The purpose of the next two chapters is to take a closer look at the relationship of financial institutions to individual branches and firms, particularly in the period after 1873. The present chapter deals primarily with the activities of the Vienna-centered banks, while chapter 5 deals with banks located within the Czech Lands. Before going into a micro-level examination, however, it is useful to take a brief overview of the major currents in bank-industry relations throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

From such a macro-economic or macro-historical viewpoint, there were four major periods in the development of the relationship between banks and industry:

1800–53

In this period the capital market was dominated by the National Bank and a few private banking houses. As indicated in the preceding chapter, these banks had little to do with industry. At the same time the capital market as a whole was poorly developed. While in some instances credit was granted by the large banks to aristocrats involved with mining or manufacture on their own lands, both short and long-term credit remained outside the reach of almost all small manufacturers. In several cases the government sought in vain to procure assistance from the banks for a projected joint stock steam engine company, and finally was itself forced to intercede with financial aid. Prior to the 1850s there was little industrial promotion; the few joint stock firms of this period were usually formed by families, or by small groups of business associates, rather than through shares placed upon the market.