COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 45

In 1914 the A. Schaaffhausen’scher Bankverein was absorbed by
the Disconto-Gesellschaft. The main reason for this fusion was to
enable these two combined banks to meet the keen competition in
the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial district arising out of the recent
fusion of the Bergisch-Mirkische Bank with the Deutsche Bank.
For the purpose of carrying out that fusion the Disconto-Gesellschaft
 increased its capital stock to 800,000,000 marks, and thereby
became the leading German bank. The A. Schaaffhausen’scher
Bankverein retains its old name under the new arrangement.
2. The Disconto-Gesellschaft at Berlin, founded in 1851. It is
associated with the Rothschild group.
3. The Bank fiir Handel und Industrie at Berlin, which was
founded in 1853, with the participation of the A. Schaaffhausen’scher
Bankverein, among others. It first had its headquarters at Darmstadt
because no concession could be obtained at that time for a jointstock
 banking company either in the free town of Frankfort-on-the-Main
 or in Prussia. It is commonly called from its original location
the Darmstidter Bank.
4. The Berliner Handelsgesellschaft, at Berlin, founded in 1856.
5. The Deutsche Bank, at Berlin, established in 1870.
6. The Dresdner Bank, founded at Dresden in 1872; in 1881 it
transferred its center of activity to Berlin by the establishment of a
branch there.
7. The Nationalbank fiir Deutschland, at Berlin. established in
1881.
The name of the Darmstidter Bank—* Bank for trade and industry
 ”—marked a real public purpose in the minds of its founders;
 and this purpose included foreign as well as domestic trade.
Its first business report for 1853 said: “Its offices at home and
abroad are intended to facilitate export and the thousand and one
relations between German industry and the money market.” As
early as 1854 it formed a silent partnership (commandite) at New
York with G. von Baur &amp; Co.!
It was not till after 1870, however, that the aggressive forward
movement of German trade and industry really began, and the
Deutsche Bank and the Disconto-Gesellschaft were the first banking
 institutions to show great activity in this direction. The charter
of the Deutsche Bank, established in 1870, contains the following:
“The object of the company is the transaction of all sorts of banking
 business, particularly the fostering and facilitating of commercial
 relations between Germany, the other European countries,
and over-sea markets.” 2 (See p. 62 and chart facing p. 62.)
TC 1 Riesser, op. cit, pp. 49, 61, % Ibid., p. 421,