ПОКУШАЈИ ОСНИВАЊА СРПСКОГ НОВЧАНОГ ЗАВОДА У СКОПЉУ ДО 1912. ГОДИНЕ
THE ATTEMPTS AT FOUNDING THE SERBIAN MONETARY FUND IN SKOPLJE TILL 1912

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Serbian craftsmen in Turkey, mostly artisans and merchants, as well as the agricultural tenants, suffered from the shortage of the loans as the usurers` interest rates were around 200 % and sometimes went up to 400 % a year. A partial way out, from the year 1901, in bigger towns, was found in the secret church funds which were established under the auspices of the Serbian local orthodox churches. In Skoplje, however, beside the similar monetary fund, the private monetary organization did not have success under the Old Turkish regime. This paper presents the efforts made in this direction in the last years before the Liberation. The paper gives insight into the great efforts that the Serbian officials, especially the General Consulate in Skoplje, made in order to realize the idea of the Serbian monetary fund in Skoplje. The financial weakness of the Serbian businessmen was the constant and great obstacle to achieving it. One could not find in the whole of Skopska eparhija but a 4 to 5 men which were wealthy and capable enough to establish and run a joint-stock company even of a very modest deposit of 200,000 dinars out of which half was to be given by the National bank of Serbia. Wealthier businessmen from the western parts of the Old Serbia who were unwilling to leave their buisnesses and move to Skoplje, were appealed to do so. As it was believed that the Serbian bank in Skoplje should, beside the economic one, have a national goal, too, the decision was finally reached that the Serbian state should secure from its regular and special funds 10 to 20 million dinars which could have otherwise been secured neither from the stocks nor by the National Bank of Serbia. The upcoming war with Turkey stopped further efforts; period from October 1912 to October 1915 was too short for achieving the lasting solutions, so the Serbian bank in Skoplje had to wait for the Liberation of 1918 and the creation of a new state. The paper is based on the unused documents from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Archives of Serbia in Belgrade out of which only several were published. It is the continuation of the works on Serbian banking in Old Serbia and Macedonia under the Turkish rule.

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