The St. Petersburg merchant bank: from money changer to joint stock commercial bank

The article examines the history of the St. Petersburg Merchant Bank as one of the examples of banking institutions turning into joint stock commercial banks. This transformation as a logical economic phenomenon originated in Russia in the early 1910s. The “G. Wawelberg” banking house was one of the oldest private banks in the Russian Empire. It was opened in Warsaw in 1848 as a small money changer, with its affiliate being launched in St. Petersburg in 1870. Throughout its existence the “G. Wawelberg” banking house retained its family character representing one financial clan of Jewish descent. It was developed into the two joint stock banks, namely, the St. Petersburg Merchant Bank in 1911 and the Western Bank in 1913 in Warsaw. It is important to study the history of banking at large and the activities of particular banks in order to understand the particularities of Russia’s economic development as well as social and political processes taking place in prerevolutionary Russia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the banking houses were losing their significance. They found it difficult to compete with large joint stock banks with bigger assets which were supported by the government, enjoyed close ties with foreign banks and had an extensive network of affiliates and subsidiaries in various cities of Russia and Europe. That is why the “G. Wawelberg” banking house like a number of other well-known banking houses were transformed into joint stock commercial banks.