Josef Gruber

(3 November 1865 Luže – 3 May 1925 Prague)

After completing his studies at the Faculty of Law at the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, Josef Gruber worked at the Prague Chamber of Commerce and Trade in 1893 –1907. In the late 1890s, he started to prepare for an academic career, and in 1901, he became a senior lecturer in political economy at the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. He was subsequently appointed Professor of Law and Government at the Czech Technical College in Prague (1907) and later Professor of Political Economy at the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague (1909). While working at the Prague Chamber of Commerce and Trade, he was involved in organisational work in the area of the national economy. From 1895 until his death, he edited Obzor národohospodářský (Horizon of the National Economy), the most important economic journal of that time. He was Chairman of the Czech National Economic Society and Director General of the Economics Institute at the Emperor Franz Joseph Czech Academy for the Sciences, Literature and the Arts in 1900 –1918. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Technical Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, he helped found the State Statistical Office and the Social Institute of the Czechoslovak Republic, of which he became chairman. He held the position of Minister of Social Welfare in 1920 –1921. In his work, Josef Gruber specialised in national economic and social policy. His involvement in the Prague Chamber of Commerce and Trade gave him a detailed knowledge of the needs of Czech industry, which he subsequently focused on in his publications. As an advocate of economic liberalism, he believed that the state and public corporations should concentrate in their practical economic policy on creating the institutional and legal conditions for economic life. Yet he rejected the idea of liberalism seeking to make a profit regardless of the needs and welfare of society as a whole. He published his academic findings mainly in Obzor národohospodářský, in which he also regularly commented on contemporary economic events, and later gathered them into several books on industrial, agricultural, trade and transport policy.

He was heavily involved in educating the general public, especially in the area of the national economy. As a teacher, he was a disciple of Albin Braf, whose collected works he published in collaboration with Cyril Horaček.

 

Josef Gruber in a 2024 engraving by Rudolf Cigánik (born 1961),
created using a photograph © LANGHANS PRAGUE FOUNDATION archive.
Prepared by the State Printing Works of Securities in Prague.

Money in the age of Josef Gruber

For most of his professional life, Gruber encountered the coins and banknotes of the Austro-Hungarian crown currency, introduced by an Austrian law and a Hungarian legal article of 2 August 1892 (one kilogramme of pure gold was used to mint 3,280 crowns, with one crown equal to 100 hellers). Its ratio to the existing currency was 1:2, i.e. one gulden in Austrian currency was equal to two crowns in crown currency. After the break-up of Austria-Hungary, it was abolished in different ways in the different successor states. In Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak currency was separated from the Austro-Hungarian one through a “currency separatiaon” of 9 March 1919 under a law of 25 February 1919. However, the last banknotes and coins were not withdrawn until 1928.

A crown of Austrian mintage and a crown of Hungarian mintage, dated 1892. Minted from 835/1000 silver, 23 mm in diameter, 5 g in weight. The face side features the head of Franz Joseph I with a laurel wreath and ribbon, and a text listing the emperor’s titles. The reverse side bears the denomination, complemented on the Austrian coin with the Austrian imperial crown between two laurel branches and on the Hungarian coin with the Hungarian royal crown in a wreath made of oak, laurel and grain branches with a ribbon. The smooth edges feature the imperial mottos “Viribus unitis” and “Bizalmam az ősi erenyben”. The Austrian coin was designed by Anton Scharff and Andreas Neudeck and minted by Haupt-Munzamt in Vienna. The Hungarian coin was designed by Josef Reisner and Carl Gerl and minted by Magyar kiralyi penzverő hivatal Kormoczbanya (Kremnica).

A gold standard currency (the gold exchange standard with elements of the gold coin standard) was introduced due to a Europe-wide shift away from monetary silver to gold. Austrian coins bore Latin texts and Hungarian coins featured Hungarian texts in different designs. However, they had the same technical parameters and equal validity in both parts of the monarchy. Banknotes of the crown currency were issued from 1900, with their Austrian and Hungarian sides being similar in design. 

Banknote of the Austro-Hungarian Bank with a denomination of 100 crowns in crown currency, second issue, dated 2 January 1910. Paper without watermark, 163×108 mm, copperplate print and letterpress. Both the Austrian and Hungarian sides feature the bosom of an ideal female figure in a check-patterned garment inside a decorated frame, holding a garland of flowers, texts and the denomination in German, Hungarian and the eight other land languages, including Czech. Designed by Koloman Moser, engraved by Ferdinand Schirnbock and printed by Osterreichisch-ungarische Bank, Druckerei fur Wertpapiere in Vienna. Valid from 22 August 1910 until 31 May 1915. Exchanged until 31 May 1921, though in Czechoslovakia only until 9 March 1919. This is one of our most artistically valuable banknotes. It was withdrawn from circulation early due to dangerous counterfeits produced in a counterfeiting workshop run by Bedřich Černy in Podhlasky near Mlada Boleslav. These counterfeits were also intercepted in the district where the Austro-Hungarian Bank had its Prague branch. The note was equivalent in value to almost two months’ wages of a skilled worker or one-month’s wage of a junior office clerk. It would buy about four men’s suits, three ladies’ outfits, 40 shirts, 8 pairs of shoes, more than 300 kg of bread, 40 kg of meat or 600 glasses of beer. At the time it was issued, Austria-Hungary was enjoying its final economic boom. The gold reserves of the Austro-Hungarian Bank exceeded 410 tonnes and covered around 65% of circulating banknotes.