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Ehem. Verein für Finanzgeschichte (Schweiz und Fürstentum Liechtenstein)
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Ancienne Association pour l'histoire de la finance (Suisse et Principauté du
Liechtenstein)
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Former Association for Financial History (Switzerland and Principality of
Liechtenstein)
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| Home | Bibliography | Deutsch |
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'Contributions to Financial History' (available volumes)
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Volume 1: Walther Hofer, Herbert R. Reginbogin: Hitler, der Westen und
die Schweiz 1936-1945 (Hitler, the West and Switzerland, 15 p., available
in German only)
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| In 2001, the renowned historian Walther Hofer (University of
Berne) published his broad-ranged «Hitler, der Westen und die Schweiz». In
the first part, he places Switzerland within her international political
context and sets German aggressiveness in opposition to western passivity.
In the second part, the American historian Herbert R. Reginbogin sheds a new
light onto the economic and financial entanglement between western
democracies - USA, Great Britain and Switzerland - and Nazi Germany. This
volume of the 'Contributions to Financial History' contains an abstract of
W. Hofer's much more detailed book. |
| Order volume 1 free of charge. |
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Volume 2: Werner de Capitani: Banking confidentiality and Historical
Research. Legal opinion (32 p., also available in German and French)
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| According to the current legal situation in
Switzerland it does not seem that there is any legal possibility of allowing
historians to see client files without the client's authorization. If recent
events have made anything clear, it is that any lifting of banking
confidentiality in the interests of historical research requires an explicit
legal foundation.
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Order volume 2 (German) free of charge.
Order volume 2 (English) free of charge.
Order volume 2 (French) free of charge. |
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Volume 3: Michel Fior: Le rôle de l 'Entre-deux-guerres dans le
développement de la place financière suisse (The role of the Interwar
period in the development of the Swiss financial center, 15 p., available
in French only)
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| To what extent do the roots of Switzerland's development
into an international financial center lie in the 1920s and 1930s? On the
monetary level, the emergence of the Swiss National Bank as major force was
reflected by the stabilization of the Swiss franc and the return to the gold
standard after World War I. During this transitional process the strong
franc became a highly sought-after safe-haven currency, not least because of
a monetary policy centered on the interests of financial circles. Far from
being neutral, this monetary policy consolidated the position of the Swiss
'big' banks as a refuge for circulating assets, and reinforced their
emergence as capital exporters. The Swiss Confederation's intervention in
financial matters, embodied in the Federal Banking Act (1934), strengthened
the credibility and thus the international appeal of the Swiss financial
system. The international context also played a role in the development of
Swiss financial structures: while many countries were afflicted by political
and fiscal instability, Switzerland maintained an image as a politically
secure country, with a light and stable fiscal system. Neutrality helped to
reinforce this image abroad. Finally, there were several changes in the
structure of Swiss banking itself: a major process of concentration (three
of the eight 'big' banks disappeared) and new risk management methods put
investment in foreign countries on a new footing. The extension of
investment activity into the USA in 1936 and the opening of the Swiss banks'
first New York agencies ensured that Swiss financial institutions were
integrated into the international financial system of the post-war era. |
| Order volume 3 free of charge. |
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Volume 4: Jean-Christian Lambelet: Recherche historique et sciences
sociales. Réflexions d'un économiste iconoclaste (Historical research and
Social sciences. Reflections by an iconoclastic economist, 24 p.,
available in French only)
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| Is it possible today to carry out historical research
without recourse to the analytical tools that have been developed in various
social sciences, particularly in modern economics and political science?
This article endeavors to show that it remains feasible in certain areas and
for certain topics, but not for an increasing number of important issues.
The series of events which led to World War II is used as an illustration.
Thus, the various hypotheses which may explain the rise of the National
Socialists and their seizure of power in Germany can only be tested
rigorously by means of various statistical (econometric or politometric)
methods. Similarly, the outbreak of the Great Depression in the 1930s, with
all its political consequences, can only be understood with the help of
modern economic analysis. Since the mastery of these tools demands
appropriate training, historical researchers increasingly require such
training. If they don't have it, research results will be academically
substandard, as the bulk of the recent work by the Bergier Commission shows.
It follows that today's aspiring historians need to undergo thorough
training in the various social sciences or at least in one of them. This is
perfectly possible in practical terms, and the only obstacles to doing so
are psychological. |
| Order volume 4 free of charge. |
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Volume 5: Beat Kappeler: Nach 50 Jahren: Die Renten für die Alten in
einer neuen Welt (After 50 years: The pensions for old people in a new
world, 24 p., available in German only)
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| Demographics, companies, the world of work, social policy
and values have clearly all undergone dramatic change in the fifty years
since compulsory old-age insurance was introduced in Switzerland. The change
has been just as marked in the thirty years since the basic shape of pillar
two pensions was established after the referendum of 1972. These systems are
old, though there seems to be a widespread lack of awareness that this is
the case. Most politicians think that they can get by with a bit of
tinkering. They fail to recognize that these systems go hand in hand with a
whole series of outmoded assumptions about life expectancy, lifestyles,
career patterns, corporate processes, supra-national migration trends and
markets. By highlighting some of the changes that have occurred, this
article aims to cast a fresh light on the issue and move the debate about
pension reform beyond the aimless bluster about contracting or expanding the
current system. |
| Order volume 5 free of charge. |
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Volume 6: Nikolaus Linder: Der Fall Malacrida. Ein Berner Bankenkrach
und seine Folgen (The Malacrida Case. A Bernese Bank Crash and its
Consequences, 27 p., available in German only)
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| In autumn 1720, ambitious plans for financing the state in
France and Britain led to the collapse of Europe's securities markets. Among
the victims of the crisis were two Bernese banks, Malacrida & Cie. and its
correspondent bank in London, Samuel Müller & Cie. As a result of
Malacrida's bankruptcy, the city of Bern came several times to the brink of
a constitutional crisis. So many people were affected that the viability of
political institutions was threatened. It also became apparent that a
statutory liquidation of the bank would not be possible. It wasn't until
1722, when the banker David Gruner bought out Malacrida's assets and
liabilities, that a semblance of calm returned. The argument with Samuel
Müller and his London partners escalated into a legal dispute that was only
settled in 1729.
The crisis resulted in various changes to Bernese law. It led directly
to plans for a new commercial regime as a counter to proposals made in
1723 to abolish banks altogether.
The trauma unleashed by the crisis of 1720 had a lasting influence on
the development of the financial sector in Bern, and it would be almost
thirty years before another bank was founded. Consequently, Bern missed
out on a good deal of Switzerland's economic progress during this time,
with implications that were felt far into the 19th century.
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| Order volume 6 free of charge. |
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Volume 7: Robert U. Vogler: Swiss Banking Secrecy: Origins,
Significance, Myth (110 p., also available in German)
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| The rise of Switzerland as a financial center began about
100 years ago. Though it is not quite in the same rank as the real giants of
the financial world, over the last 50 years Switzerland has progressed from
a modest international standing to occupy a position of real significance.
The major difficulties experienced by Swiss banks - mainly in the 1930s -
certainly slowed the pace of progress, but only temporarily. This crisis
resulted in new banking legislation, which also laid the legal foundations
for banking secrecy.
People often cite banking secrecy as an indispensable key to the
success of Switzerland's financial industry. But until 1935, Switzerland
had no national banking law and thus no official banking secrecy. What the
country did offer was a pronounced relationship of trust which had been
built up between banks and clients over the course of the centuries, and
which had become established as an unwritten code similar to the
confidentiality offered by lawyers, doctors and priests. De facto banking
secrecy had therefore existed for a long time, but it was not enshrined in
legislation until relatively late on. Prior to the 1930s an avowedly
liberal economic and political environment, and an equally pronounced
understanding of the importance of private discretion had made such
legislation superfluous.
Ever since the national law on banks and savings banks came into force,
banking secrecy has been the subject of debate and an almost permanent
target of attacks from within Switzerland as well as from other countries.
This study attempts to provide an overview of the relevant processes and
events, and the motivations of the different players involved, but also
looks at the myths that have grown up around banking secrecy.
This publication is designed to appeal to a broader audience of
interested non-specialists. Its primary aim is to draw out the main
strands relating to banking secrecy and to communicate these in a
comprehensible way to the general reader. It covers a period of about a
century - from 1890 to 1990 - but lays no claim to absolute completeness.
It deliberately leaves out the latest developments, because the author
believes these are still too recent to judge properly; in some cases they
are still running their course. This accords with the classic view of
historical study, which dictates that no fair history can be written until
at least a generation after the events concerned. The speed at which
modern life is lived means that this period can be reduced a little.
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Order volume 7 (German) free of charge.
Order volume 7 (English) free of charge. |
Download
publication as pdf (719 KB) |
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No. 8: Jörg Baumberger, Joseph Jung, Thomas Sieber:
Finanzmärkte in turbulenter Umgebung. Auszug aus dem Buch «Financial Markets
of Neutral Countries in World War II». Übersicht – Bankenplatz Schweiz –
Lebensversicherungsgeschäft schweizerischer Versicherungsgesellschaften in Deutschland
(Financial Markets in a Turbulent Environment. Extract from the book «Financial Markets
of Neutral Countries in World War II». Introduction – Swiss Banking in World War II –
Aspects of the Life Insurance Business of Swiss Insurance Companies in Germany during
the Third Reich, 2017. 159 p., available in German only) |
| The booklet contains three articles from the book «Financial Markets of Neutral
Countries in World War II», which was published in English in 2012 by the Association
for Financial History and Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung. For more information about the book’s
contents, please see the description below. The aim of the booklet was to make the discussion
available to a wider German-speaking audience; it contains the overview article by Jörg
Baumberger and two articles about Switzerland – by Joseph Jung on banking and Thomas Sieber on the life insurance business. |
| Order volume 8 free of charge. |
| Download
publication as pdf (922 KB) |
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Anthology (published with Verlag NZZ Libro): Robert U. Vogler, Jörg Baumberger, Herbert R.
Reginbogin, Jürg Spiller (eds): Financial Markets of Neutral Countries in World War II (360 p., available in English only)
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| This book was the result of extensive discussions held between members of the Financial History Association and a number of financial historians and economists in the wake of the reports published by the Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War (ICE) in 2002. Various interesting questions raised during the Commission’s examination of the Swiss banks’ archives were not actually answered in the ICE’s reports. Most of these questions concerned international issues.
This anthology can therefore be seen as a supplement to the results of the research conducted by the ICE historians. The publication’s editors and authors wanted to address various neglected issues and open them up for debate. Their aim was to create a broader international context and look more closely at the actions of a number of key neutral states during the Second World War. The individual essays examined the central question of how different countries, economies and financial markets navigated their way through the difficult times immediately before and during the World War, how they conducted themselves, and how they sought to solve their specific problems.
The main focus was on national financial markets and their international components, and on the individual countries’ financial relations with other states. The essays also sought to show how these economies behaved in relation to warring nations on both sides of the conflict. A special summary essay by Professor Jörg Baumberger included useful introductory comments on this issue. Particular attention was also paid to the room for maneuver that individual states may or may not have had given their specific economic and geopolitical situations.
The six countries examined in addition to Switzerland were chosen because of their political and economic importance as neutral states in the exceptional global situation that prevailed to some extent before, but mainly during the Second World War. The studies relating to Switzerland focused on the country’s banks (author: Joseph Jung), and on insurance business with Germany (Thomas Sieber). The economies and financial policies of Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey were also examined by academics from each of these countries. Particular attention was paid to the country that started off as a strict neutral but subsequently became the most important combatant: the United States of America.
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| Order anthology. |
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Address: Verein für wirtschaftshistorische Studien
Vogelsangstrasse 52
8006 Zurich
Tel. 0041 (0)43 343 18 40
Fax 0041 (0)43 343 18 41
info@pioniere.ch
www.pioniere.ch
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