Considerations Regarding the Socio-Professional Status of the Romanian Clerks Working for Credit Institutions in Transylvania at the Beginning of the
Consideraţii privind situaţia socio-profesională a funcţionarilor instituţiilor de credit româneşti din Transilvania la începutul secolului XX: studiu

Summary/Abstract: The interest for such a subject is natural if we take into consideration the insufficient treatment the subject has been given in different syntheses and studies concerning banking history. It deserves a particular attention because it can provide specialists with quantitative information about the clerks, alongside with the qualitative information regarding the functionality of the modern Romanian banking system in Transylvania. The spectacular development of banking institutions – the archives record 168 units –, as shown by their good management and quite febrile competition, must clearly be related to the involvement and the quality of clerks’ financial activities. In this regard, by making use of the statistics taken from The Romanian Banking Yearbook from 1913, our study intends to reveal the socio-professional structure of the bank clerks. All data will be analysed in connection with the clerks’ (mainly managers’) professional training, within the context of the debates generated by the reformation of the Romanian banking system, as represented by the actions undertaken by “Solidaritatea” at the beginning of the 20th century . We will also present the clerks’ endeavours to constitute a powerful professional body, having its own particular status, different from that written in The Loan Institutions Executive Regulation, which aimed to specify the duties deriving from the results specific to their activities. The statistic data corresponding to the zenith stage of the modern Romanian loan institutions in Transylvania offer a real paradox, especially for those less familiarized with the intellectual formation of the national elite. Thus, layers and priests and only few by clerks who had pursued higher or intermediate level economic studies held a large majority of manager positions. This situation was caused by the traditional tendency of the Romanian elite to attend theology and law, preferring free professions, like priesthood or law, which were somehow less controlled by the institutions of the Dualist Crown. Still, the research regarding the functionality of the Romanian banking system generally reveals a strong financial activity as a result of the respect paid to the general regulations and requirements characterizing the modern loan system. Secondarily, though not as a completely insignificant aspect, we have to keep in mind the prestige these bank clerks attained in the church hierarchy or within the juridical system. By investigating their professional training, mainly that of the managers and the accountants, one can notice that, during their high or intermediate studies, some took courses in fields like book-keeping, general economy, economic doctrines or commercial and financial law. Thus, they were able to enrich their knowledge on financial and banking issues and at the same time acquire practical knowledge by practicing these activities.

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