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The first annual report of the ANPFVM (1899-1900). Source: ANMT 2004 039 2465<\/p><\/div>\n
A large but largely unlauded collection stems from the Association National des Porteurs Fran\u00e7ais de Valeurs Mobili\u00e8res (ANPFVM) \u2013 the National Association of French Securities\u2019 Holders, which began its life in 1898 as the National Association of French Holders of Foreign Securities. (In both instances, a more economic and felicitous translation would perhaps be National Association of French (Foreign) Investors.) The association was founded at the behest of the Ministry of Finances but was officially an arms-length organization, organized under the patronage of the Company of Stockbrokers. Its purpose was to help securities\u2019 owners defend their interests in the event of problems with their returns \u2013 a state that declares bankruptcy, or a company that suspends payments of changes the currency of reimbursement. Bondholders were the association\u2019s especial remit; they enjoyed less authority in the direction of an enterprise than shareholders, and foreign <\/em>bondholders in particular faced obstacles in defending their interests across jurisdictions.<\/p>\n The ANPFVM would help coordinate investors into defense groupings like the bondholders in the Sao Paulo-Rio Grande railway, recorded in the register below. Once assembled as representatives of the majority of bondholders, these groups could enter into negotiations with bond issuers. Backed by the tacit, and sometimes material, support of the French government and the French Exchange, the goal was to achieve a collective outcome that would preserve their investment as far as possible.<\/p>\n The national association’s organizing council was composed of bankers, legal authorities, former finance and justice ministry officials, and members of the governing bodies of the Company of Stockbrokers. Its most active (and activist) members were Eug\u00e8ne Lacombe, a senator, and Tony Chauvin, a bank clerk who parlayed his experience as a junior clerk at the Union G\u00e9n\u00e9rale bank when it crashed in 1882 into a decades-long career in professional investor advocacy. The British Corporation of Foreign Bondholders (founded 1868) was an explicit forerunner, though the French association rejected its corporate model in favour of organizing early as an institution of \u2018public utility.\u2019 (In fact, the British body reorganized as a public-interest institution in the same year.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.6″ src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/riseoftherentier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/269\/2021\/07\/ANMT-ANPFVM-Repertoire1-e1626776705293.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.6″ src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/riseoftherentier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/269\/2021\/07\/ANMT-ANPFVM-Repertoire2–e1626777022780.jpg” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n From the vantage of its present-day archives, the association\u2019s operations (and ambitions) as an information hub are of particular interest. Its archival function was announced in the second article of its statutes. In order to defend \u201cthe capital of national savings invested abroad,\u201d the group would \u201cestablish archives gathering and organizing all documents and information concerning foreign securities issued or traded in France,\u201d maintaining a network of foreign informants and publishing relevant reports and bulletins. In one of its first annual reports the association boasted of its role as an information node at length:<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we reported on the key importance of our archives, where all the documents that we discover relevant to thousands of affairs are gathered and classified \u2013 statutes, notices, circulars, brochures, press writeups, etc. Since then we have completed a large number of these files, enriched most of them, and created 1500 new ones.<\/p>\n The number of newspapers, magazines, etc. that we receive, from France and abroad, has nearly doubled, reaching nearly 900 per month. [\u2026]<\/p>\n Each of these is read, annotated, then cut out and distributed into the files, overlooking not a single affair relevant to French investors. [\u2026] We have the firm hope that one day we will possess the most complete archive on securities it is possible to have.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The association claimed an extensive communication network, encompassing bondholder organizations across Europe, French government ministries, regular correspondence with three hundred French and foreign bankers, as well as 20 000 occasional correspondents, often members of various committees, who forwarded materials for the association\u2019s benefit. It was this mastery of information that provided one of the greatest arms of the association, which, after all, had no authority other than that it acquired from friendly connections and little leverage beyond the power to publicize the situation of bondholders in relation to particular companies.<\/p>\n Founding membership certificate, Tony Chauvin. Source: 2004 039 2467<\/p><\/div>\n There has been little research on the work of this association; certainly nothing matching the level dedicated to its British counterpart. As a result, we are not yet well informed on the scale of its action or the scope of its activity. It was certainly heavily involved in numerous negotiations with foreign states in the period leading up to the Great War \u2013 a peak period of French capital exports \u2013 and played a particularly important role in representing French property interests in Europe in the war\u2019s aftermath, as investments in empires were parceled into the debts of new nation-states. The association adopted a congenial stance towards France\u2019s financial establishment. It invited members of large banks and investment houses onto its committees, encouraging them to see the association as \u201cuseful and disinterested support during critical moments\u201d rather than a hindrance to their affairs. Its influence with bondholders would be \u201cmoderating and pacifying.\u201d Cultivating, educating, and rewarding France\u2019s investor class put the association and the country\u2019s financial interests in alignment. The ANPFVM continues this mission in its current iteration, as the Institut pour l\u2019\u00e9ducation financi\u00e8re du public<\/a>, or Finance pour Tous (Finance for all), a body that maintains close links to the NYSE Euronext and French government and that works within a framework of financial betterment, using a discourse of literacy and inclusion to expand the reach of finance. \u00a0<\/p>\n The association is clearly a group that falls within the ANMT\u2019s remit, and the archives in Roubaix house the bulk of what remains of its organizational and advocacy material. Handsome volumes certify the status of founding members, and metres of annual reports, personnel and accounting documents, and dossiers on individual defense associations allow a reconstruction of the character and work of the association. Fifteen hundred volumes of the group\u2019s library, too, are among its collections, giving researchers access to the informational world that was so important to the group\u2019s mission of making the world safe for French finance.<\/p>\n\n
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