WBHCEE 2026

Place: Institute of History (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague)

Date: September 24–25, 2026

Since the beginning of industrialization, technical and technological modernization in the production of goods/services and intensifying market competition have created an increasing need for capital. Own resources were complemented by capital that entered the companies through family, marriages, admissions of additional partners into the business, loans from individuals, including usurers, and increasingly from financial institutions. Most firms and entrepreneurs, whether large, medium or small, had to establish (at least at certain stages in their life cycle) regular connections with financial institutions. Their role as capital providers (start-up, short-term operational, long-term investment credits/loans, share issues etc.) was accompanied by a wide range of other services to businesses. This often led to strong formal and informal links between businesses and the financial sector (interlocking directorates, cross shareholding, banking concerns, lobbying etc.) and had visible impact (especially in the case of joint-stock banks) at the macroeconomic level (availability and cost of credit as indicator of economic maturity and the modernization potential of the national economy). The relations between business and its financing, and vice versa, represent connections that have grown in complexity and diversity with the development of the capitalist system.

The relations between businesses and financing institutions (or between businesses and its financing in general) have been interpreted differently over time and historiography has repeatedly re-evaluated them. There is a consensus that the nature, intensity and consequences of these relationships have been shaped by the legal system, government, and numerous other formal and informal institutional factors, as well as by the specific characteristic of the industries and macro-regional factors (centre-periphery). Studying the patterns of development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in a comparative perspective promises a deeper understanding of crucial determinants of economic life in this region. This also applies to the era of state socialism, i.e., under conditions of a centrally planned economy, where the terms of business financing differed fundamentally across time periods and between states, as well as to its potential legacies during the period of transformation.

The aim of our workshop is to enhance our understanding of business financing, especially by examining the formation, development, and functioning of relationships between businesses and financial sector in terms of mutuality, complexity, and possible peculiarities in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The call welcomes all relevant submissions related to the general theme of the workshop, including case studies (from the perspective of both businesses and financing entities), papers discussing regional specificities, as well as comparative and broader contributions. We are particularly interested in papers addressing following topics:

Financing business

What were the sources of business financing in CEE (own resources, family, equity finance, debt/credit finance), what were the proportions of these sources, and what were their implications? To what extent were business-related credits available, and for what purposes were they used (start-up, or operational/restructuring, or investment/modernization)? What differences can be observed between large, medium and small enterprises? What were the mechanisms for financing state-owned and private enterprises in CEE and their development during the era of state socialism, and what were the differences between countries?

Company – financial institution relationship

What was the nature of the relationship between financial institutions, including international banks, and enterprises in terms of the wide range of services provided and received? What forms did the ties between financial institutions and firms take (ownership structures, interlocking directorates, concerns)? How can the dependence/interdependence/independence of enterprises in CEE on the financial sector be characterized/categorized (supremacy/control of the financial institution over the company, symbiotic/equal relationship, predominance of the company over the bank, company independent of financial institutions)? What were the macroeconomic consequences of the links between the company and financial institutions?

Regional determinants

How did external institutional factors affect the relationship between businesses and financial institutions (the state and the legal system, business and employer organizations, cartels, etc.)? What other factors – such as political, social, cultural, and national interests – influenced the nature of this relationship and how?

Capital and financial market

When and how did capital and financial markets develop in the CEE countries and regions? What was their structure (diversity of financial institutions, their specialization – joint-stock commercial banks, savings banks, credit cooperatives, pawnshops etc.)? How can financial centres and peripheries in CEE be defined, what were their attributes? How did the distribution of investments and other financial resources operate under state socialism? To which areas of the economies / to which enterprises did foreign investment flow, and how did cross-bloc capital flows work during the Cold War?

Long-term patterns

What were the pathways of the transformation of socialist finances in the CEE countries and what impact did they have on the business sphere? Studying the financial institution-bank relationships in 1990s and early 2000s; how do they differ from pre-socialist arrangements, and/or are there indicators of country-specific path dependencies?

The Institute of History (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague), in cooperation with the European Business History Association (EBHA), invites researchers, including PhD students, from all relevant disciplines to submit paper proposals on these and related research topics.

To apply, please submit an abstract of up to 600 words outlining the research topic, including a clear statement of the research question and brief information on the conceptual framework. The abstract should be accompanied by a two-paragraph CV that briefly describes the applicant’s education, current employment, and research areas.

Submissions should be sent to Barbora Štolleová at barbora.stolleova@ff.cuni.cz by April 17, 2026.

Proposals selected for presentation will undergo a peer review. Accepted presenters will be invited to submit either an extended abstract of approximately 1,500 words, or a paper of no more than 6,000 words. These materials will be circulated among participants before the workshop.

Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel, accommodation, and related expenses.

Organizers: Barbora Štolleová (Institute of History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University), Eduard Kubů (Institute of History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)

Co-organizers: Valentina Fava (Università Ca' Foscari, Venice; EBHA secretary), Martin Gumiela (University of Vienna), Judit Klement (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest), Volodymyr Kulikov (University College London), Tomasz Olejniczak (Kozminski University, Warsaw), Ágnes Pogány (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest), Alfred Reckendrees (Copenhagen Business School), Ivan Smiljanić (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

References

Youssef Cassis – Richard S. Grossman – Catherine R. Schenk (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Banking and Financial History, Oxford University Press 2016.   

Christopher L. Colvin, The Past, Present and Future of Banking History, In: John. F. Wilson – Steven Toms – Abe de Jong et Emily Buchnea (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Business History, Routledge 2017, pp. 89–106.

Robert Cull – Lance E. Davis – Naomi R. Lamoreaux – Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Historical Financing of Small- and Medium-Size Enterprises, Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 30, Issue 11, November 2006, pp. 3017–3042.

Peter Eigner – Ingo Köhler (eds.), Privatbanken in Mitteleuropa zwischen den Weltkriegen. Geld und Kapital. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für mitteleuropäische Banken- und Sparkassengeschichte, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2005.

José L. García-Ruiz – Michelangelo Vasta, Financing firms: Beyond the dichotomy between banks and markets, Business History, 63(6), 2021, 877–891. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1767600

Maximilian Graf, Austrian Osthandel as economic nationalism? Reassessing the role of foreign trade in Austro-Keynesianism, In: A. Brisku – M. Gumiela – L. F. Stöcker (eds.), Varieties of Economic Nationalism in Cold War Europe: Small State Responses to Economic Changes, 1960s-1980s, London, Bloomsbury Academic 2025, pp. 131–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350428676.ch-006

Richard S. Grossman, Unsettled Account: The Evolution of Banking in the Industrialized World since 1800, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2010. 

Svatopluk Herc, Živnostenská banka. Role největší nacionálně české banky v procesu industrializace českých zemí v letech 1869–1914 (Živnostenská banka. The role of the largest national Czech bank in the industrialization of the Bohemian lands between 1869 and 1914), Národní technické museum, Praha 2024.

Geoffrey G. Jones (eds.), Banks as Multinationals, Routledge, London 2012. 

János Kornai, The Soft Budget Constraint, Kyklos. International Review for Social Sciences, Vol. 39, Issue 1, February 1986, pp. 3–30. 

Alice Teichova (ed.), Banken, Währung und Politik in Mitteleuropa zwischen den Weltkriegen, Böhlau, Wien 1997.

Béla, Tomka, Interlocking Directorates of Banks and Industrial Companies in Hungary at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, Business History, 2001, 43(1), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/713999208