Maritime trading company

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Seal of the Royal Maritime Trade

The Seehandlungsgesellschaft was a state company founded in 1772 for the boom in foreign trade in the Kingdom of Prussia . It transformed into a bank in the course of the 19th century and was renamed the Prussian State Bank in 1918 .

founding

The Prussian Seehandlungsgesellschaft was founded at the instigation of Frederick the Great on October 14, 1772 under the name "General Directorate of the Seehandlungs-Sozietät" in Berlin. The Prussian king bought 2100 shares in this company and 300 shares were sold to private individuals.

The company called Maritime Trade was given the sole right to trade in sea ​​salt and the right to stockpile all wax that was produced ten miles from the banks of the Vistula in Prussian territory. The company was to trade with its ships under the Prussian flag mainly to Spain , but also to all other countries, and to maintain a commercial agent in Cadiz . Also on October 14, 1772, a special sea salt trading company, the Prussian Compagnie, was founded, which sold the sea salt imported by the sea trade to Poland and Lithuania . Both societies had received their privileges until 1796.

The shipping company was also active in shipbuilding as a shipping company and built two shipyards in Stettin in 1776, for example . She owned up to 14 ships of her own. The Königliche Seeschiffswerft in Havelberg delivered several seagoing ships to the sea trade from 1779 to 1785.

Early history

Despite the privileges, business was initially poor. Under the direction of Graf von der Schulenburg-Kehnert , the Prussian Company was merged with the Seehandlungsgesellschaft. Business then went better and was expanded significantly. The maritime trade had agents in Hamburg , Amsterdam , Warsaw and Cadiz. In particular, she performed canvas . In 1791 the special rights of maritime trade were extended to January 1, 1808. On March 4, 1794, it lost the stacking right to wax, but was given the right to trade in all goods and to do business of all kinds. The third partition of Poland (1795), which took place soon after, restricted the sales area for salt and the Napoleonic wars also affected the trade of the maritime trading company. This now turned to financial operations and received the administration of the national debt. After the war that Prussia lost against France in 1806, it paid the contributions to France, which caused it to amass heavy debts, as the state could not repay the funds advanced to it from the maritime trade. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, it withdrew the contribution money to be paid by France. This enabled maritime trade to stabilize again.

Slow transition to a bank

Since 1807 the maritime trade was under the Prussian Ministry of Finance. On January 17, 1820, it became an independent financial and commercial institution of the state with unlimited authority. As special rights, she received among other things the purchase of overseas salt, the handling of all financial transactions occurring abroad for the account of the state, the payment of all state debts made abroad, the collection of the money due to the state abroad and the purchase of the goods of the Abroad. The state guaranteed all obligations of the maritime trading company and appointed a board of trustees of three state officials to oversee them.

On May 3, 1821, it was decreed that the profits of the maritime trading company would no longer be transferred to the state treasury, but would instead be included in its capital and that a reserve fund would be formed from it, which the king could also use for state purposes in exceptional cases.

In 1822, the Seehandlungsgesellschaft started the first larger overseas company to sell Silesian textiles to Central and South America on its own ships. This business expanded worldwide and led to the first Prussian circumnavigation of the world with the ship Mentor from 1822 to 1824 , followed by six more circumnavigations with the ship Princess Louise . At the same time, she promoted shipbuilding, also by buying the schoonerbrigg Christian in the United States , which was considered to be a good sailor and was intended to serve as a teaching model for the Prussian shipbuilders. The maritime trade also participated in many other enterprises, such as road construction in Prussia and promoted the construction of railways.

In 1831 Maritime Trade took over steam shipping in and around Berlin and began building barges itself. The mechanical engineering institute and iron foundry of the sea trade in Berlin-Moabit was expanded by a shipyard and introduced a technical innovation in Germany by making the steamship hulls no longer from wood, but from sheet iron. In 1834/35 the first completely iron steamer, the Prinz Carl , was built at the Moabit shipyard. The steam shipping company of the sea trading company drove constantly at a loss. It was accepted in order not to miss the "great advantages which steam shipping grants other countries to the nearest inland waters". In 1848 the inland shipping company began to disband. The company's Moabit industrial company was sold to August Borsig in 1850 .

The maritime trade as a bank

On February 14, 1845 it was decreed that it should no longer carry out any new commercial ventures and leave the salt trade to the tax administration. The maritime trading company was now transformed into a state bank subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. The maritime trading company has slowly withdrawn from its trading business since 1845. The trade in wine , flour and wool was preserved for a long time . The maritime trade also retained many commercial enterprises for many years. Among other things, some textile factories and metal processing companies. Steam shipping on the Spree , Havel and Elbe also continued to operate at sea.

From 1904 the institute operated as the Royal Sea Trade (Prussian State Bank) . In 1918 the sea trading company was renamed the Prussian State Bank (sea trading) . She worked in all areas of the banking business until 1945. With the dissolution of Prussia in 1947, the Prussian State Bank became a so-called "dormant old bank". In 1983 the bank was liquidated and its remaining assets were transferred to the Berliner Pfandbriefbank as legal successor. A small share of the assets of the former Prussian State Bank formed the basis for the Prussian Sea Trade Foundation .

people

Field Office

Service building of the Königliche Seehandlungs-Societät in Berlin, demolished in 1901, corner view
New building for the Royal Maritime Trade in Berlin on Gendarmenmarkt in 1904, general view

In 1777 Friedrich II rented the Domestikenhaus on Gendarmenmarkt, at the corner of Jägerstrasse, built in 1735 by order of Friedrich Wilhelm I for the sea trading company. In 1787, the maritime trade acquired the building and in 1806 had David Gilly carry out major changes. In 1901 the old baroque palace was demolished and replaced by a new building by Paul Kieschke by 1903 . 1936–1939 an extension was built in Jägerstrasse 22/23. After war damage had been repaired, the building complex was handed over to the newly founded German Academy of Sciences in 1946 . Today it houses their successor institution, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW).

literature

Pierer's Universal Lexicon. Volume 15. Altenburg 1862. Pages 742-744

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bibliographical Institute: Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon. Volume 19. Mannheim 1978. Page 257
  2. ^ Albert Röhr: Handbook of German naval history. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1963. page 35
  3. ^ Bibliographical Institute: Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon. Volume 19. Mannheim 1978. Page 257.
  4. ↑ Heinz Burmester: Circumnavigation under Prussia's flag - The Royal Prussian Sea Trade and its Ships , Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1988, pages 24 and 26
  5. ↑ Kurt Groggert: Spree trip is necessary! , Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1972, pages 36-39
  6. ^ Bibliographical Institute: Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon. Volume 19. Mannheim 1978. Pages 257 and 258.
  7. ^ Schlee, Johann Gottlieb, index entry: German biography
  8. ↑ a b c Christian Rother: The conditions of the Royal Sea Handling Institute and its management and industrial enterprises , Deckersche Geheime Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei, 1845, pages 6-9
  9. ^ Rolf Straube: Biographical handbook of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15, part 1 , KG Saur, Munich 2009, pages 921ff
  10. ^ Rolf Straube: Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Justice Officials 1740–1806 / 15, Part 1 , KG Saur, Munich 2009, pages 918f
  11. ↑ Gernot Ernst and Ute Laur-Ernst: The city of Berlin in printmaking 1570-1870 , Vol. 2, page 43, Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2009
  12. ↑ Paul Kieschke: Prussian sea trade, Berlin in the architecture museum of the TU Berlin