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French banks and public opinion: The public’s negative perception of the French banking establishment (from the 1800s to the 1950s)

Author

Listed:
  • Hubert Bonin

    (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Right from the inception of the money market, the role of financial intermediation by bankers has evoked much resentment and ire against their entire industry. These ‘manipulators of money' have been accused of ‘selling time' by deducting the amount accrued for interest on debt,2 of forcing debtors into idleness by charging usurious rates of interest, and even of gambling away public money on leveraged speculations. Burnings and even (during the French Revolution) the guillotine have routinely purged cities and even entire nations of such money-manipulators. Even as recently as the 1930s, Vincent Auriol had this to say about them, just when he became minister of Finance in 1936 of Léon Blum's Popular Front government: ‘I shall shut the banks and imprison the bankers'. Still today, academics and students fear that French universities will be sold to enterprises and banks, and most of all the risk to their strategic and financial autonomy by opening the doors to the influence of ‘big business'.

Suggested Citation

  • Hubert Bonin, 2016. "French banks and public opinion: The public’s negative perception of the French banking establishment (from the 1800s to the 1950s)," Post-Print hal-03125141, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03125141
    DOI: 10.4324/9781315619347
    as

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