Bankowość w wykładach Juliana Dunajewskiego

Abstract

Abstract: Julian Dunajewski was a Polish economist and Minister of the Treasury of Austria-Hungary in the second half of the XIX century. He also lectured at the Jagiello- nian University in Cracow and at the University of Lviv. Unfortunately, he wrote little and his economic thought is known mainly from scripts from the 1870s. These include a discussion of the functioning of banks and the banking sector, as well as Dunajewski's thoughts on the economic consequences of an unregulated banking sector, where banks are free to issue banknotes. The text presents and analyses Julian Dunajewski's views on the functioning of the banking sector and the consequences of unregulated bank money creation. Dunajewski argued that the unregulated creation of money by commercial banks is the cause of business cycles and the decline in the value of money. His views on free banking were compared with the views of contemporary free banking advocates and economists of the Austrian school. The comparative analysis shows the similarities be- tween the views of economists of the Austrian school and Julian Dunajewski on the consequences of money emission by commercial banks. According to both the Austrian school and Dunajewski, excessive bank credit is responsible for business cycles and the granting of credit to the wrong entrepreneurs. Keywords: Julian Dunajewski, free banking, Polish economic thought, Austrian school of economic. JEL Classification: B19, B26, G21