The Bank of Poland (Bank Polski) is the name of two former

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

s in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, each of which acted as a

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a centra ...

. The first institution was founded by Prince Francis Xavier Drucki-Lubecki in 1828 in the Kingdom of

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...

. The second was established in 1924 under the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

by Prime Minister

Władysław Grabski Władysław Dominik Grabski (; 7 July 1874 – 1 March 1938) was a Polish National Democratic politician, economist and historian. He was the main author of the currency reform in the Second Polish Republic and served as Prime Minister of Poland ...

and was liquidated in 1952. Their legacy is continued by Poland's present

, the

National Bank of Poland The Narodowy Bank Polski (; the National Bank of Poland), often abbreviated to NBP, is the central bank of Poland, founded in 1945. It controls the issuing of Poland's currency, the Polish złoty. The bank is headquartered in Warsaw, and has bra ...

(NBP), founded in 1945.

History

The first Bank of Poland was founded in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

in 1828 by Prince Drucki-Lubecki. An institution of the government of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...

, it was entitled with issuance of the Polish currency as well as control over the credit rates. It was also entitled with a concession to operate foreign currencies and buy off credits issued by foreign companies and banks. Throughout its existence, the Bank of Poland was allowed to issue banknotes and coins up to the amount of its

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

(initially 30,000,000 złotych, 42 million in 1834 and 53 million in 1841). As a

legal entity In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...

, the bank also financed a number of important enterprises in the Russian sector of

partitioned Poland Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of ...

. Between 1829 and 1837 it spent a large part of its income on road construction, until 1842 it was also the main sponsor of the coal mining development in the region of Zagłębie and the Old Polish Industrial Area around Skarżysko-Kamienna. Seriously crippled by administrative measures after the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

, after the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

it was made subordinate directly to the Russian Imperial Ministry of Treasury. During the period of liquidation of Polish institutions following the failed uprising, in 1870 it was deprived of the rights of a currency issuing organ and banned from giving long-term credits. The institution functioned until 1885, when it was absorbed entirely by the

State Bank of the Russian Empire The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (russian: Банк России}), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can ...

5 złotych banknote, averse (Poland, 1930)

When Poland regained its independence in 1918, it was lacking a central bank. Following the State Treasury Repair Act of January 11, 1924, minister

created a new ''Bank of Poland'' as a

joint stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

. Its stock was soon raised from the initial 100,000,000 złotych to 150 million, split onto 1.5 million shares. The bank was independent of the government of Poland, though it carried out its monetary policies. As the main

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...

, the

President of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Pola ...

had the right to name the chairman and deputy chairman of the bank's board of trustees. Prior to the Polish Defensive War of 1939 against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, all of the gold reserves (105,000 kg) were evacuated from Poland to the Banque de France in Paris, and then most of it to Canada and London. The Bank continued its functioning in exile, as the central bank of the

Polish Government in Exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

and financed most of its armed forces, while in

occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...

the Third Reich created its puppet

Bank Emisyjny w Polsce Bank of Issue in Poland ( pl, Bank Emisyjny w Polsce, german: Emissionbank in Polen, also translated into English variously as the ''Bank of Issue'', ''Issue Bank'', ''Issuing Bank'' or ''Emitting Bank in Poland'') was a bank created by Nazi Germa ...

(''Emissionsbank in Polen'', Krakau). The German Reichsbank in 1940 issued its own currency, the so-called German "Krakow-Zloty". Until December 31, 1944 the Bank of Poland in exile had a formal

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

for printing currency. Similar to other "

Allied Military Currency Allied Military Currency ("AMC") was a form of currency issued by the Allied powers during World War II, to be issued to troops entering liberated or newly occupied countries, as a form of currency control. Background Historically, soldiers se ...

"-bank notes, American "Liberation banknotes" for Poland were printed in 1944. On 15 January 1945 the new communist authorities of Poland founded the

(''Narodowy Bank Polski'' NBP). In 1946 the remaining pre-war gold reserves weren't returned to Poland, but the

remained in force until 1990. On 7 January 1952 the Bank of Poland itself was liquidated and its role was taken by the Narodowy Bank Polski. The former Bank Polski should not be confused with

PKO Bank Polski Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna (also known as ''PKO Bank Polski S.A.'', ''PKO BP S.A.'') is Poland's largest bank founded in 1919. It provides services to individual and business clients. The core business activity of ...

, which was integrated into the Narodowy Bank Polski in 1975.PKO Bank Polski, see page 4
/ref>

References

External links

* {{Coord, 52.2447, N, 21.0062, E, type:landmark_region:PL, display=title Banks of Poland Economic history of Poland Establishments in Congress Poland 1924 establishments in Poland 1820s establishments in Poland Disestablishments in Congress Poland Companies set up in the Second Republic of Poland de:Narodowy Bank Polski#Bank Polski