\nThe two
\nprincipalities inhabited by Romanians, Moldova and Wallachia united
\nin 1859. The young Romanian state gained its independence following a
\nwar in 1877-1878, and added Dobrogea to its territory. The third move
\nwas to set up a central bank, a crucial element in building a
\nsovereign country. The institution came to being back in 1880 and in
\nthe following year Romania became a kingdom, which meant that the
\nfresh state got legal personality on the world’s map.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe central bank,
\nalso known as the National Bank of Romania, appeared after the
\npromulgation of a law on setting up a bank for accounts and
\ncirculation, published in the Official Gazette on April 17th
\n1880. It had an initial capital of 30 million lei, out of which a
\nthird was state capital while the other two thirds were private
\ncapital. Its most important mission was to issue banknotes accepted
\nin various transactions and deals.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe first banknotes
\nissued were of 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 lei and its first director
\nwas economist Eugeniu Carada, who linked his name to the
\ninstitution’s early days, its expansion all over the country and
\nthe first issues of banknotes and coins.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe bank’s premises were located in
\ndowntown Bucharest, the old city center and works on these premises
\ncommenced in 1884 under the guidance of two architects from France,
\nAlbert Galleron and Charles Garnier.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\tSince its birth until the First World
\nWar, Romania’s Central Bank offered credits and a lower discount
\nrate. Between 1890 and 1892 the bank shifted from the silver-gold
\nmonetary standard to only gold.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe First World War threw the Romanian
\nsociety in turmoil as it happened with the entire continent. The bank
\nsupported the war efforts just like the entire Romanian society but
\nthe latest developments on the battlefield forced the bank’s
\nrelocation to Iasi, in northern Romania, together with the other
\nstate institutions. Romania’s treasure was transferred to Moscow
\nfor safekeeping during the gloomy days of the war but was never
\nreturned by the Russians. After the end of the Great War, the central
\nbank got the mission to integrate the economy of the Romanian state,
\nwhich had taken back its provinces until then occupied by the former
\nRussian Empire and Austria Hungary.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nAfter the loss of
\nits treasure to Russia and the devastating WWI, Romania’s Central
\nBank got a new mission, to stabilize the national currency and make
\nit convertible. The bank also fought to stabilize the currency and
\ncredit system during the big economic crisis between 1929 and 1933.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nJust like in the previous war, the
\nbank supported the country’s efforts in the Second World War.
\nDuring the war, the bank was forced to hide the country’s treasure
\nat the Tismana Monastery in western Romania, a lesson learnt from the
\nfirst world war.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nIoan Lesenciuc curator with the
\nTreasure Museum of the National Bank of Romania gave us a brief
\nhistory of the treasure odyssey in mid-1940s.<\/p>\n
Ioan Lesenciuc:
\nRomania
\nmanaged to recover its gold resources between the two world wars but
\n1944 proved to be another bad year. After the battle of Stalingrad,
\nthe German troops had to fall back and the Soviet advance was
\nthreatening the treasure housed by the bank. In April 1944, the heavy
\nallied bombing of the oil fields in Ploiesti and Campina, southern
\nRomania, as well as the capital Bucharest proved to be another threat
\nfor the bank. The authorities decided to move the treasure to safer
\nplaces and talks were held with representatives of two countries,
\nTurkey and Switzerland. Turkey announced that its laws didn’t allow
\nfor the transfer whereas Switzerland voiced readiness to host the
\ntreasure adding that the passing of the convoy through Central
\nEurope, under German control at that time, wouldn’t be a good idea.
\nGeneral Antonescu who was ruling Romania at that time said, the
\ntreasure must remain on the Romanian territory and not be divided. He
\ngave the bank the green-light to hide the treasure wherever it
\nconsidered safe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAfter the end of the war, Romania
\nentered a new era, communism, and its political regime brought major
\nchanges to the national economy, which was being controlled by the
\nstate. The national bank became state-owned and the credit system was
\nreformed after the Soviet model. Until 1970, the taxes and interests
\nwere controlled by the state but after 1970 the bank was allowed to
\nmake its own decisions. Construction works on the new premises of the
\ncountry’s central bank started in 1940 and the new building was
\ninaugurated ten years later.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAfter the fall of the communist regime
\nin 1989, Romania’s Central Bank resumed the prerogatives it was
\nstripped off between 1945 and 1989.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starting mid-19th century the Romanian authorities took all the steps towards the construction of the new sovereign state. One of these steps was the setting up of a central bank<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":69454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[35241,45589,39711,30788],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-bank","tag-carada","tag-central","tag-wwi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n