Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 62 No. 1, 2019.
Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.36506/av.62.8
The Merchant bank Ltd. in Zagreb (1912-1948)
Siniša Lajnert
orcid.org/0000-0001-9020-4653
; Hrvatski državni arhiv
Sažetak
The paper deals with the structure, business and liquidation of the Merchant Bank Ltd. in Zagreb during the period from 1912 when it was founded under the title The I. Kreutzer and Co. Bank Limited Partnership in Zagreb, the transformation of the establishment into a stock company entitled the I. Kreutzer Ltd. Bank in Zagreb in 1920, another change of the firm’s title in 1938 to The Merchant Bank Ltd. until 1948 when its liquidation was finished. At the time of the Great Depression the bank management’s main goal and business principle was the full solvency of the establishment; hence, up until the beginning of the Second World War the bank did business with profit. The following shareholders had equal shares: 1. Ignjat Kreutzer, 2. Slavko Betlheim (Belin), 3. Julije Fisher and 4. Franjo Huber. After Kreutzer died in 1938, the other three bought his shares. In the summer of 1940, Betlheim (Belin) Fischer and Huber, both as owners of all the shares and as Jews, predicted the upcoming events in the world, as well as the peril threatening to Jews in Europe and so they made an agreement to divide the majority of their shares formally and free of charge between their various gentile business friends, namely, 1. Dr. Dragan Dujmović from Zagreb, 2. Dr. Marijan Dujmović from Zagreb, 3. Jolan Forgač from Bačka Topola, 4. Dr. Vladimir Goljevšček from Zagreb, 5. Zvonimir Spalatin from Zagreb, 6. Marija Spalatin from Zagreb, 7. Dr. Pave Stanić from Kutina, 8. Stjepan Vinicky from Zagreb, 9. Dragan Vražić from Kutina and 10. Tomo Kostopeč from Dubrovnik. The total of 25 700 shares had been divided. The latter had been registered to the aforementioned names on 6 November 1940, while the rest was distributed among the same shareholders during the registration and partly also among their Jewish cousins. All this was done in order to avoid the possible future persecutions and the confiscation of their bank i.e. to keep the bank and its management with the majority of the gentile shares in business without difficulties. In May and June 1941 the Treasury of the Independent State of Croatia confiscated and took away all the shares registered to Jews. In that way the state acquired the majority of the bank’s shares and set up its own supervisory commissioner in the establishment. In order to avoid further harmful consequences and embarrassments, and according to the express wish and previous agreement between the original and real share owners, Slavko Belin and Julije Fischer, as well as Adolf Huber, father of Franjo Huber, Timo Kostopeč made an offer to the Independent State of Croatia and in November 1941 on behalf of the real shareholders, with the money given to him by Slavko Belin and Adolf Huber, he bought off from the state 22 100 shares. Afterwards, according to the decision from 15 November 1941 the appointed commissioner was relieved, and so the Merchant Bank could continue with its activity. By the end of 1945 the management of the Merchant Bank concluded that the establishment was unable to successfully do business since war broke out, hence, its entire pre-war gain was lost at that time, with a loss of circa 200 000 dinars. Also, due to the war-related inflation the establishment lost all its solvent cash, apart from the pre-war state treasury bills and bonds, as well as the establishment’s house (in Zagreb, at no. 14 Zrinjevac). Due to the circumstances, the management unanimously concluded that the establishment will initiate the liquidation and that the application is submitted to the authorized Ministry of Finance for its approval and implementation. Because of that and due to the fact that the establishment was a very small institution that according to the newly-founded socialist credit system could not successfully do business, its liquidation was set in 1946 and it was terminated after two years.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
248547
URI
Datum izdavanja:
21.12.2019.
Posjeta: 828 *