Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/338

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. of the monarchy than the Bank of EngUind does over that country. It was organized in 1816, under the name of the "Austrian National Bank," and from the beginning was endowed with the great powers it now enjo3's. Except for the period lasting from 1848 till the middle of the sixties, wlien the country's resources were drained to exhaustion by the ravages of the Revolution and foreign wars, it has enjoyed great prosperity during its entire existence, and has had a high reputation for stability and sound management. In 1877 it was recog- nized as the Austro-Hungarian Bank, in order to bring it into conformity with the new political status of the country. The capital of the bank is fixed at $.36, .540,000, and the resources have been growing all the time, as the following figures (taken at the close of the respective years) will show :

Coin Reserve Discounts Loans on Securities.. Mortgage Loaus Liabilities Capital Stocic Reserve Fund Circulating Notes Out- standing Mortgage Bond Out- standing Millions of Dollars 1876 1885 1895 1900 65.463 55.050 11.778 10.812 36.540 7.233 120.139 40.576 80.711 55.392 11.050 36.284 36.540 7.348 147.623 32.964 99.101 89.106 18.787 54.522 36.640 13.214 251.661 62.188 2.35.000 105.000

The most important bank next to the Austro-Hungarian Bank is the Austrian Credit Bank for Trade and Industry ( Oesterrcichische Credit-Anstalt fiir Handel mid Gewerbe). Its functions are the same as those of the large private banking-houses of the United States; viz., the promotion of all kinds of industrial undertakings, and negotiating State and provincial loans. It was founded in 1855, with an authorized capital of $40,000,000, which was sub.sequently reduced to $10,000,000, and has branches in the largest cities of the country. Among the other important banks should be mentioned : The Lower Austrian Discount Company, organized 1853 ($4,000,000) ; the Anglo-Austrian Bank, organized 1864, capital $7,000,000; the Austrian Territorial Bank ( Liinderbank ), organized 1880, with $1(1,000,000. mostly French capital, invested in railways, mines, and foreign loans; the Union Bank ; and the General Austrian Mortgage Bank (Bodenkredit-Anstalt), organized 1804. The latter advances loans on real estate by issuing mortgage bonds, which are sold in the open market, so that it practically serves as an intermediary between the real-estate owners and the capitalist who does the actual advancing of money. Its usefulness to the former is in securing for him a lower rate of interest than he would otherwise have to pay, and to the latter in that it assumes the responsibility for the solvency of the debtor. It has proved an extremely useful institution, attracting a large amount of capital from abroad (chiefly France), and distributing it in the agricultural community which has stood in need of it most. Nearly all of these banks have branches throughout the country, thus extending their usefulness as far as possible. An account of the banking system of Austria would not be complete without men- tioning the Vienna Clearing-House {Giro und Casscn-Verein), which, in addition to attend- ing to ordinary clearing-house transactions (see Clearing-House), performs many other ser- vices for banks and business firms. The growth of its transactions is sho«Ti by the following few figures :

In addition to the banks enumerated, there are a number of other banks of minor impor- tance — savings, pawning, mortgage banks, etc. All in all, there are 44 joint-stock banks (be- sides branches and agencies) and 17 private banks in Austria, with a capital stock of more than $120,000,000. The comparatively small number of banks in the country is due to the fact that in Austria the system of branch bank- ing is in vogue. In Hungary the system of small independent banks is more in favor, there being in 1900, 360 banks, with a total capital of about $77,000,000.

The postal savings-bank system has attained a fuller development in Austria-Hungary than in any other country. Besides the savings department proper, in which deposits are accepted for the smallest amounts, there is a check department, in which the minimum deposits are fixed at $40. The use of the post-office as a banking institution has proven of inestimable benefit to the business community, as the facilities thus afforded by the Government for out-of-town remittances, as well as for local payments, are far superior to those offered by any private bank. The postal savings department has thus been converted into a gigantic clearing-house for the entire country. The relative importance of the two departments is shown by the following figures: The number of depositors in the savings department proper increased from an annual average of 783,208 in 1883-90, to 1,527,205 in 1900; their deposits increased during the same period from $8,500,000 to $26,000,000. In the clieck department the number of depositors increased during the same period from 17,808 to 40.271, while the deposits increased from $14,000,000 to $41,000,000. The number of postal savings-banks in Hungary exceeded 4,200 at the end of the century, having 589,000 depositors and over $6, OOO.OOO' deposits. The private savings-banks numbered 550 in Austria, with more than 3,000,000 depositors; over $720,000,000 in deposits, and 731 banks in Hungary, with about $300,000 in deposits. Education. Owing to the diversity of race and language which prevails in the various provinces of Austria, the system of public education presents many differences in the various crown-lands of the Empire. In general, the organization and management of all public institutions of learning in Austria (Cisleithania) are left to the provincial authorities; but these are required to conform to a uniform scheme of instruction established by act of the Imperial Parliament and applied by the