RELATIONSHIPS OF CITY SELF-GOVERNMENT BODIES AND CITY PUBLIC BANKS IN THE 19TH – AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF YELYSAVETHRAD CITY PUBLIC BANK)

Abstract

The article analyzes the development of city public banks in the 19th and early 20th centuries on the basis of legal documents regulating their activities, and practical work on the example of Yelysavethrad City Public Bank. In the system of credit institutions of the Russian Empire, city public banks occupied a significant place, being non-state financial institutions created by city communities to primarily satisfy the interests of citizens. Before the legislative regulation of the activities of city banks (Regulations on City Public Banks of 1857 and 1862), they were only formally subordinated to the city self-government bodies, practically did not provide reports on their work to the central state authorities, as well as to the public. Until the 60s of the 19th century the tsarist authorities were not interested in the development of the banking network, because at that time the country was experiencing weak economic development, and therefore underdevelopment of financial operations. After the introduction of liberal reforms in the 60s and 70s of the 19th century, the rise of the economy, and the involvement of a wide range of the population in economic processes, there was a rapid growth of credit and financial institutions, including city public banks, which were opened primarily in county towns, where there was a weak network of branches of state and joint-stock credit institutions. The new banks were already managed by city councils, with little control from the state authorities. Crisis phenomena observed in the 80s and 90s of the 19th century (the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878, the assassination of Emperor Alexander II in March 1881, the collapse of liberal reforms, economic recession) caused the degradation of the system of city public banks. This forced the government to resort to administrative and legislative regulation of their activities in order to minimize the factors that threatened their stability. As a result, the emergence of the New Regulations on City Public Banks in 1883. Economic rise at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries pushed the central government to some expansion of the rights and opportunities of city public banks, which was reflected in the Regulations on City Public Banks of 1912. The article points out the positive features and shortcomings of the Regulations on City Public Banks of 1857, 1862, 1883, and 1912, and determines the circumstances of the legislative regulation of city credit institutions. In the study, using the example of Yelysavethrad City Bank, an attempt is made to show the features of the relationship between the bank's board and the local council, to characterize the tendencies of the bank's credit and financial operations, to find out the impact of events of all-Russian importance, such as the war (Crimean in 1853–1856, Russian-Turkish in 1877–1878), carrying out systemic reforms in the 60s–70s of the 19th century, the collapse of liberal reforms, the economic crisis of the 80s–90s, the rise of the economy at the beginning of the 20th century, and of the local importance, for example, the Jewish pogroms of 15-17 April 1881 in Yelysavethrad, on the authority, competence, results of the work of the city self-government and the city public bank.