Dear Mr Pebereau,
As you are probably aware, the Archives of BNP-Paribas have started
major destruction of key historical material.
At that stage, part of Comptoir d'Escompte archive, including
important files dealing with government loans are already gone.
We know from various sources including written confirmation by Pierre
de Longuemar from BNP Paribas Historical Association, a copy of which
we have seen, and a variety of other insider sources that other
destructions are planned or underway, although Mr de Longuemar insists
that he does not know the exact extent of these plans.
With material gone and material ready to go, entire parts of French,
European and international financial and political history are about
to be sent to the shredding machine.
The materials that have been destroyed, and those apparently scheduled
for destruction, are an invaluable resource for current and future
historians. They are part of our shared inheritance that happen to
have been consigned to your bank's custody, but they belong to
humanity.
We have no idea why these decisions were taken. They form a complete
reversal of earlier policies by BNP-Paribas, which under your
direction made sure that its archive was widely available to the
largest public.
We urge you to suspend the destructions and appeal to your past
experience of good relations with the academic community, as a teacher
at Sciences Po where your contribution was appreciated, and member of
the FNSP board, which we understand established your commitment to the
relevance of research and higher education.
We also urge you to reestablish as soon as possible the free access to
archival material that used to prevail in the past and has been
discontinued recently. This decision we view as critical.
We will also be happy to meet you, in case you so desire, to pass on
to you the international community's extreme concern and state of
shock.
Yours truly,
Professor Forrest Capie, Official Historian, Bank of England, United Kingdom
Professor Youssef Cassis, University of Geneva
Professor Roberto Cortes Conde, Member of the National Academy of
Economic Science and History, Argentina, Emeritus Professor of
Universidad de San Andres, Argentina, Honorary President of the
International Economic History Society.
Professor Marcello de Cecco, Director, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy
Professor Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee
Professor of Economics and Political Science, Universoty of California
at Berkeley, NBER and CEPR.
Professor Marc Flandreau, Graduate institute, Geneva, Professeur en
détachement de l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, and President,
European Historical Economics Society CEPR, London.
Professor James Foreman-Peck, Cardiff Business School, United Kingdom.
Professor Harold James, Princeton University, and Marie Curie
Professor, European University Institute.
Professor Carlos Marichal, Centro de Estudios Historicos, El Colegio de Mexico.
Professor Manfred Pohl, European Association for Banking History, Frankfurt.
Professor Isabel Schnabel, University of Mainz, MPI Bonn, and CEPR
Professor Toshio Suzuki, Tohoku University, Graduate School of
Economics & Management, Japan.
Professor Gianni Toniolo, Research professor of Economics and History,
Duke University, USA, Professor of Economic History, Libera
Universita` delle Scienze Sociali, Roma, Research fellow, CEPR,
London.
Marc Flandreau
Professor of International History and Politics
Professor of International Economics
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Case postale 136 - 1211 Genève 21 - Suisse
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