The Schwarzenberg Bank, 1787-1830

Th `k.u.k. privilegierte & octroyierte Commerzial-, Leih und Wechselbank` or Schwarzenberg Bank was one of the earliest joint-stock companies in Austria. It`s conception was based on the emission of joint stocks and it`s purpose was the founding and financing of industrial establishments. The foundation can be traced back to an initiative of the trading company Bargum & Cie and of some influential members of the Austrian nobility. One of the outstanding activities of the bank was the foundation of the `Pottendorfer Garnmanufaktur Gesellschaft` in 1801 which ranged under Europe`s leading mechanical spinning mills. The research proposal can be divided in two sectors: The first part can be described as a `micro history` of the bank. It deals with the administrative structure, the network of clients, share-holders and partners. Part of the project will also be the course and the consequences of the bank`s credit policy. The bank`s micro history on the one side is not only a mirror of economic and social changes on an institutional level at the turn of the l8th century but also gives insight views on the economic behavior of the Ancient Regime`s upper class. On the other side the bank`s history also offers new perspectives for the ,macro history` of Austria`s economic development and industrial growth in the late 18th and early 19th century. The bank`s archives material gives detailed answers on prizes, quantities and qualities of piece goods as well as on merchants and industrialists. Thus the bank played a leading role in Austria`s early industrialization its history still has to be written. The study of the Schwarzenberg bank could especially `break new scientific ground` in the nexus of banking and industrialization, and gain new insights of the behavior of a traditional ruling class which was confronted with a revolutionary new situation. The proposal represents a historical research in a classical sense, using mainly archival sources and a heuristic approach as well as analytical methods. The research is based on diverse archives material, mainly on the Schwarzenberg family archives (Rodinny archiv) which is a deposit in the local branch of the Statni oblastni archiv Trebon in Ceski Krumlov (Czech Republic). Other sources are in the Vienna Hofkammerarchiv, (Commerz Böhmen), and the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv