong>of</strong> socialism nor <strong>the</strong> desire for social<br />
acceptance. A concern for <strong>the</strong> sufferings <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs was also clearly at work, not<br />
least among Jewish financiers who felt compassion for <strong>the</strong> poverty <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir coreligionists<br />
who had emigrated to Britain from <strong>the</strong> early 1880s. While <strong>the</strong> level