There were no banks in the state until 1806, when a state bank (controlled by the state) was established which was finally closed up in 1845, although as early as 1812 a law was passed to close it.
The first private state bank was opened in 1817; an act of 1831 provided for a safety fund guaranteeing bank circulations and derived from a 41% tax on capital stock and a 1 o% tax on profits; but this law was modified in 1842, the tax being removed from banks giving specie guarantees; and a free banking act was passed in 1851.
In 1845 the legislature chartered for twenty years the State Bank of Ohio, based on the model of the State Bank of Indiana of 1834.
At the close of the Crimean War a British bank was opened in 1856 at Constantinople under the name of the Ottoman Bank, with a capital of £500,000 fully paid up. In 1863 this was merged in an Anglo-French bank, under a concession from the Turkish government, as a state bank under the name of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, with a capital of £2,700,000, increased in 1865 to £4,050,000 and in 1875 to £10,000,000, one-half of which is paid up. The original concession to the year 1893 was in 1875 extended to 1913, and in 1895 to 1925.
The burning points of controversy were the magyarization of the Hungarian regiments and the question of the separate state bank.
