Aufsätze (Articles):

Thorsten Proettel, Die Darlehensvergabe der Oberamtssparkasse Kirchheim unter Teck 1907 bis 1913. Eine Sparkasse als regionale Finanzierungsquelle für Gewerbe und Infrastruktur, S. 3–27.

Elena Dickert, Die Rolle der Auto Union AG bei der „Nutzbarmachung“ ausländischer Unternehmen. Auftragsverlagerungen in die besetzten Gebiete während des Zweiten Weltkrieges, S. 28–53.

Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, Direct Line Insurance and the Royal Bank of Scotland, 1985 to 1995: Technology, strategy and diversification, S. 54–72.

Andreas Haaker/ Prick Velte, Zur Geschichte der Zeitwertbilanzierung in Deutschland, S. 73–104.

Ferry de Goey, A Case of business failure. The Netherlands Trading Company (NHM) in Japan, 1859 to 1881, S. 105–125.

ABSTRACTS:

Thorsten Proettel
The Lending of Oberamtssparkasse Kirchheim unter Teck 1907 to 1913: A Savings Bank as a Funding Source for Commerce and Infrastructure
Financing of companies by large joint-stock banks is regarded as a crucial factor explaining the rapid industrialization in Germany. Other financial institutions like savings banks have not played a significant role in scholarly discussions so far. This probably derives from the claims of the majority of authors who have studied the subject: in their view, savings banks could not contribute to commercial lending because they focussed primarily on public debt issues and mortgage loans. This paper is the first empirical investigation which, in the form of a case study, examines which client groups of one savings bank got which loan amounts, and also how the loans were used. It shows that there was extensive commercial lending to craftsmen as well as to small- and medium-size enterprises from the bank, mainly in the form of mortgage loans. Furthermore it describes how loans to municipalities contributed to economic development.

Elena Dickert
The role of the Auto Union AG in the exploitation of foreign companies: Outsourcing to the occupied areas during World War II
German companies received comprehensive shipments of goods produced by enterprises located in German-occupied countries during World War II. Analysis of this issue is largely absent from existing scholarly literature. This article addresses this gap by examining a case study of the means by which the Auto Union AG outsourced work to foreign firms. When dealing with their external suppliers, the Auto Union AG worked clearly for its own interests, and fulfilled the requests of the foreign companies only if there was no other possible solution.

Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo
Direct Line Insurance: A case study on telephone banking and its impact on the competitive performance of the Royal Bank of Scotland, 1985–1995
Direct Line Insurance was born out of the diversification strategies of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Within ten years of its foundation it had become the first retail financial institution to establish a clear competitive advantage based on applications of information technology. Direct Line is best understood as a series of technological and competitive innovations that call into question the extent to which banks’ competencies must change to master alternative delivery channels to the traditional «brick and mortar» retail branch. The success of Direct Line also highlights issues in the incursion of banks into bank assurance and the development of a business model based on fee-income (as opposed to the traditional interest-income).

Andreas Haaker/Patrick Velte
On the History of Current Value Accounting in Germany
It is widely regarded that current value or fair value accounting has been «fuelling» the recent financial crisis. Nevertheless, it was during this self-same financial crisis that it was (re-)introduced for banks by the modernised German Commercial Code in 2009. Ironically, current value accounting was abolished by the German legislature in 1884 on account of the «Gründerkrise». The reasons given by the German legislature 128 years ago, which are entirely apposite to the current crisis, should have been taken into consideration before modernisation of the recent German Commercial Code was effected. In this paper the history of current value accounting in Germany will be discussed against the background of these contradictions.

Ferry de Goey
A Case of business failure. The Netherlands Trading Company (NHM) in Japan, 1859 to 1881
In late December 1880 the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij N.V. (Netherlands Trading Company Ltd. hereafter: NHM) closed its last remaining sales office in Japan. The NHM was probably one of the largest and most successful Dutch trading houses from the mid-1850s. Why did the NHM fail and decided to pull out of Japan? I will argue that the failure was mainly due to the loss of old and profitable networks after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the inability of the NHM to establish the same kind of links with the new Japanese government. The exit of the NHM mirrors the decline of Dutch economic relations with Japan after 1859. The once prominent position of the Dutch was lost to other western countries, notably Great Britain, the United States, France and Germany. The failure of the NHM can hardly be attributed to only exogenous or endogenous factors. The revolutionary changes introduced after the Meiji Restoration could not have been foreseen by any businessmen. The NHM sales offices may have failed in Japan, but the company as a whole continued to prosper in the Dutch East Indies and other markets. Business history is mainly concerned with investigating and explaining the successes of entrepreneurs and shows relatively little interest in business failures creating an unbalanced view of the history of business. The history of the NHM in Japan provides an opportunity to investigate a case of business failure and the many factors that influence entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs often try out new products and probe new markets. When the results are disappointing, they pull out. Failed investments can provide valuable lessons and a company may try to enter the same market again as the NHM did successfully in the 1920s when it opened offices in Kobe, and after the Second World War in Osaka and Tokyo.

Buchbesprechungen (Reviews):

Youssef Cassis, Crisis and Opportunities. The Shaping of Modern Finance (Alfred Reckendrees)

Peter Koch, Geschichte der Versicherungswirtschaft in Deutschland (Peter Borscheid)

Wilhelm Kaltenborn, Vision und Wirklichkeit – Beiträge zur Geschichte und Idee von Genossenschaften (Peter Gleber)

Roman Köster, Hugo Boss, 1924 – 1945. Die Geschichte einer Kleiderfabrik zwischen Weimarer Republik und „Drittem Reich“ (Peter M. Quadflieg)

Tobias Cramer, Die Rückkehr ins Pharmageschäft. Marktstrategien der Farbenfabrik vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co. in Lateinamerika nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Ulrike Thoms)

Olga Viktoronova Erohina, Nemezkoe predprinimatel’stwo w chosjajstwennom komplexe juga Rossii. 1860–1930 – Das deutsche Unternehmertum im wirtschaftlichen Komplex des Südens Russlands 1860–1930 (Hans H. Lembke)

Karl-Peter Ellerbrock, Zur Geschichte der westfälischen Brauwirtschaft im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Matthias Gomoll)

Maximilian Kalus, Pfeffer – Kupfer – Nachrichten. Kaufmannsnetzwerke und Handelsstrukturen im europäisch – asiatischen Handel am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts (Markus A. Denzel)

Veronika Laufen, Der Verband katholischer Vereinigungen Deutschlands 1877–1933 (Giuseppe Franco)