MONETARY POLICY OBJECTIVES AND INSTRUMENTS USED BY THE PRIVILEGED NATIONAL BANK OF THE KINGDOM OF SERBIA (1884-1914)
Milan Sojic
National Bank of Serbia
Ljiljana Djurdjevic
National Bank of Serbia
ABSTRACT
In the first thirty years of its operations, key functions of the privileged National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia (1884-1914) were those of a creditor of the economy, issuer of currency and banker to the government. The National Bank’s success in the performance of its functions was mainly determined by the state of government finances. Peace and stability are a prerequisite for economic development and when we look at Serbia’s history from 1884 to 1914, all we see is a chain of wars. In such circumstances, Serbia did make significant economic headway, and the National Bank did do its best to achieve the goal it was set up to perform – to promote trade and economic activity by providing credits.
Keywords: National Bank of Serbia; Central banking; Central bank objectives; History of finance; Financial institutions; Monetary policy.
JEL classification: E58; N13; N23.
Acknowledgements: Many thanks are due to Branko Hinic, reviewer, Sasa Ilic and Sonja Jerkovic from the NBS Archives, and Sanja Borkovic and Olivera Jovanovic from the Economic Analysis and Research Department. We would like to acknowledge their great help in the preparation of the paper and in the processing of a voluminous archive material on the operations of the National Bank in the period under review.
Milan Sojic
Ljiljana Djurdjevic
National Bank of Serbia
Economic Analysis and Research Department
12 Kralja Petra St, Belgrade 11 000, Serbia
Tel.: +381-11-3027254
Fax: +381-11-3027359
e-mail: milan.sojic@nbs.yu
e-mail: ljiljana.djurdjevic@nbs.yu