PROKUPLJE COOPERATIVE

Abstract

With the acquisition of independance, Serbia turned to European civilization trends and the westernization of its society. The desered transformation required large amounts of money, and since it was a country with extensive agriculture sa the main branch of the economy, money for investmensts was a constant problem. The establishment of private financial institutions at the local leves was supposed to provide financial means to stimulate the economy. Banks were established in the districts annexed to Serbia after the Congress of Berlin, as well as in the north of the country, and one of the first to start operating was the Prokuplje Cooperative. Conceived as an institution thar should primarily help its shareholders, this institution operated successfully until the Balkan Wars, when, due to mobilization, banking operations related to income were under a moratorium. The outbreak of the WWI interrupted all kinds of work. The suffering of the population and large material losses set hth Sebrian economy back a decade. The Prokuple cooperative opened its counters only in the middle of 1922 and faced the problem of insufficient financial resources. In the following years, shareholders receive dividends thanks to the collection of pre-war bills from the Liquidation Bank. The inability to increase the capital of the bank led to the liquidation of this institution, which was completed in 1926. This bank is one of the examples of institutions that were managed primarily as institutions to facilitate business for their shareholders, but which failed to continue operations after the WWI due to the inability of shareholders to increase its capital.