Banco Nacional de San Carlos shares

One of the most interesting document collections held in the Banco de España’s Historical Archive is the collection of Banco Nacional de San Carlos shares. It is a unique set of documents that identifies almost all of the Bank’s first shareholders and shows how ownership was distributed. Banco Nacional de San Carlos issued 150,000 shares, each with a par value of 2,000 reales de vellón. These were subscribed, between 1782 and 1785, by individuals and institutions from all sectors of society, including the nobility, the military and the clergy, merchants, banking houses, towns and villages, cooperatives, estates, chaplaincies, charities, hospitals, individuals and a lengthy list of shareholders of all kinds, a reflection of society at the time.

The Historical Archive holds almost 149,000 of the 150,000 shares issued. A selection of 4,277 shares – including at least one for each shareholder – has been uploaded to the Repository. To facilitate searches, the use of the subjects contained in the descriptive records is recommended.