Catherine Dardignac and Roger Nougaret1
The Mediterranean has a special role in the history of France, and its economic history in particular. France’s long Mediterranean coastline makes it a part of that region’s history – yet it also shares borders with northern Europe. If, following Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, we agree that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Mediterranean zone was ‘subordinated to the financing and investment strategies of Northern Europe’s industrial centres’,2 France could also be included among the Northern European nations. The many impecunious States around the Mediterranean basin, such as Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt, tapped into France’s savings; and that, together with the French colonization of North Africa, transformed financial institutions into the instruments and actors of French influence in this region. Bank archives reveal how ‘French-style imperialism’3 developed and how it competed with British and German imperialisms, in addition to revealing lives of the economic players themselves.
From the point of view of France, the Mediterranean was not a homogenous area, although its component countries were geographically close to it. From a French banking viewpoint – one that often conformed to the diplomatic one – the region was divided into several zones: France itself, its European neighbours such as Italy and Spain, the French colonial empire (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon and Syria), the Near East (mainly the Ottoman Empire in its broadest sense, including Egypt) and the Balkans.
The Mediterranean region of France represented one zone, but we shall not attempt to treat it in detail. The major lending institutions such as Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Crédit Lyonnais4 and Société Générale, established themselves here from 1860 and, with their numerous branches, increasingly competed with local banks such as Bonnasse, Jouve, Vaisse, and Roux de Fraissinet. With a few exceptions the local banks were gradually eliminated by the competition, and ultimately by the financial crisis of the 1930s. Side by side with the major network banks were the regional banks. Of these Société Marseillaise de Crédit deserves a mention. It was founded in Marseille in 1865 and because of that city’s close trade relations with the Mediterranean countries its business spread far beyond France. It was carried forward by the trading and financial diasporas, particularly the Greek one represented by the Zarifi and Zafiropoulos houses, shareholders in Marseillaise de Crédit, as well as by Ralli and Rodocanachi. The first chairman of Marseillaise de Crédit, Jean-Baptise Pastré (1804-77), lived from 1824 to 1835 in Egypt, where he founded a trading company.5 Alongside the regional banks were the mutual banks, including Crédit Agricole’s Regional Banks, which were established in southern France in 1900 (or 1917 in the case of Banques Populaires) but until the 1950s their role was limited to a strictly national and banking one.
Neighbouring Mediterranean Europe was composed of Spain and Italy, but each was quite different. Nineteenth-century Italy already had an old, well-established banking apparatus and a close-knit economic network – at least in the North – whereas Spain’s banking system was more rudimentary.
French banks did not set up in Italy until the second half of the twentieth century, since prior to that there was little need for foreign bank subsidiaries. In this respect, France viewed Italy in the same way as it viewed Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (with the exception of London, an international financial centre): it did not venture into these countries because it did not want their local banks to come to France. But Italian banks did pursue their own form of imperialism after the 1900s – despite a real shortage of capital – notably in the Balkans, in the Ottoman Empire and in Libya.6 French bankers worked indirectly in Italy via correspondents or dealt directly with businesses. For instance, the Lyon headquarters of Crédit Lyonnais worked with silk companies in nearby Turin. But all the French banks were interested in Italian government bond issues and railway investments.
The pioneer in Franco-Italian banking relations was the André banking house. The Andrés were a Huguenot family that fled to Genoa in the seventeenth century. When their ancestors returned to France in 1800,7 they specialized in banking with Italy. Though Italy was not Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas’s main field of activity at the time, the bank also acquired a minority stake in Banca Commerciale Italiana as early as 1899. As we shall see later, this was typical of that bank’s strategy and came to be known as the ‘Paribas system’:8 one that was both flexible and coherent, in which partnership and association was generally preferred over rigid solutions such as control and ownership. That kind of structure is a heritage of the French Haute Banque.
Correspondent banking was the dominant, albeit somewhat old-fashioned way for French banks to deal with Italy up until the 1960s, when representative offices – and later branches – were set up following the failure of the first European alliances established in the wake of the Treaty of Rome (in which Paribas played a pioneering role), and the relative failure of the bank ‘clubs’ to set up real European banking consortiums.
Nineteenth-century Spain was fertile ground for foreign, and particularly European, investment, due to its geographic proximity, poor infrastructure and technology, cash-strapped State and mineral deposits.9 Its lack of capital, however, is a source of debate, and some historians have raised the issue of the attitude of Spanish financiers.10 The poor banking network was a magnet for French banks. Of these, the house of Rothschild stands out because of the coordinated action between its Paris and London establishments, its early involvement in Spain during the Napoleonic wars (resulting in the opening of a branch in Madrid as early as 1835), and lastly, the amount of its investment – up to 55 per cent of total foreign investment, particularly in mining and railways.11 Isaac Pereire, who founded Spain’s Crédito Mobiliario Español, and some of the older banking houses were also interested in Spanish business (government debt and railway bonds), and they were soon followed by Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas12 and the major commercial banks. After the railways, electricity provided opportunities for bond issues and equity investment, as illustrated by Société Générale with Barcelona Traction, Light & Power Company in the 1910s. Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, as was its wont, sponsored the creation of Banesto in 1902 out of the former Crédito Mobiliario.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the major deposit banks opened branches offering services to both private and corporate clients, as well as foreign-exchange business. Crédit Lyonnais opened its doors in Madrid in 1875 before branching out to Barcelona in 1888, and Seville and San Sebastián in 1900.13 By 1913 it had 920 employees in Spain. Société Générale and Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris (CNEP) also set up in Spain between 1905 and 1910.14 Spain’s proximity to France meant that some branches in the Basque country (San Sebastián, for instance) were seen as satellites of branches in the French Basque country on the other side of the border. Both Crédit Lyonnais and Société Générale attached their San Sebastián branches to their French networks.
That banking was still under development in Spain was pointed out in 1931 by a Société Générale auditor:
Spanish banks are neither very numerous nor powerful as yet. They do not have much capital available to them and sometimes lack liquidity. In matters of foreign trade, they will be at a disadvantage for some time because of lack of equipment, mediocre employees, and slow-moving and unreliable information channels [...]. Spanish banks are not represented in other European countries, or else poorly so, and will be unable to compete in export credits with establishments such as Crédit Lyonnais or Société Générale, which have specialized equipment and staff, as well as complete documentation and reliable information available to them in all the main import centres.15
However, this description contrasts with a later observation by Crédit Lyonnais between the two world wars, namely that Spanish banks had flourished under the 1921 protectionist laws and that competition between foreign banks was growing.16 Protectionism won the day and, for example, Banque Française et Espagnole, founded in 1920 by Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas with three Spanish partners (Banco Español de Credito, Banco Urquijo, Banco de Vizcaya), eventually closed its doors in 1928. Société Générale, which in 1920 had formed Société Générale de Banque pour l’Etranger et les Colonies (SGBEC)17 to consolidate its subsidiaries and branches outside France, accepted the inevitable and postponed opening a branch office in Madrid. It even closed its San Sebastián office in 1919 and Spain became a secondary market for the bank and was ultimately relinquished.18 It was only in the 1960s that Franco-Spanish banking relations began to develop again.
In countries under French control, namely in its colonies, protectorates and mandates such as Algeria (1830-1962), Morocco (1912-56), Tunisia (18811956), and later, but to a lesser extent, Lebanon and Syria (1920–43), French banks developed in much the same way as they did at home, and had the largest networks outside the country. They carried on a broad and similar range of businesses, but the client base was almost exclusively made up of colonists, at least until the Second World War. The colonial financial markets were very active, particularly in central and local government bond issues, and most of the home players – investment banks like Paribas, Banque de l’Union Parisienne (BUP), and Worms – could be found there, along with the main credit institutions, which were useful because of their placing power.
A banking structure developed within an institutional framework that was close, if not identical, to the domestic one, with a central bank – the Banque de l’Algérie established in 1851 – at its head. In 1904 this became the Banque de l’Algérie et de Tunisie, which was the currency-issuing agency for both countries until their independence; it also extended credit, notably to agriculture. In Morocco, following the 1906 Algeciras Conference, the Banque d’Etat du Maroc was established with an international status in 1907,19 under the patronage of Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas which took it over in 1924, much to the displeasure of the Banque de l’Algérie, which wanted to unify currency circulation in the Maghreb under its own authority.20 In Lebanon, in 1921, the Banque de Syrie et du Grand Liban, in fact run by Paribas, took over the former Banque du Liban (founded in 1919 under the aegis of the Imperial Ottoman Bank) and also played a dual role as both central and commercial bank until nationalization of the banks in Syria in 1956 and the creation of Bank of Lebanon in 1964.
With colonization, a number of institutions specialized in development were established, notably mortgage lenders. As early as 1880, Crédit Foncier de France was granting mortgages to colonists and set up Crédit Foncier Agricole d’Algérie (CFAA). After opening a branch in Tunis in 1894, CFAA began to offer property loans in Tunisia in 1909 and the same year changed its name to Crédit Foncier d’Algérie et de Tunisie (CFAT), extending its services into Morocco from 1910. The bank rapidly diversified its activities to become a true commercial bank, competing with its peers in North Africa.21 CFAT then branched out into the eastern Mediterranean by setting up operations in Syria and Lebanon, acquiring Banque de Salonique in 1919 and establishing an office in Malta in 1920, followed by another in Gibraltar.
Among the institutions specialized in development were Société Algérienne, established in 1865, which in 1877 became Compagnie Algérienne, and Compagnie Générale du Maroc (GENAROC), a holding company Paribas set up in 1911. These establishments prospered to such an extent that in 1961 the total assets of Compagnie Algérienne de Crédit et de Banque, a Compagnie Algérienne subsidiary, exceeded those of Crédit Commercial de France, an important mid-size bank.22
Among the main French deposit banks was Crédit Lyonnais, which set up in Algiers in 1878 and gradually spread throughout the colony. In 1912 it started operations in Tunisia, and in 1929 in Morocco. ‘Once there, the local branches of the deposit banks conducted the same policies as their counterparts in France.’23 Société Générale opened an office in Tunisia in 1911 via a subsidiary. As a result of negotiations between Banca Commerciale Italiana and Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, Société Générale was able to take over Banque Commerciale Tunisienne, which then became Société Générale de l’Afrique du Nord. Two years on, the plan for a larger network took shape,24 and shortly afterwards new branches were attached to the provincial branches – proof of their integration into the Société Générale network.
As with Crédit Lyonnais, Société Générale’s branch offices were replicas of those in France, from their working methods down to the architecture of the main buildings. In other French protectorates Société Générale used a different strategy, preferring to establish itself by means of a subsidiary, e.g. Banque Française de Syrie, and using another bank that it already owned, Banque de Salonique,25 established in Beirut since 1909. In early 1922, Société Générale acquired a controlling interest in Banque Française de Syrie, which, that same year, extended its network to Damascus, Aleppo, Mersine and Adana. Crédit Lyonnais did not set up in Lebanon and Syria until the end of the French protectorates, in 1951 and 1953 respectively. In Lebanon, Crédit Lyonnais established a bank in association with its former correspondent, Gaston Trad. This lasted longer than the bank’s Syrian attempt, cut short by Nasser’s union of Syria with Egypt. Similarly, Banque de l’Indochine acquired a stake in Banque Sabbag in Beirut in 1951.
Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris (CNEP), which Hubert Bonin describes as having a real colonial destiny,26 nevertheless ignored Algeria and Morocco, perhaps as a result of a tacit agreement with its competitors. CNEP’s Moroccan branches, established in 1897 (Tangiers, Casablanca, Mogador/Essaouira), were sold in 1907 to the Banque d’Etat du Maroc. Its operations in Tunisia, where the bank had established itself between 1893 and 1894, appear fairly modest compared with those in Egypt, consisting mainly of trade financing and loans to local millers and wine and grain merchants.
The last of the major deposit banks, Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (BNCI), set up in Algiers in 1940 under the name of BNCI Afrique by taking over Banque de l’Union Nord-Africaine. The following year, it opened for business in Lebanon. The banks withdrew gradually after decolonization in 1962. In newly independent Algeria, Crédit Lyonnais’s and Société Générale’s banking business was taken over in 1967 by a new establishment, Banque Extérieure d’Algérie, which kept on some of the French staff under a cooperation agreement with the French government. BNCI Afrique sold its Algerian branches to Banque Nationale d’Algérie effective January 1968,27 while Crédit Populaire Algérien acquired five Banques Populaires branches in 1967 and Marseillaise de Crédit in 1968. In Morocco and Tunisia the French banks were spun off into independent subsidiaries, in which the newly independent countries took stakes.
The leading French regional bank, Société Marseillaise de Crédit, had always been interested in North Africa because of the relationship between Marseille and the colonies. It took part in establishing Société Agricole et Immobilière Franco-Africaine, which acquired the large Enfida estate in Tunisia – managed since 1900 by Edouard de Cazalet, the bank’s chairman. It was only after 1919 that the bank opened some North African branches: Oran in Algeria, Oujda in Morocco and in Tunis, each time hiring a Crédit Lyonnais director to run it.28
More unexpected, at first sight, was the opening of a branch of Crédit du Nord in Algiers on 1 December 1958. It is true that Crédit du Nord had acquired Banque Foncière du Maroc in 1951, but Algeria entered a period of political and social tensions after 1954, despite hopes that the Constantine Plan29 might lead to a new phase in the country’s development. The Deputy Governor-general of the Bank of Algeria claimed that, ‘Crédit du Nord [is] a leading bank in textile and sugar industries, which must consider opening Algerian facilities, [and] has some excellent arguments’ for obtaining the necessary authorization to open in Algeria.30
Agricultural credit was also important in an empire devoted to colonization and land development. After 1871, many small discount houses were set up for agricultural purposes in Algeria under the umbrella of the Banque de l’Algérie. The bank itself granted seasonal credits to the colonists and became a true agricultural bank, even to the extent of becoming bogged down in the farming crisis of the 1880s.31 The first Crédit Agricole Regional Bank was established in Algiers in 1901 when a local law was passed that reflected the 1899 law on regional banks in France. There were 22 Crédit Agricole Regional Banks (in 1946), which, after 1935, were organized around a central body, Caisse Algérienne de Crédit Agricole Mutuel (CACAM), a replica of Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole in Paris. However the colonial agricultural regional banks were independent of the French ones.32 After the Second World War, Sociétés Indigènes de Prévoyance (SIP) and Sociétés Agricoles de Prévoyance (SAP) were founded to provide credit to the local Muslim population.
The European powers vied for influence in both the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, areas of lucrative expansion for the banks, which were attracted not only by the exceptional interest rates on government debt, but also by the possibilities for financing foreign trade and infrastructure, some of the proceeds from which, moreover, were used to pay down the debt. However, the importance of trade paled beside that of investment.33 According to Jean Bouvier, ‘In Egypt and Turkey, even more so than in the western Mediterranean, foreign banks lived as parasites off parasite states.’34
Our knowledge of Egypt is largely derived from the remarkable works by David S. Landes and Samir Saul.35 The French were possibly the foremost foreign investors in Egypt, despite Britain’s military occupation in 1882 and the establishment of a British protectorate. Samir Saul views Egypt’s integration into the international economy as occurring in four phases. The first lasted from 1840 until the 1860s. This was the period of merchant bankers such as Jean-Baptiste Pastré, Delort de Gléon and Edouard Dervieu. Landes has demonstrated the relationship of dependence formed between Edouard Dervieu (1824–1905) and a succession of Pashas, based on the financing of the Suez Canal and its outcome, the Egyptian debt. This occurred under the watchful eye of Dervieu’s Paris correspondent, and later associate, Joseph André, a member of one of the most eminent banking institutions in France, Marcuard, André et Cie. The exchange of correspondence between Dervieu and André forms the core of Landes’s book.36
The second phase, which started around 1860 and lasted until the 1870s, saw massive capital inflows from France into Egypt in search of high yield. That is the period of ‘articulated’ companies, to use the term coined by Samir Saul, that is to say companies with headquarters in Europe and a single operation in the Middle East. One example was the Société Financière d’Egypte the Greek financier Pasquali founded in Paris, which, for a short while, was the leading bank in Cairo. Another, Banque Franco-Egyptienne, was founded in 1870 by Louis Raphaël Bischoffsheim (1800–1873) to fund Egypt’s debt. Bischoffsheim was badly hit by the 1876 Egyptian financial crisis but managed to find some business outside the country before going into liquidation in 1889 and setting up Banque Internationale de Paris to deal in Russian bonds. One articulated company that held out until 1956 was Monts-de-Piété Egyptiens (pawnshops), founded in Paris in 1872 and administered in Egypt by Dervieu and Mazeau.
During this period the deposit banks also opened subsidiaries. Imperial Ottoman Bank opened one in 1867, and Comptoir d’Escompte did the same in Alexandria in 1869. The latter dealt in government bonds as well as carrying out regular banking activities, offering seasonal credits and advances against goods, and importing precious metals.37 However, Comptoir d’Escompte left Egypt in 1873 and did not return before 1905. Crédit Lyonnais set up in Alexandria in 1874 and opened branches in Cairo in 1875 and Port Said in 1876. At the outset the objective of these banks was straightforward: ‘The main – if not the only – goal for our Middle Eastern branches is to invest a portion of our [French] funds.’38 But they adapted to circumstances. Subsidiaries of the commercial banks bought or discounted bonds and financed cotton exports – which were taxed by the government to service its debt. They even acted as accountants for Egyptian government departments. For instance, Crédit Lyonnais kept accounts for Caisse de la Dette; in other words, half the State’s resources went into its coffers. The banks also managed the current accounts of rich Egyptian depositors, a precious source of funds because in accordance with Muslim rules they did not earn interest. The newly-formed Société Générale immediately entered into a cross-shareholding with the General Credit and Finance Co, founded in 1864.
After Egypt’s 1876 bankruptcy it was a few years before the financial institutions returned for the next phase that lasted until the crash of 1907. This third phase was one of subsidiaries and ‘extra-muros’ establishments, so-called by Samir Saul to describe companies with foreign capital administered by local business leaders. Crédit Foncier Egyptien (CFE), established in 1880 by a consortium of merchant bankers such as Delort and Suarès, Beer, as well as the French institutions Banque d’Escompte de Paris, Société Générale, Crédit Lyonnais,39 and later Paribas. CFE vaunted itself as being ‘the flagship’ (S. Saul) of French business in Egypt and was the largest enterprise there after the Suez Canal Company. CFE specialized in mortgage lending, just when cotton growing was starting up, and flourished after 1898 with some very successful bond issues. The consortium was led jointly by Société Générale and Paribas until 1908, when it brought Crédit Lyonnais back into the fold in order to make an even greater impression on the financial community.40
Other banks were established with varying degrees of success during this period, revealing how Egypt was viewed as an Eldorado at the time:
Banque Générale d’Egypte, a regular commercial bank, was founded in 1881 by Paribas, Société Générale, Comptoir d’Escompte and Banque d’Escompte de Paris. Crédit Lyonnais abstained to avoid creating competition for its own branches. Nevertheless the bank closed in 1888. Bank of Athens, established in 1893, set up branches in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said in 1895. By agreement it made its resources available to Banque de l’Union Parisienne, a merchant bank with a bright future founded in 1904. In 1905, Société Marseillaise de Crédit and a number of Greek bankers set up Land Bank, a French mortgage lender despite the English name, which stayed in business until 1956. Crédit Franco-Egyptien was established in 1905 by Crédit Mobilier and the Aghion and Gunzburg groups to carry out commercial and merchant banking activities as well as mortgage lending. Hit by the 1907 crash, it merged with Banque Commerciale de la Méditerranée in 1920. Louis Causse et Cie, founded in Cairo in 1906 and the only private French bank in Egypt, carried on a discounting business, but folded during the First World War. Banque Française d’Egypte, set up in Paris in 1907 by Count Cressaty and some prominent figures from the Périgord region of France, broke up in 1924. Banque Hypothécaire Franco-Egyptienne was established in 1910 by the same group as Banque Française d’Egypte, but business was wound up in 1914. Banque Française Commerciale et Agricole d’Egypte set up in 1910 but went into liquidation in 1913. Crédit Foncier d’Orient, founded in Paris in June 1910, granted loans to all major landowners. The bank remained in Egypt until 1956.
The fourth and final phase of the international development of Egypt’s economy began in the aftermath of the 1907 financial crisis as the economy emerged slowly from indebtedness and the cotton industry began to recover. But since 1888 French capital had already begun to turn to Eastern Europe. After the First World War, the situation in Egypt changed for the French banks, with fierce international competition and, more importantly, the establishment in 1920 of Misr Bank in a surge of nationalist feeling. By then French banks were even afraid of the aggressive commercial tactics of Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie, established after the Second World War. The Anglo-Egyptian negotiations of 1936 resulted in a less favourable situation for foreign banks, which responded pragmatically, as Samir Saul demonstrated with the example of Crédit Lyonnais.41 Having come to Egypt to utilize French capital, they rapidly acquired a surplus of cheap local resources. ‘The pre-1914 [business] triad, namely foreign exchange, advances on securities and loans on cotton, gave way to a tandem composed of advances on securities and the English portfolio between the two wars, and, after 1954, finally became a composite of advances to exporters and market loans.’ When in 1956 Colonel Nasser became President and set up a controlled economy, the French banks withdrew and stayed away until the economy opened up again in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
In Turkey, European banks had been competing with the local Galata banks in financial transactions, Turkish bonds and floating debt since the Crimean War (1853–56). After it, European banks competed for the financing of utilities, particularly the railways in the vast Ottoman Empire. The most important ‘French’ bank was Imperial Ottoman Bank (IOB),42 created out of an 1863 alliance between British Ottoman Bank founded in 1856 and a group headed by Crédit Mobilier belonging to the Pereire brothers, together with a number of members of the Parisian Haute Banque.43 Originally a Franco-Anglo-Turkish company, IOB became increasingly French as its Parisian Committee stole a march on its British counterpart. The bank acted as a central bank for the Empire, it was the State’s intermediary with the financial markets, and after 1875 managed the State budget. IOB was the Empire’s treasurer and in 1884 founded Régie Cointéréssée des Tabacs de l’Empire Ottoman to manage the State tobacco monopoly. The bank also financed projects and held stakes or controlling interests in a broad range of companies such as the port of Beirut and the Constantinople docks, railway lines from Smyrna to Cassaba, Beirut to Damascus and Baghdad, the Constantinople water company and the Eregli coalmines. In 1920, after the First World War, Paribas acquired a stake in IOB and played a major role in running the company. Kemal Atatürk’s revolution sent shockwaves through foreign banks, including IOB, which changed its name to Ottoman Bank and functioned as a currency-issuing agency for the new Turkish State under a 1924 convention until a real central bank was established. After that Ottoman Bank became a purely commercial entity.
IOB’s supremacy had been challenged in the past by several French and foreign banks, notably Société Générale. In 1868, Société Générale set up Crédit Général Ottoman in partnership with the Galata banks and some Austrian financiers. It went into liquidation in 1899, but played a major part in Turkish bond issues between 1865 and 1873.44 When Crédit Lyonnais joined the other banks in financing Turkey’s debt, it opened an office in Constantinople, but at the worst possible time: the 1875 bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.45 The office served as a kind of on-the-spot observatory, but also carried out ordinary banking transactions including foreign exchange and loans against stock or merchandise. After the 1895 crisis, which shook both IOB and the Galata banks, Crédit Lyonnais remained IOB’s only rival. It scarcely took part in subsequent Turkish bond issues, but opened offices in Smyrna (1888), Jerusalem (1892) and Jaffa (1903). The advent of the new Turkish Republic heralded a difficult period for Crédit Lyonnais, as it did for IOB, because of the revival of nationalism and the departure of the Greek and Armenian populations, especially after the Smyrna fire of 1921.46 Following the closure of its offices in Smyrna and Jerusalem in 1927, Crédit Lyonnais decided, not without regret, to close Constantinople in 1933, following nine loss-making years. In the same year, Banque Française des Pays d’Orient, established in 1921 by BFCI, Crédit Mobilier Français and Société Générale de Belgique, also closed its doors. Among the outsiders was Banque Périer, an old-established Haute Banque that had irked IOB in 1912 by snatching a bond issue for the city of Constantinople from under its nose, and subsequently, after a few more bond issues, winning the Smyrna-Dardanelles railway concession.47
In the Mediterranean part of the Balkans, notably Greece, French banks arrived later than they did in the Ottoman Empire and their presence was not as extensive. With the exception of IOB, which opened an office in Thessalonica in 1863, the others were mostly active indirectly through holdings or subsidiaries. Banque de Salonique, which opened its doors in 1888, was first owned by Société Générale, and then by Crédit Foncier d’Algérie et de Tunisie. Bank of Athens, founded in 1893, was owned by Banque de l’Union Parisienne until it merged with the National Bank of Greece in 1953. Business grew at the turn of the twentieth century, when Greece gained importance for its role as go-between for business in the region, notably after the departure of the Greeks from Smyrna. Nevertheless, according to Hubert Bonin48 the region was merely a niche market for French banks.
The lifespan of financial institutions and the vagaries of archive conservation have resulted in a body of sources that have many gaps and do not provide the full picture of the numerous banks and their business. However, the historian does have access to the collections kept by most of the French banks founded in the nineteenth century or else preserved in the French National Archives.49 These provide a rich source of material for a historian of banking institutions as well as for the history of the Mediterranean region in general.
The history of international relations with the Mediterranean countries is well documented in French banking archives. Works by David S. Landes, Jacques Thobie, Samir Saul and Jean-Marc Delaunay, to name but a few, have demonstrated how documents on national debt and business financing are a vital complement to diplomatic archives. Because of their long-range legal or operational scope, files on government or municipal bond issues and railway financing have been especially well preserved by many establishments, including Banque de l’Union Parisienne, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais, Paribas, Rothschild, and Société Générale. Even when a transaction did not materialize, the preparatory files were frequently kept as reference for future operations, and now provide us with information about failures too. These documents help us to understand the rivalries between European powers, banks and banking syndicates. They also shed light on interbank relationships as well as the strategies and shared interests of many banks that led to the formation of syndicates.
There are documents in the French banking archives that shed some light on the political history of almost every Mediterranean country. Quite often an event or situation is vividly described in the correspondence or auditors’ report from a branch or representative office. For instance, the Armenian massacre of 1915 was chronicled in correspondence from the headquarters of Imperial Ottoman Bank.50 The overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, changes in the Turkish government from 1954 to 1960, and the Istanbul riots in the night of 6 to 7 September 195551 are all dealt with in correspondence from the chief executive officer of Banque de Salonique in Istanbul to his chairman, or to the chairman of CFAT. A 1936 report by the chief executive officer of Crédit Lyonnais visiting Spain reveals the management’s analysis of the Spanish Civil War and worries about possible ‘Russian-style’ developments in the Republican camp that briefly had the upper hand.52 Later we read about the concerns of a Credit Lyonnais branch manager after the 1945 Setif rising that marked the start of the Algerian war.53
The economic history of the Mediterranean is naturally well served by French banking archives. A special mention should be made of the banks’ economic research reports, whether these make up a separate body of archives, as is the case with Crédit Lyonnais, or are attached to files relating to specific financial transactions (Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, Société Générale). Documents constitute a valuable source of knowledge of financial systems and national debts. Those concerning the financing of infrastructure such as ports and railways help flesh out the minutes of board meetings and the files on bond or share issues. Each of the many participants involved in financing a project kept their own files, thereby providing us with different viewpoints. An excellent example of this may be found in the railways. Crédit Lyonnais, Paribas and Société Générale have documents about Compagnie Franco-Espagnole des Chemins de Fer de Tanger, which was founded in Fez by French54 and Spanish associates in 1916 and completed the construction of its railway line in 1927. Examples of this kind concerning the Ottoman Empire abound: the Thessalonica-Constantinople railway, Smyrna-Cassaba, Soma-Panderma and so forth. French banks also vied for the Constantinople to Baghdad railway, a source of rivalry between the Germans and the British.
However, it is difficult to quantify the financing of foreign trade, despite its importance. We are able to trace a few operations via correspondence, but most are ‘lost in the global mass of portfolios, current accounts and advances’.55 Documents covering day-to-day banking transactions, notably with smaller banks or enterprises, were mostly destroyed. Those that survive enable us to piece together a picture of the clientele and provide us with some information about the risks and transactions that were the banks’ everyday fare. One example was found in the Lyon branch of Crédit Lyonnais, which kept risk files on a number of foreign clients.56 Thanks to these customer files, kept for correspondent banking purposes, we are able to piece together the web of inter-bank relations and obtain information on credit and the importance of certain lesser-known banks.
We have already mentioned the importance of the mortgage lending banks in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Their archives provide us with further information about the history of colonization and colonial land ownership. Crédit Foncier archives – and those of its land audit and appraisal department in particular – form an exceptional source of information. We find files on real estate, land, shops and agricultural holdings in North Africa drawn up by the bank before it began granting loans to individuals or companies. These documents cover a period from 1920 to 1962 and fill more than 70 boxes.
Considerable progress has been made in researching the social history of French banks in the past few years, but little is known about the history of the employees in their various branches and overseas offices, and still less about that of local staff. This has already been observed in the case of British overseas banks.57 As far as the Mediterranean region is concerned, a persuasive study of the staff of the Imperial Ottoman Bank was made by Edhem Eldem, who mined a rich seam of research when he catalogued the bank’s staff files.58 Yet, on the whole, personnel files have been well preserved by large banks such as Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais, though the situation is more problematic in the case of banks that have since disappeared. The files provide us with ample material for a sociological study of bank employees, including nationality, rank, religion, languages spoken, career paths, and so forth. Such a study would improve our understanding of the role of the Mediterranean diasporas in the history of banking, such as the Greeks, Levantines, Armenians and Jews, and determine what responsibilities were delegated to local staff. Photographs would help in distinguishing hierarchies by the position of the employees.59 Personnel registers could supplement these documents and make it possible to assess the number of employees in each unit. Lastly, auditors’ reports and correspondence with subsidiaries or branches would provide further information about social policy.
A history of French banking architecture in the Mediterranean basin has yet to be written,60 but there is plenty of material on which it could be based. Files kept when new branches were opened contain general information about town planning and the business districts in particular, or about new towns, such as Port Said in Egypt. Maps, installation reports and photographs provide additional details about a city’s economic geography. The hierarchy of branches could be studied, and whether or not each establishment had a particular style, using the files kept during the construction and installation of the buildings, as well as photographs of them. Did the French build replicas of their domestic banks, did they reuse existing buildings, or, alternatively, did they build new ones in a neo-Arabic or Moorish style? An overview – in the absence of a systematic study – reveals a combination of styles that we will not elaborate on here. For instance, Société Générale’s office in Tunis (1951) resembles any important office building in France. It was doubtless erected by the bank and is in a neo-Classical style with columns on either side of the entrance and the letters SG carved on two medallions in the upper part of the façade. The sober lines and rectangular floor plan inside are reminiscent of similar buildings in France. In Casablanca, however, SG’s style is completely different. The entrance is located under an open arcade with horseshoe arches, so typical of Moorish architecture, and decorated with oriental motifs. The inside floor plan is hexagonal with balustrades that are also festooned with motifs. The need to impose the French model and the desire to adapt to local style appear to coexist.
This brief look at how Mediterranean history is documented in French banking archives has demonstrated the amount of information they have already yielded. More importantly, it has shown how they may continue to enrich our existing knowledge and provide us with new discoveries to come.
Minutes of board meetings of the colonial banks on which the governor of Banque de France was an ex-officio member; Collections of the liquidation department and the Banque de l’Algérie pension fund (Ref. 1069200601) that also include documents on the bank’s property holdings; the economic research collection, started in 1880 and found in the General Secretariat archives; Archives of the overseas departments, which include many assignment reports and reports of voluntary service missions after 1949.
Banque Paribas’s archives are relatively well preserved and include important material for the study of Mediterranean history. Of particular interest are the thematic Cabet collection,61 the financial secretariat archives (share and bond issues, government bonds) and the overseas archives department. The Banque d’Etat du Maroc archives are also found here, as well as-archives concerning the relationship between Ottoman Bank and Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Cabet collection). The minutes of board meetings and the CNEP and BNCI annual reports need to be supplemented by the files on share issues and the section of BNCI archives transferred to the French National Archives (see below). BNP Paribas’s historical archives are unfortunately no longer open to researchers at the time of writing. However, the Association pour l’Histoire de BNP Paribas does have documents, a photographic collection, oral archives and a library that are open to the public.
Crédit Agricole’s historical archives are composed of three main collections: the archives of the former Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole (CNCA), those of Crédit Lyonnais, and the former Banque Indosuez. CNCA has very little about the Mediterranean region because the institution only went international in the 1970s. Note that the archives of Caisse Algérienne de Crédit Agricole Mutuel (CAMCA), independent from CNCA, are to be found in the Archives nationales d’Outre-Mer (see below). Crédit Lyonnaises archives run to several hundred files and are a rich source of material on the Mediterranean. There are a number of sub-collections, namely: Management Archives, and especially series 62 AH to 98 AH containing the oldest files about the opening of foreign offices, a huge correspondence on the subject of national debt as well as management reports on events concerning specific branches such as Smyrna in 1926, Constantinople in 1932, Madrid in 1936, and Egypt in 1938. The Financial Affairs Department Archives (DAF series) include files on financial operations such as government or public-authority bond issues, and share or bond issues by companies. There is considerable material on Egyptian, Spanish and Italian government bonds as well as those of France’s North African colonies. Conversely, Crédit Lyonnais had very little to do with Ottoman bonds. The Archives of the Department of Overseas Branches (or DAE to use its French initials) include correspondence with the branches and reports by inspectors, as well as files on the establishment of these branches that include plans and photographs, case notes on relations with other banks, and staff files. The Accounts Management Archives provide details of balance sheets and profit-and-loss accounts by branch. Archives belonging to the Financial Research Department also provide a mine of information for the historian, which would be impossible to detail here but includes voluminous studies on the finances and debts of several countries, studies on individual companies and sectors such as railways and mining, and annual reports of companies active in the Mediterranean basin. Banque de l’Indochine’s overseas branches division has a collection that includes the minutes of board meetings and correspondence with branches in Beirut (Banque Sabbag) and Tangiers.
Part of HSBC Group France, Société Marseillaise de Crédit is the bank most involved in Mediterranean affairs, as we have shown above. A few researchers have had access to some of these archives but they are not generally available for research purposes.
Because Société Générale acquired a large number of banks, its French banking archives are possibly the most diverse and include a large amount of material on the Mediterranean region.
Société Générale: archives of boards and committees (the bank’s decision-making bodies); portfolio accounting; archives from various departments including the central administration, the general secretariat, the department for provincial agencies, the overseas department; the buildings department (which includes files on the closing of branches and photographs) and personnel, which includes notes, memos and staff files;_the finance department, which has files on central or local government bond issues, as well as studies and files on financial transactions in the private sector, reports from the inspection department; annual reports from 1927 to 1935 for Société Générale de Banque pour l’Etranger et les Colonies; Banque Française de Syrie’s annual reports from 1927 to 1936; photographs.
Financial secretariat archives include research and financial operations such as issues and financing; several files on Bank of Athens in the legal affairs and litigation, securities and financial transactions departments; a file on the 1919 CFAT capital increase in Crédit Mobilier Français archives.
Crédit du Nord’s Mediterranean archives mainly concern the bank’s installation in Algeria and its subsidiaries in Algiers and Oran. There are a few rare files on financial operations and share transactions; archives belonging to the central support services department contain some files on correspondent banks that had accounts for facilitating financial transactions.
This bank was active in the Mediterranean through a number of financial operations that it carried out with local enterprises or for the financing of research syndicates, nearly always in the mining sector. The archives contain files on holdings and capital increases, mostly in Algeria, Morocco, Spain and Turkey as well as a file on a stake in Bank of Athens, a subsidiary of BUP, with which it had close relations. There is also some documentation on individual countries or companies (for instance Algeria, research and mining prospecting in Morocco, and Crédito Español).
This establishment’s archives are incomplete, but they do include its constitution, board meetings in Paris and Algiers, annual general meetings and a series of circulars and instructions.
The CFAT archives are fairly complete except where property and assets are concerned.
The archives of Banque de Salonique are also incomplete since they are largely composed of working documents, summaries or customer-development documents for the central support services and not documents produced directly by the bank’s own departments or branches. The files mostly concern the bank’s statutes, its capital, annual general meetings, board meetings, the supervisory and management boards, the network (its development and management), accounting and portfolios, staff, client relations, external communications, its few credit transactions (loan to the Istanbul municipality) and international guarantees.
Bank of Athens archives are kept by the National Bank of Greece with which it merged in 1953 to form the National Bank of Greece and Athens (renamed National Bank of Greece in 1958).
Banque d’Algérie et de Tunisie (220 AQ)
Crédit Foncier de l’Algérie (uncatalogued collection)
Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail (ANMT) in Roubaix64
Imperial Ottoman Bank (207 AQ)
The archives of IOB’s Paris Committee, which was taken over by Paribas in 1920, are stored under reference 207 AQ. This voluminous collection (which takes up 47 m. of shelf space!) includes documents relating to the Bank of Syria and Lebanon (1918–61), the Agricultural Bank of Cyprus (1924–61), and the British-French Discount Bank Ltd in Greece (1928–53) as well as a number of Turkish companies including the Eregli (1875–1959) and Selenitza (1883–1922) mines. The Turkish collection is the most complete65 and is now to be found in the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre, under the patronage of the Garanti Bank. The London Committee collection is smaller and located in the Guildhall Library in London. The remaining documents still held by Compagnie Financière Ottomane in Paris are about to be deposited at the ANMT.
Many files, notably on Spanish and Egyptian operations.66
A few files kept by the Mirabaud family after their bank was taken over by BUP. Of particular note is 215 AQ 4, File VIII (relations with the Bank of Syria and Lebanon, 1941), and 215 AQ 5, File IX (relations with various companies within the group, 1883–1976).
Banque André archives are to be found here, including 44 AQ 11 (Egyptian affairs, 1861–80).
Banque Française des Pays d’Orient, 1921–57.
Commercial Bank of Egypt, 1924–32.
Crédit Foncier d’Orient, 1948–55
Although kept at ANMT, the French Rothschild collection is now the property of The Rothschild Archive Foundation which manages the group’s British archives. This collection is one of the best in terms of both volume and content, as may be seen by a few examples:
Branches: 132 AQ 24–27, Madrid branch, 1888–1947; Government bonds: 132 AQ 40–41, Spanish bonds. 1820–1931; 132 AQ 42, Turkish bonds. 1881–1906; 132 AQ 43–50, Egyptian bonds. 1878–1910; 132 AQ 51–60, Italian bonds. 1830–1907; Mining and metals: 132 AQ 103, Pennaroya, 1901–30; 132 AQ 104–9, Rio Tinto. 1899–1937; 132 AQ 342–53, Compagnie Agricole de Lukus (Morocco). 1927–45; 132 AQ 722–53, Copies of letters to Madrid. 1851–70; Incoming correspondence: 132 AQ 6136–272, Madrid branch. 1838–1931; 132 AQ 6275–304, Italian and Mediterranean affairs. 1839–87; P series. Regular correspondents: 132 AQ 6 P 1–67 Spain; 132 AQ 7 P 1–18 Greece; 132 AQ 9 P 1–323 Italy; 132 AQ 14 P 1–20 Turkey; 132 AQ 30 P 1–9 Egypt; 132 AQ 50 P1 Near East.
Numbers 2001026, 2002059, 2003026, 2003040, 2003063, 2003064, 2003065; many files on Algeria, one of which concerns CFAT (2001026) and another on land ownership (2002059).
1 We would like to thank Stéphanie Jandin-Billonneau, archivist at HSBC France, Jérôme Lescuyer of BNP Paribas and Fabrice Reuzé, archivist at Banque de France, for the information they have provided. Special thanks to Pierre de Longuemar and Maryvonne Vejux of Association pour l’Histoire de BNP Paribas, for having carefully checked this text and for suggestions.
2 M. Lévy-Leboyer, ‘Conclusion’, in Banque et investissements en Méditerranée à l’époque contemporaines. Actes du colloque de Marseille, 4–5 février 1982 (Marseille, 1985), p. 209.
3 J. Bouvier, R. Girault and J. Thobie, L’impérialisme à la française, 1914–60 (Paris, 1986).
4 According to Jean Bouvier, ‘In the 1870s the bank (Crédit Lyonnais) was a specifically "Mediterranean" one.’, J. Bouvier, Le Crédit lyonnais de 1863 à 1882, les années de formation d’une banque de dépôts (Paris, 1961), p. 499.
5 Cf. R. Caty, E. Richard and P. Echinard, Les patrons sous le Second Empire. Marseille (Paris, Le Mans, 1999), pp. 224–6. We shall come across J.-B. Pastré again later when discussing French banks in Egypt.
6 D. Grange, ‘La première expansion des capitaux italiens en Méditerranée’, in Banque et investissements en Méditerranée à l’époque contemporaines. Actes du colloque de Marseille, 4–5 février 1982 (Marseille, 1985), pp. 39–55.
7 For the early years of the André family, see H. Lüthy, La banque protestante en France de la Révocation de l’Edit de Nantes à la Révolution française, vol. 2 (Paris, 1961), pp. 94–6.
8 E. Bussière, Paribas, Europe and the World, 1872–1992 (Antwerp, 1992), p. 33.
9 See for example, A. Broder, Le rôle des intérêts économiques étrangers dans le développement économique de l’Espagne, fin XVIIIe – début XXe siècle, unpublished thesis, Paris IV University, 1981.
10 G. Chastagnaret, ‘Un mariage manqué. Les financiers madrilènes et la minérométallurgie espagnole entre 1840 et 1846’, in Banque et investissements en Méditerranée à l’époque contemporaines. Actes du colloque de Marseille, 4–5 février 1982 (Marseille, 1985), pp. 19–35.
11 Cf. M. A López-Morell, La Casa Rothschild en España (Madrid, 2005).
12 In 1869, Banque de Paris set up a Spanish business committee with Stern and Schnapper for the purpose of competing with the Rothschilds; E. Bussière, Paribas, p. 53.
13 J.-M. Delaunay, ‘Le Crédit lyonnais en Espagne, 1875–1939. La plus active des banques françaises au sud des Pyrénées’, in B. Desjardins, M. Lescure, R. Nougaret, A. Plessis, A. Straus (eds), Le Crédit Lyonnais, 1863–1986, études historiques (Geneva, 2003), pp. 592–615.
14 H. Bonin, ‘La Société générale en Espagne (des années 1860 aux années 1930). Un eldorado rêvé, un marché de niches’, in Des économies et des hommes. Mélanges offerts à Albert Broder (Paris, 2006), pp. 345–58.
15 A report mentioned by Bonin, ‘La Société générale en Espagne’, p. 355.
16 Delaunay, ‘Le Crédit lyonnais en Espagne’, p. 611.
17 Société Générale’s historical archives, 1920 annual report.
18 Bonin, ‘La Société générale en Espagne’, p. 458.
19 The Algeciras conference ratified France’s influence in Morocco and Britain’s in Egypt.
20 E. Bussière, ‘Paribas et la prise de contrôle de la Banque d’Etat du Maroc’, in Comité pour l’Histoire économique de la France (ed.), La France et l’outre-mer. Un siècle de relations financières et monétaires (Paris, 1998), pp. 429–35.
21 H. Bonin, Un outre-mer bancaire méditerranéen. Histoire du Crédit foncier d’Algérie et de Tunisie, 1880–1997 (Paris, 2004).
22 Compagnie Algérienne was taken over by BUP in 1960 and the deposit business of Compagnie Algérienne de Crédit et de Banque was merged with that of BUP in 1967; cf. H. Bonin, La Banque de l’Union parisienne (Paris, 2001).
23 Bouvier, Le Crédit lyonnais, p. 468.
24 ‘Management decided that Société Générale should establish direct branches in Algeria. Under the circumstances it seemed preferable to liquidate Société Générale de l’Afrique du Nord and transform its Tunisian outlets into direct offices. [...] Moreover an agreement was reached following discussions between Mr Dorizon and the Deutsche Orient Bank, concerning the takeover of its branches in Morocco, Tangiers and Casablanca [...] The board fully approved this plan.’ Société Générale, minutes of the board meeting, 19 June 1911.
25 Société Générale, minutes of the board meeting, 5 December 1918.
26 H. Bonin, ‘Le Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris, une banque coloniale (1848–1940)’, Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer, 78, 293, 1991, pp. 477–97. CNEP’s colonial designs were also a result of its considerable presence in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
27 BNCI Africa, which by now retained only its Moroccan and Tunisian subsidiaries and its headquarters in Lebanon, merged with BNCI Indian Ocean in 1972 to form BNP Intercontinentale.
28 M.-C. Guilmot-Toyes, Historique de la Marseillaise de crédit, unpublished manuscript, pp. 79–83. See also M. Lescure, ‘Banques régionales et croissance économique au XIXe siècle. L’exemple de la Société marseillaise de crédit’, in M. Lescure and A. Plessis (eds), Banques locales et banques régionales en France au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1999), pp. 303–4.
29 The Algerian economic development plan was drawn up by the French government in 1958.
30 Crédit du Nord, ‘Etude sur l’opportunité de l’ouverture par le Crédit du Nord d’une succursale à Alger’, memo from senior management dated 21 April 1958. Société Générale’s historical archives, ref.CN0364.
31 M. L. Gharbi, ‘La Banque de l’Algérie et l’expérience du crédit agricole’, in Comité pour l’Histoire économique de la France (ed.), La France et l’outre-mer. Un siècle de relations financières et monétaires (Paris, 1998), pp. 375–88.
32 See J. Salphati, Le Crédit agricole mutuel en Algérie (Alger, 1924); A. Eyriès, Les caisses régionales de crédit agricole mutuel en Algérie (Paris, 1941); Caisse centrale de réassurance des mutuelles agricoles de l’Afrique du Nord, Atlas de la mutualité agricole en Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1947); and 31e Congrès national de la Mutualité, de la Coopération et du Crédit agricoles (Algiers, 1949). In 1948, there were 20,000 ‘Muslim’ members (from 532,000 Muslim farms) of Crédit agricole’s local cooperatives in Algeria versus 20,000 ‘European’ members (from 25,000 farms).
33 J. Thobie, La France impériale, 1880–1914 (Paris, 1982), pp. 64–9.
34 J. Bouvier, Le Crédit lyonnais, p. 656.
35 D. S. Landes, Bankers and Pashas. International Finance and Economic Imperialism in Egypt (London, 1958; French edition Paris, 1993); S. Saul, La France et l’Egypte de 1882 à 1914. Intérêts économiques et implications politiques (Paris, 1997).
36 Papers discovered by D. Landes in Banque de France among Banque de Neuflize, Schlumberger, Mallet/NSM archives (Marcuard, André et Cie later merged with NSM). Since then these archives have been deposited in the Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail in Roubaix, listed under reference 44 AQ.
37 Bonin, ‘Le Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris’.
38 A letter from the Chairman, Henri Germain, to the Alexandria branch on 30 July 1875. Quoted by Bouvier, Le Crédit lyonnais, p. 667.
39 Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris was excluded because it had tried to set up CFE on its own. See Saul, La France et l’Egypte, p. 297.
40 Saul, La France et l’Egypte, p. 335.
41 See S. Saul, ‘Les agences du Crédit Lyonnais en Égypte. L’insertion d’une banque de dépôts dans une économie d’Outre-Mer (1875–1956)’, in B. Desjardins, M. Lescure, R. Nougaret, A. Plessis and A. Straus (eds), Le Crédit Lyonnais, 1863–1986. Etudes historiques (Geneva, 2003), pp. 521–18.
42 For more on IOB’s French, British, ‘Imperialist’ or Ottoman characteristics see the excellent arguments developed by Edhem Eldem in the conference proceedings.
43 Cf. A. Autheman, La banque impériale ottomane (Paris, 1996) and E. Eldem, A History of the Ottoman Bank (Istanbul, 1999); for an overall view of French imperialism see J. Thobie, Intérêts et impérialisme français dans l’Empire ottoman, 1895–1919 (Paris, 1977).
44 Bouvier, Le Crédit lyonnais, pp. 684–5.
45 J. Thobie, ‘Le Crédit lyonnais au Levant. Constantinople (Istanbul) Smyrne (Ismir) et Jérusalem’, in B. Desjardins, M. Lescure, R. Nougaret, A. Plessis and A. Straus (eds), Le Crédit Lyonnais, 1863–1986. Etudes historiques (Geneva, 2003), pp. 549–92.
46 Events related by Jean Morin, Director of Crédit Lyonnais branch in Smyrna, in J. Morin, Souvenirs d’un banquier français 1875–1947 (Paris, 1983), pp. 257–82.
47 Thobie, Intérêts et impérialisme français, pp. 283–7 and 369-70.
48 This section is based on a working paper by Hubert Bonin called ‘French Banks and Greece (circa 1880-1950). An Example of a Niche Market" that may be found on his Website at www.hubertbonin.com.
49 Details of the collections to be found in the principal archives are in the Appendix.
50 Autheman, La Banque impériale ottomane, pp. 235-9.
51 Société Générale’s historical archives, B03240.
52 Crédit Lyonnais’ historical archives, 98 AH 13.
53 Ibid., 13 AH 16.
54 The French share in Compagnie franco-espagnole du Chemin de fer de Tanger à Fez was owned by Paribas through GENAROC.
55 Bouvier, Le Crédit Lyonnais, p. 528.
56 Crédit Lyonnais’s historical archives, 98 AH 155 and 156.
57 E. Green and S. Kinsey, ‘Completing the Picture. Records of the National Staff of International Banks since the 1850s’, in T. De Graaf, J. Joncker and J. J. Mobron, European Banking Overseas, 19th-20th centuries (Amsterdam, 2002), pp. 165-77.
58 E. Eldem, ‘Reshuffling Nationality and Ethnicity. The Ottoman Bank Staff from Empire to Republic’, T. De Graaf, J. Joncker and J. J. Mobron, European Banking Overseas, 19th-20th centuries (Amsterdam, 2002), pp. 179-211. E. Eldem devotes many passages to bank staff in his work A History of the Ottoman Bank, especially pp. 421-18.
59 A good example may be found in the photograph of the CFAT agency in Saint-Cloud, Algeria, in Bonin, Un outre-mer bancaire méditerranéen, p. 144.
60 For an Anglo-Saxon example, see the section on the Anglo-Egyptian Bank by Iain Black in ‘Reordering Space. British Bank Building Overseas 1900-1940’, in T. De Graaf, J. Joncker and J. J. Mobron, European Banking Overseas, 19th-20th centuries (Amsterdam, 2002), pp. 91-6.
61 Named after Jean Cabet, Paribas’s Secretary-General from 1963 to 1965 and pioneer in historical archives.
62 These archives were in the collection of BUP, which took over Banque Mirabaud in 1953. Their collection was merged with that of Crédit du Nord and later both were transferred to the Société Générale archives.
63 http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caom/fr/index_irel.html.
64 http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/camt/index.html.
65 See the Ottoman Bank archives and research website at http://www.obarsiv.com/englisharchive.html; also E. Eldem, Banque Impériale Ottomane. Inventaire commenté des archives (Istanbul, 1994) and E. Eldem, ‘Archive Surveys. The (Imperial) Ottoman Bank, Istanbul’, Financial History Review, 6, 1, 1999, pp. 85-95.
66 The inventory may be found at http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/camt/fr/inventairesaq/115aq.html.