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ISSN 2067-3310, E-ISSN 2067-7669 

Vol. 18, No. 2 (2024), pp. 148-154 

 

148 
 

“THE ECONOMIC MAGAZINE” FROM SIBIU, AN IMPERATIVE OF 

THAT TIME BETWEEN 1898-1918 

 

R. IVAN  

 

Rica Ivan 

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Oradea, Romania 

E-mail: rika_ivan2005@yahoo.com 

 

Abstract: “The Economic Magazine“, particularly meant on the service of the 

Romanian financial institutions, to which was given a common publicity organ ,of which they 

would use of, in all their practical needs and which to contribute for the spreading over of 

futuristic experiments of the ruling circles in the economic life of the Transylvanian 

Romanians, it put its service for the national economic interests by publishing wide lists of 

economic themes useful to all national economic fields .It had a much wider horizon than the 

one strictly connected to the financial-banking relations and interests. In this case, also, the 

Romanians national interests came first comparing to the strictly economic ones. 

Keywords: banking system, banking strategy, financial banking interests, reforms 

banking, expert reviewers, pension found  

 

1.INTRODUCTION  

Understanding the major role and the complexity of economic progress, the 

Transylvanian Romanians promoted in the second half of the 19th century next to vast political 

program also a rich economic program, well contoured multilateral and deepen in.  

In their exertion of economic prosperity and national freedom, the Romanians from 

Transylvania needed functional institutions and organizations through which to be absorbed all 

the energies that the Romanians disposed of potential targeted and directed then towards the 

achievement of centennial ideals and aspirations of national unity. 

On this purpose it was improved and enlarged the activities horizon of the economic 

institutions of which the Romanians from Transylvania disposed of, new institutions were 

created, meant for the economic and financial prosperity of keeping the dignity and increasing 

the national prestige. 

After many attempts and ineffective tries in the economic media field the Romanian 

Transylvanians finally succeeded at the end of 1899 to establish a publication in this field, 

which to be suitable with that time’s exigency. It is about “The Economic Magazine” 

breakthrough. 

The issue of “The Economic Magazine” as an organ dedicated particularly to the 

financial and commercial companies was possible due to high level of development that the 

Transylvanian Romanian banking network had reached. 

Through the complex activity that it displayed and through the collective grouped 

around it, “The Economic Magazine” played the role of a true economic school in 

Transylvania. 

mailto:rika_ivan2005@yahoo.com


Rica IVAN 

149 
 

Just as the Romanian banks, “The Economic Magazine”, the outface in the period 

between1899-1918 the hostile attitude of the Hungarian officiates and of a large part of the 

Hungarian officiates and of a large part of the nationalist Hungarian press. A major role in 

those 20 years from the appearance of “The Economic Magazine” was the one of its managers, 

great personalities of the Romanian culture and science in the first three decades of the 

twentieth century.  

Because of the decisive initiative and help of Cornel Diaconovici, in his quality as a 

manager, appeared in Sibiu, beginning with the year 1899, the first publication in this field of 

the Romanian Transylvanians. 

Militant leader in the cultural purview, Cornel Diaconovici brought himself a major 

contribution for editing “The Economic Magazine “, but also for publishing a large number of 

studies referring to the Romanian Banks Reform in Transylvania (Diaconovici,1899) 

The second great personality in the financial, banking, economic and political domain, 

which had a manager’s and collaborator position of “The Economic Magazine “, was Ioan I 

Lapedatu. 

At the scientific and publicist level, the Transylvanian economist published books, 

studies, articles, consignments and informations with varied themes. In the most prolific years 

of his activity, he practiced all the possible publicist genders. There is also to be remarked his 

particular contribution as a politician, in solving the problems Romania was facing at that time, 

and for elaborating a proper legislation.  

Beginning with 1st January 1908 “editor in charge” of “The Economic Magazine” was 

nominated Constantin Popp, constant and truthful contributor of it. His activity as a highly 

bank officer matched in a perfect way with his publicist activity, together with the leading of 

“The Economic Magazine” (Popp, 1923). 

 

2.The Program and the Themes of “The Economic Magazine” 

The diversity of the programmers and themes of “The Economic Magazine” is 

presented in the next chapter of the doctorate thesis.  

The new stage of the economic development imposed new requirements in the 

Romanian economic thinking and practice, imposed by the new management manners.  

“The Economic Magazine” was from the very beginning an authorized councilor of the 

financial and commercial circles, through its pages being spread the specialized experiences 

and knowledge of those who dedicated their entire activity exclusively to the economic studies.  

Initially, without leaving out agriculture’s problems, the program of spreading 

economic knowledge was primary targeted to financial and accountant matters. 

Tracing the themes’ evolution and the initial program’s appliance of “The Economic 

Magazine”, we may notice that it was initially created with the purpose of serving the interests 

of the Romanian Bank from Transylvania and exclusively sustained by these. But it didn’t 

confine only to dealing bank business, strictly meaning, but also appreciating the interaction 

status between the financial institutions and the Romanians’ economic condition and their 

importance and influence on banks. 

“The Economic Magazine” widened its field of actions and the themes, handling topics 

referring to all aspects of the Romanians’ lives and activities (Lapedatu, 1903: 430). 



“THE ECONOMIC MAGAZINE” FROM SIBIU, AN IMPERATIVE OF THAT TIME 

BETWEEN 1898-1918 
 

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Besides being a publicist means of spreading the progressive ideas and experiences, it 

was also an organ of publicity, which to be directly used by the Romanian banks. 

Appreciating the interaction status between the financial institutions and the Romanians 

‘economic condition, “The Economic Magazine” widened its field of action and the themes, 

handling topics referring to all aspect of the Romanians’ lives and activities (industry, 

exchange, agriculture). 

“The Economic Magazine” for achieving the Romanian banks ‘reunion into a common 

junction, publishing send offs, pointing out books and manuals’ advent conferred a particular 

place.  “The Economic Magazine” militated for the institutionalism’s development in the 

economic, cultural and socio-historic fields. 

The idea of a cultural found of the Romanian banks bestowed by “The Economic 

Magazine” became an integrated part of the programs. The Romanian Banks’ Conference. 

Preoccupied with the perfecting of the Romanian cultural and economic organisations from 

Transylvania, “The Economic Magazine” publishing house considered that this process would 

facilitate the assuming of an as perfect common language as possible for all the Romanians and 

a homogeneous terminology (Diaconovici,1899) 

As an institution, “The Economic Magazine’s” publishing house was forced to develop 

a varied theoretical, practical and utilitarian theme.   

Studying and knowing the economic laws and phenomena, called “The Economic 

Magazine’s” publishing house did not contribute a pure theoretical purpose of its own. It was 

made in the purpose of substantiating ways and trends in which was supposed to be headed a 

certain economy. From the Romanian economists’ point of view, opinion also shared by the 

editors from “The Economic Magazine”, the most important link in the economic organisations 

of the Transylvanian Romanians was the banks. Of their financial strength and ability would 

depend the development’s acceleration of both, Romanian agriculture and industry 

(Diaconovici, 1903). 

The pages of "The Economic Magazine" hosted, next to problems referring, to 

economic processes, also their theoretical interpretation and studies concerning the society’s 

future: socialism or capitalism.  

The crises, its effects and solutions were analyzed by the collaborators of “The 

Economic Magazine", in close relationship with the economic realities in which they 

displaying the Romanian banks' activity, meaning during the periods of economic crises, 

general or partial (Diaconovici,1904: 305). 

 The reflections concerning the crises arisen in "The Economic Magazine" are of a 

preventing nature, not post- factum. 

 The representatives of "The Economic Magazine" made quite some reflections 

concerning the competition and its effects on the Romanian banks with the purpose of tracing 

the ways and means of strengthening their resistance in both, the struggle against the 

competition from inside the Romanian banking system, and in the struggle for survival against 

foreign financial organisations.  

“The Economic Magazine" pondered not only the general concerns respecting the ways 

of development and of the economic progress of the Romanians (Lapedatu, 1906), it was also 



Rica IVAN 

151 
 

preoccupied in elaborating some plans for improving and making efficient activity sectors of 

the Transylvanian Romanians.  

Such an activity plan in a long time framed was the on referring to the Romanian  

banking sector strengthening. 

 

3.“The Economic Magazine” Promoter of the Strengthening and Developing Reforms of 

the Transylvanian Romanian Banking Network. The Support Given for Creating, 

Developing and Perfectioning the Promotor Institutions of the Romanian Banking 

System Reform  

Although the Romanian banks had reached quite high level, still their simple extension 

no longer constituted a rational process. It was imposed the consolidation of the existing ones, 

concomitant with a process of founds’ increase of which it disposed, and of centralization, in 

the possible cases of several banks. This imperative demand of the moment was picked up 

deeply realized by the Transylvanian economists. 

 As a result of the analyses and searches a new Institution was created through which 

to be achieved radical reform of the functioning mechanism of the Romanian banks.  

The institution was given the name of The Romanian Banks' Conferences. 

 The five conferences of the Romanian Banks and the meetings of the Romanian Banks' 

delegation had as a purpose the fundamental reorganization of the Romanian banks guiding 

themselves according to "solidarity and association", principle according to which the reform 

of the Romanian banks were displayed. 

 Initiator of the Transylvanian Romanian banks' reforms of consolidation and 

development, "The Economic Magazine" replied to these needs of the Romanian banks, which 

in that period had to face many forms of competition. From the many lacks the Romanian banks 

were suffering of, "The Economic Magazine" publishing house draws the attention on two 

major categories: 

 a) lack of external control; 

 b) lack of movable assets. 

The Romanian banks had liabilities (deposits, reaccounts), mostly on short-term, which 

in shortage, were about to be paid off in a relatively short time, while the assets, even those 

less strict, most of them, couldn't be achieved but on long-term. 

 The two categories of defects that the Romanian banks were suffering of, could be 

removed according to "The Economic Magazine's" publishing house or through:  

a) the interested circles’ self-action;  

b) or through the state's power. This second way was rejected mainly by the reform’s promoter  

The great virtue of Cornel Diaconovici consists in the fact that while the state's pressure 

on the Romanian banks was exerted, he succeeded to hold forth such reform measures in order 

to avoid the governmental intercession on these. From the Hungarian State, he draws 

everyone's attention; the Romanian banks couldn't wait for any help (Diaconovici, 1899). 

 Cornel Diaconovici showed the Romanians that they needed such financial-banking 

organisation in order to prevent the action of the state legislation through a self-contained social 

action, to consolidate themselves through self-initiative, through their own forces, to use that 

human asset they disposed of, changing over its knowledge and experience into a real factor, 

of national heritage. 



“THE ECONOMIC MAGAZINE” FROM SIBIU, AN IMPERATIVE OF THAT TIME 

BETWEEN 1898-1918 
 

152 
 

 The Romanian banks had reached-according to Cornel Diaconovici - to such a level of 

development, that for surviving for their own interest, they needed to do everything that was in 

their power for their own self-sufficiency .This goal could be achieved only if they themselves 

were willing to elude the inconveniences and the subsidence that were in their lives and 

couldn’t be denied .The stricter and the more rigorous self-imposed the Romanian banks’ 

measurements for the reform would be ,the more they would impose the respect of their self-

sufficiency from the Hungarian authorities.(Diaconovici, 1901: 101)  

There were indicated measures of unconditioned and uninterrupted insurance of the 

Romanian banks’ solvency of avoiding deposits; jeopardize through exaggerated extending of 

the reaccounts, of confirming the public's trust in the banks administration, of of attracting 

available Romanian funds, of ensuring a deeper control from the stockholders and their 

deponents. The whole reform was meant as a social, self- eaction of the interested institutions, 

meaning a spontaneous work, began and achieved at free will. 

 Just as his forerunner, loan I. Lapedatu draw his attention on consolidating the reforms' 

themes, he underlined t the necessity of the reasonable use of the reaccount credit, on improving 

the deposits’ structure.  

Marking out, once again, the shortcomings of the Romanian banking system, Ioan I. 

Lapedatu outlined in the pages of "The Economic Magazine" a new program of the banking 

political strategies, through which it had to stand out to the competitive environment imposed 

by the banks belonging other ethnic groups, meantime consolidating their positions within the 

Transylvanian economy. (Lapedatu, 1906: 261) 

The idea of passing to a new organisation in an institution with its own functioning 

status, provided with executive organs and with their own control organs, was taken over and 

supported. It is about "The Solidarity", an association of the financial institutes, of which, "The 

Economic Magazine" from Sibiu published a large number of pages.] 

 

4.Control Perfecting, Major Component of the Banking System Reform: the Experts 

Inspectors Institution   

Launched and sustained, the idea of controlling in the Romanian banking system, it 

would arouse many discussions for and against predicting, mental changes, the recurrence on 

certain points of view, initially supported. discussions regarding the authorities that should be 

registered with surveillance attributions. 

 But "The Economic Magazine" was the press mechanism that widely and truthfully 

reflected the whole problems of control displayed for two decades.  

It supported within its pages any initiative of establishing Romanian institutions that 

had the vocation to fill the Romanian economic institutionalized landscape, and also to 

contribute to the efficiency of the existent ones by taking over or by decongestion them of some 

duties (Lapedatu, 1906: 237). 

An institution like this was the institution of the expert revisers, strongly supported by 

the magazine's editors, to who belongs the greatest part of the initiative and the practical 

support of establishing, developing and consolidating it.  

Giving a high appreciation for the activity of the reviser experts, the editor's office of 

"The Economic Magazine" was writing about this institution: " it has had throughout its activity 



Rica IVAN 

153 
 

of nearly two decades many difficulties to defeat, but it also had wrathful and beautiful years 

of activity that will never be forgotten, whatever the future will be. The inspectors-experts' 

conferences represent a new stage in the development of the inspectors-experts' institutions. 

 

5.Social Problems and the Insuring Problem of a Retirement Fund for the Romanian 

Banking Clerk   

The problems of the clerk’s retirement were, next to the one of controlling, one of the 

most important ones. 

Disciples of the social solidarity, the editors of "The Economic Magazine " often 

debated the problems connected to the bank officers' level of qualification, but also the of 

insuring a decent living and insuring the future in case of retirement, or of other unhappy 

circumstances that might happen to them. They considered that the banks were interested in 

creating elite officers, whose interests were identified with the bank's interest.  

The forming of a fund for allowance for the clerks is not an act charity, but an economic 

need imposed by the well-understood interests of the bank managers.  

"The Economic Magazine" took care of the retirement issue for their private officers, 

illustrating with many examples and digits many times, a whole series of ways through which 

the pensions of the bank officers could be created and assured. 

 

6. The Banking Institutional Profile’s Enlargement through Establishing Insurance Units   

As a component of the interests of the Transylvanian Romanian banking financial 

circles, the “The Economic Magazine” published an important number of materials, through 

which it fundamental the opportunity and the importance of an insurance bank, exclusive 

property of the Romanian nation. (Lapedatu, 1912: 185) 

After establishing The Bank of Insurance, the "The Economic Magazine" continued 

publishing materials in order to support the development and the consolidation of the insurance 

spirit among the Romanians. In the editors' office vision, the Insurance Bank, in Transylvania's 

condition at the beginning of the XX" century, also received an important educational role. It 

needed to promote not only the idea of saving, but also the one of predicting. 

The insurance Bank constituted a new link that completed the Romanian financial 

institutional system, having the vocation of contributing to the enhancement of the economic 

and financial capacity of the Romanians. 

 

7. The National Unity Idea Reflected in “The Economic Magazine”. Pages Between  1899-

1918 

The establishing of "The Economic Magazine" marked a superior stage in marking out 

the intense economic connections between the two sister countries, but also revealing the unity 

in principle and action concerning the economic area of the Romanians from both sides of the 

Carpathians. It developed a vast program of informing the Transylvanian public regarding the 

dynamics of the Romanian economy between 1898-1918.  

The attention of the Transylvanian Romanian banking circles, the versatile economic 

relationships the businesspersons from both sides of the Carpathians were sustaining reflected 

in the particular care given to the Romanian banking movement.  



“THE ECONOMIC MAGAZINE” FROM SIBIU, AN IMPERATIVE OF THAT TIME 

BETWEEN 1898-1918 
 

154 
 

The editors of "The Economic Magazine" were the exponents of the most interesting 

part of the population in completing and unifying the terms in general, but of the financial- 

banking, in special.  

 

8.CONCLUSIONS  

Established as a means of communication in the service of the Transylvanian Romanian 

banking system, "The Economic Magazine" was forced by unfavorable historical 

circumstances to suspend and reject numerous attacks pointed against the Romanian banks and 

against banks of other non-Hungarian cohabiting nationalities (The Romanian banks were 

blamed of baffling the colonizing plan with the Hungarian population from Transylvania). 

 “The Economic Magazine" published not only materials that testified the 

discriminatory attitude of the Hungarian banks towards the Romanian population, but also 

materials in which were admitted, in an honest way, the activity of the Romanian banks. 

 By reading the pages of "The Economic Magazine", we realize that its editors were 

forced to take great efforts, especially in editing a modern magazine in the hostile Romanian 

business environment, a graphically appropriate one, but also at the highest level, that the 

economic science had already reached from the first half of the twentieth century. 

Conclusion, we may declare that "The Economic Magazine" from Sibiu may be 

considered a cultural institution, with multiple services in the economic, cultural, historical and 

cultural areas. It was an organizational institution meant in the service of the institutional 

development of the Romanian people. 

 

REFERENCES  

1. Diaconovici Cornel (1899), O chestiune de cultură [A matter of Culture], The Economic 

Magazine, VI, nr. 3.  

2. Diaconovici Cornel (1903), O expoziție a băncilor române [An exhibition of Romanian 

Banks], The Economic Magazine, VI, nr. 10.  

3. Diaconovici Cornel (1901), Problemele reformei bancilor [The problems of banks reform], 

The Economic Magazine, III, nr.8. 

4. Diaconovici Cornel (1904), Problema Băncilor în  fața  crizei [Banks problem in front of the 

crisis], The Economic Magazine, VI, nr.36. 

5. Lapedatu I. Ioan (1906), Chestiunea economică română [The Romanian economic matter], 

The Economic Magazine, VIII, nr. 35.  

 6. Lapedatu I. Ioan (1906), Reformele de consolidare [Consolidation reforms], The Economic 

Magazine, VIII, nr.28. 

 7. Lapedatu I Ioan (1906), Chestiunea controlului [The Control matter], The Economic 

Magazine, VIII, nr.25. 

  8. Lapedatu I. Ioan (1912), Banca Generală de asigurare [The General Insurance Bank], The 

Economic Magazine, XIV, nr. 12. 

   9. Lapedatu I. Ioan (1903), La aniversare [At anniversary], The Economic Magazine, nr.52. 

   10. Popp Constantin (1923), Trecutul și activitatea „Revistei Economice" în primii 25 de ani 

de existență [The past and the activity of the Economic Magazine in the first 25 years of 

existence], The Economic Magazine, XXV, nr. 52.  


