ABSTRACT
When a bank was intended to operate abroad there was also the problem of obtaining permission in the form of a concession or charter before a bank could be fully set up. In some cases the bank was regulated by a charter and the com mercial law of the foreign ‘host’ country while the English capital market was used to obtain its funds. The setting up in 1863 of two banks in Austria provides a case study of the various problems involved when English capital tried to penetrate into new financial territory. It also throws further light upon the activities and aims of a number of London capitalists who were particularly closely associated with such schemes.
