Bankruptcy of the Tula City Public, I.D. Sushkin, Bank: A historical excursion

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of bankruptcy of public banks in provincial Russia in the 80s of the XIXth century. On the example of the "Tula city public, I.D. Sushkin, bank", the process that covered a significant part of the city public banks at this time is considered. The reasons for the mass phenomenon were the absence of necessity for the Russian business of a variety of forms of credit institutions, a shortage of banking specialists. The new banking sector of the economy had no work experience yet, there were gaps in regulatory law, and control by supervisory authorities was insufficient. The main sources of the study were the documents of the State Archive of the Tula region and the memories of the participants in the process. Using the source analysis and historical-comparative, analytical, system, typology methods, the authors restored the chronology of the bankruptcy procedure. The reconstruction was carried out based on the legal norms of this period. The bank was one of the eleven municipal public credit institutions opened in the Tula province in order to resolve financial issues of local governments. Due to objective and subjective reasons seven banks were soon closed. The incompetence and self-confidence of the managers, lack of responsibility, manifested in the investment of resources in poor-quality assets, their inability and unwillingness to assess the creditworthiness of borrowers, led to the liquidation of this credit institution. The authors established the role of the creditors ' meeting, sworn trustees, private attorneys, Bankruptcy Management, the Tula District Court, and the Moscow Court Chamber in the bankruptcy procedure. In conclusion, the authors determine the contribution of the "Tula City Public, I.D. Sushkin, Bank"to the formation of the institution of lending in provincial Russia in the 80s of the XIXth century.