BANKING IN 19TH-CENTURY GEORGIA(BANKING INSTITUTIONSIN KUTAISI GOVERNORATE)

Abstract

The article describes the period of Georgian history (the second half of the 19th
century), when the long-suffering Georgian society, caught in the clutches of Russian
imperialism was looking for ways of self-preservation and a solution. The nobility
considered the Land Bank to be the only pillar for maintaining rank and property
advantage. The financial affairs of the bank in Tbilisi and Kutaisi were accompanied
by contradictions, difficulties, and ideological and class disagreements among likeminded
people; this largely hindered the completion of beneficial financial affairs for
the country.
The article clearly shows that the bank should not have been an organization
of the privileged and a source of their enrichment, a defender of class interests, or a
place of confrontation, but rather a profit-oriented general public institution based on
democratic principles.
The article, on the one hand, presents various spheres of political and socioeconomic
life in Georgia and the connection with the banking sector and, on the other
hand, the charity provided by the bank from specifically established funds to various
educational institutions, students of higher education institutions, schools, theater,
the Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians, and private individuals.
The article informs the readers that the Land Bank of Tbilisi and Kutaisi honorably
fulfilled its mission and left its imprint on the material well-being of the Georgian
nation