21 March 1926
Inaugural general meeting
The inaugural general meeting was held on Sunday, 21 March 1926, in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. On entering, authorised shareholders – those holding at least ten shares – received a ballot paper and two envelopes, one for voting for members of the Bank Board and the Audit Committee and the other for any subsequent ballots.
The meeting commenced at 10.15 a.m., attended by 2,498 shareholders along with the most prominent figures of Czechoslovak political life. Finance Minister Karel Engliš delivered the opening address, in which he paid tribute to Alois Rašín, the chief architect of the Czechoslovak currency, and symbolically entrusted “the most precious national jewel”, the Czechoslovak currency, to the stewardship of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia. He confirmed that all the statutory conditions for the establishment of the bank of issue had been met and highlighted what he felt were the three most important aspects for maintaining a sound and strong currency – good administration (taking care of circulating currency, and absorbing balance of payments surpluses and making up deficits), economic equilibrium between work and remuneration and between production and consumption (maintaining competitiveness and demand) and financial equilibrium (particularly public finance sustainability).
Governor Vilém Pospíšil then spoke. He emphasised the contribution of the Banking Office and the Ministry of Finance to the stability of the Czechoslovak currency and announced that, by establishing the bank of issue and adopting a fixed parity with the US dollar, Czechoslovakia had joined the ranks of “gold standard countries”.
Pospíšil also read out messages sent to him by the Central Office of Trade Unions of the “Czechoslovak Trade Union Association” and by the “main group of shareholders” (comprising the Central Union of Economic Cooperatives, the Association of Czechoslovak Savings Banks, the Union of Credit Unions and the Central Association of Czechoslovak Industrialists), which had submitted a joint list of candidates for election to the statutory bodies.
The election of members of the Bank Board (elected members) and the Audit Committee then took place. The joint list of the “main group of shareholders” received sufficient votes, so the election results could be announced. The meeting continued with the approval of remuneration for members of the Bank Board.
Five minutes before noon, Vilém Pospíšil closed the meeting with the wish “that this successful inaugural general meeting of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia, which fell on the first day of spring, may be the springtime for the development and flourishing of the nation’s economic strength, ensuring the lasting security of our dearly cherished freedom”.