Chamber of Commerce
Chambers or commercial chambers (also commercial chambers , trade Deputations , commercial elders quorums ) are organs (self) representation of the commercial and industrial interests in a State or a particular region.
history
Merchants from the Middle Ages
The idea of merchants helping themselves through mergers goes back to the Middle Ages. In 1451, for example, the parents ( Olderlüde des Koopmanns ) of the Bremen merchants had a statute. It was the previously recognized representation of interests vis-à-vis the City Council of Bremen and this body, which was later also called the Collegium Seniorum , became the Bremen Chamber of Commerce in 1849 as the "State Agency for the Promotion of Trade and Shipping". The Commerz-Deputation was founded in Hamburg in 1665 to represent the interests of merchants , which was then named Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 1867 . 1675 founded the Lübeck commerce college and this merchant College in 1853 for merchants summarized. At the same time a first chamber of commerce was established and it was not until 1937 that the two bodies were merged into a Prussian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The formation of a chamber of commerce for the administrative regions of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg with its seat in Würzburg was approved by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1843 .
France
In France , the first Chamber of Commerce arose in 1599 in Marseilles , based on the merchant class; in 1700 and 1701 the French government set up several such institutes. Abolished during the revolution in 1791, they were reorganized under Napoleon I in 1803. Their functions were additionally determined by later government decrees and laws. According to this, in France there are the chambres de commerce, the trade councils, and the chambres consultatives des arts et des manufactures, the trade and factory councils. The former encompass larger and industrially as well as commercially diverse districts; their costs are paid for by all patent holders of the individual districts, while the chambres consultatives des arts et des manufactures are maintained by the cities which own them. In the chambres de commerce traders and tradespeople can be elected without distinction.
distribution
From France the establishment of the same spread over most of the other countries. The first Chamber of Commerce in what is now Germany was founded in Mainz in 1803 as Chambre de Commerce on Chaptal's decision of the 3rd nivôse of the year IX (December 23, 1802) . In some other countries (such as in England , then in Baden 1862-78 etc.) they only consist of freely formed associations. In most of them they have a legally recognized public position with a contribution obligation from those involved. B. in Prussia the contributions to cover costs are raised through surcharges on the trade tax, advisory vote for safeguarding the needs of trade and industry with the purpose of mediating between the trade stand and the government, reports, applications and expert opinions in support of the authority. In many cases, they are also granted certain supervisory and administrative powers (supervision of stock exchanges and other trading institutions). For the first time in this modern sense in Prussia and Germany, this is happening in the first large industrial conurbation in Germany in Wuppertal or the twin town of Elberfeld-Barmen, as it was then called. The first modern chamber of commerce and industry was established here as early as 1830.
June 22, 1830 - Approval of the new status of the Chamber of Commerce of Elberfeld and Barmen. For the first time, entrepreneurs are given the right to regulate their affairs independently and to choose their representatives themselves. The chamber is supposed to represent the interests of the overall economy of the district and advise administration and politics in all questions relating to the economy. The statute became the model for the Prussian and later the all-German chamber legislation.
This later continued in other regions too, for example in Lübeck in 1853. In Bremen , the Chamber of Commerce, which emerged from the “Collegium Seniorum” founded in 1451, has its seat in Schütting .
In Prussia the chambers of commerce were regulated by law in 1848 and 1870. They are erected with the approval of the Minister of Commerce. The members of the chambers of commerce are elected by the owners of the companies entered in the commercial register. Similar to Prussia, the chambers of commerce were set up in Baden in 1878. In some federal states (Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg) the chambers of commerce are linked to chambers of commerce in the interests of small traders; in Austria, where the chambers of commerce have more extensive rights and obligations than in Germany, they usually consist of a trade and a trade section. In Bavaria, where in 1868 a chamber of commerce was established for each administrative district in conjunction with departments for the trades, the district committees form sub-departments of the chambers of commerce, which include parts of the district of the latter and have the same seat and vote. The whole of Germany has over 200 chambers of commerce under various names, with very different constitutions and administrations. In Belgium the legally organized chambers of commerce were abolished again in 1874. In most countries the chambers of commerce have to submit an annual report on the development of trade and industry. The chambers of commerce are not to be confused with the chambers for commercial matters, which in Germany form departments of the court (see commercial courts ).
National
Germany
In Germany there are currently 78 regional chambers of industry and commerce (IHK) and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. These are autonomous public corporations of economic self-administration and represent the interests of their associated companies vis-à-vis municipalities, state governments as well as politics and the public. Due to the very low turnout in the representative elections of the chambers, the representativeness of the chamber representation is only limited.
Due to the legal membership of their members, the chambers have no general political mandate.
As the umbrella organization, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( DIHK ), on behalf of and in coordination with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, represents the interests of the German economy vis-à-vis the decision-makers in federal politics and the European institutions. All tradespeople and companies with the exception of pure craft businesses, agriculture and freelancers (who are not registered in the commercial register) are members of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce by law and must pay contributions in accordance with the statutes of the respective chamber.
Within the framework of dual vocational training and various further professional training certifications, the chambers are the examining body and appoint i. d. As a rule, the examiners from the groups of employers, employees and vocational school teachers are divided into three.
Criticism of the chambers arose u. a. the legal membership, against which an association of entrepreneurs is opposed, as well as a lack of transparency.
In the course of judicial proceedings, several chambers were obliged to limit their reserves to an appropriate level and to take them into account when collecting contributions.
The foreign trade relations of German companies in 90 countries around the world promote 130 German chambers of commerce abroad , delegations and representative offices (AHK) of German business that are organized on a bilateral basis . For the AHK, the DIHK takes on the task of coordinating the Federal Ministry of Economics and other domestic institutions. The Federal Government carries out state foreign trade promotion through these chambers of commerce abroad with an annual budget item currently amounting to around 40 million euros.
Austria
The Austrian Chambers of Commerce were founded as early as 1849, with compulsory membership and the right to assess draft laws and regulations. After amendments in 1850, 1868, 1920 and 1937, the representation was redesigned by the Chamber of Commerce Act 1946 (last amended in 1995) and called Chambers of Commerce . With the Chamber of Commerce Act 1998 (WCG), the original chambers of commerce were finally in the Chamber of Commerce Austria converted (WKO) and its national organizations: special chambers of commerce were untimely for the export-oriented country and the EU accession of Austria a major chunk of foreign trade relations a matter of the internal market.
At the federal level there is still the ICC Austria - International Chamber of Commerce as an agency. There are also, for example, the Swiss-Austria-Liechtenstein Chamber of Commerce , the French-Austrian Chamber of Commerce (CCFA), the Austrian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce (AICC) and the Croatian-Austrian Chamber of Commerce as transnational organizations . Mutual representative offices exist with other countries, consistently at the diplomatic missions abroad, for example in the form of a trade department of the Austrian embassy through Aussenwirtschaft Austria as an organization of the Chamber of Commerce, or similarly in the representations of foreign countries in Austria .
Switzerland
There are 18 cantonal and regional chambers of commerce in Switzerland. Most of them were founded in the second half of the 19th century as the modern Swiss federal state emerged. With the shift of competence to the state, the influence of interest groups became more important. By far the oldest chamber of commerce in Switzerland is the St.Gallen-Appenzell Chamber of Commerce and Industry , whose origins go back to the 15th century. After the founding of the Canton of Jura in 1979, the youngest Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland was established.
The chambers of commerce are associations under private law and represent the interests of their member companies towards the authorities and offer them various services. In contrast to Germany or Austria, there is no compulsory membership for companies in Switzerland. Together with the Liechtenstein Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the cantonal chambers of commerce are merged in the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SIHK).
literature
- Roland Zeise: On the genesis and function of the chambers of commerce and the German Trade Conference up to the establishment of the Empire in 1871 . In: Yearbook for Economic History 1976/4 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1976, pp. 63–81 ( digitized version of the entire yearbook ).
Web links
- International Chamber of Commerce with lists of chambers of commerce worldwide.
Germany:
Austria:
- ↑ ICC Austria - International Chamber of Commerce ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , wko.at service contact page .
- ↑ Chamber of Commerce Switzerland-Austria-Liechtenstein (hk-schweiz.at)
- ↑ French-Austrian Chamber of Commerce (ccfa.at)
- ↑ Austrian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce (aicc.at)
- ↑ Croatian-Austrian Chamber of Commerce (cro-aut-chamber.at)
Switzerland:
Individual evidence
- ^ Sybille Grübel: Timeline of the history of the city from 1814-2006. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. Volume 2, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 1225-1247; here: p. 1228.
- ↑ IHK Wuppertal on the 175th anniversary in 2005.
- ↑ Judgment of the Hamburg Administrative Court on New Year's Eve speech on December 31, 2015. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from September 20, 2016.
- ↑ a b c Chamber of Commerce , AEIOU Austria Lexicon .
- ↑ At the time of National Socialism, see Stefan Eminger : Die Politik der Österreichischen Handelskammern 1930 - 1938 (pdf; 108 kB; 7 pages; univie.ac.at), accessed on March 28, 2019.
- ^ Robert Piller: Chambers of Commerce. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . March 24, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
