A Zala megyei nemesi pénztár - Egy hitelintézet születése
The Noble’s Bank of Zala County – the Birth of a Credit Institution

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the founding of the noble’s bank, financed from the cash reserves of the rebel army of noblemen from Zala county, and the nearly century-long operation of the institution. By analyzing the composition of the foundation board directly governing the bank as well as the the credit registries from the years 1861 and 1894, we can follow the transformation of the credit institution founded in a feudal environment. The results seem to suggest that this modernization process was rather ambiguous. While there were no changes in the composition of the governing and decision-making body of the bank, that is, in this sense the institution preserved its feudal character, on the “demand side”, as far as the customers were concerned there were obvious differences. The bank, which in the beginning had been open to but a chosen circle due to its feudal bonds, had become more and more available to the non-nobility and even women by the end of the century. The the composition of the beneficiaries of the charitable donations given by the bank also changed as the focus had moved away from the public sector towards civil society.

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