The Bank of France and Social Conflicts in the Late 19th Century : An Analysis of the Debates on the Bill for the Bank's Charter Renewal of 1897

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Other Title
  • 19世紀末フランス銀行の金融政策と社会的対抗 : 1897年フランス銀行特権更新法の国会審議分析
  • 19セイキマツ フランス ギンコウ ノ キンユウ セイサク ト シャカイテキ

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In this paper, I attempt to show conflicts of interests concerning the monetary policy of the Bank of France among the members of the French parliament, their influences on the monetary policy of the Bank, and the relation between the policy and the French financial structure, through the analysis of the debates on the Bill for the Bank's Charter Renewal of 1897. It has been said that the Bank of France, since its foundation, made every effort to prevent extending credit imprudently to protect the confidence of the note of the Bank, and that from the 1880's it extended credit to the small businessmen and the farmers to some degree. The Bill for the Bank's Charter Renewal of 1897 stipulated that the Bank should be managed as before. In the debate on the Bill the Radicals and the socialists accused the Bank of refusing to grant credit to the small businessmen and the farmers, who were distressed by the shortage of funds and the high rate of interest. The Radicals and the socialists accused also the large deposit banks of absorbing the greater part of the national savings and financing only domestic big enterprises and foreign countries. Still, the "republicains de gouvernement" who represented the interests of the "grand bourgeois" and the "notable" refused this claim on the ground that the Bank of France was the bank of banks (la regulateur de la circulation). The "republicains de gouvernement", however, were obliged to incorporate many new clauses in the Bill in advance,

Journal

  • The Journal of Agrarian History

    The Journal of Agrarian History 25 (2), 21-37, 1983

    The Agrarian History Society (Renamed as The Political Economy and Economic History Society)

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