Ion I. Lapedatu

Family

Ion I. Lapedatu was the son of Ioan Alexandru Lapedatu, Ph.D. of the University of Brussels, professor for classical languages at the Higher Greek-Orthodox Romanian College in Brașov (today, Andrei Şaguna National College), Romanian poet, writer and journalist. He had a twin brother, Alexandru I. Lapedatu, historian, politician and President of the Romanian Academy.

The twins became orphans when they were one and a half year old.

Ion I. Lapedatu married Veturia Papp in March 1907; she was the daughter of the orthodox proto-pope from Beiuș. They had two children, a son (Ion, said Nelu) and a daughter (Veturia, said Pica).

Education

Ion I. Lapedatu started 1883 the primary school in the village in which he was born; then in Brașov; he finished it 1888 in Iași, where his mother remarried after the death of his father. He returns to Brașov, is admitted in the Higher Greek-Orthodox Romanian College, then continues his studies in Higher Commercial School in Brașov, obtaining his bachelor's degree "with distinction" in June 1898.

Same year, he obtains a scholarship from the "Gojdu Foundation" and is admitted to the Oriental Commercial Academy and the Law and Political Sciences School of the Budapest University; he attends in parallel the Seminar for higher commercial school professors. In 1900 – 1901 he is drafted and must interrupt his studies; after his military service he returns to Budapest, passes the fundamental examination in 1902; in 1904 he passes the specialty examination and obtains the Diploma of professor for higher commercial schools.

Professional occupations

At the end of his studies at the Budapest University, Ion I. Lapedatu turns down a professor position in Buda preferring to return to Transylvania, where he accepts the position of second secretary at the "Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People" (ASTRA) in Sibiu (1904 - 1905), 1906 he joined the "Ardeleana" bank in Orăștie as secretary and then, after going through successive internships at banks in Sibiu, Cluj, Budapest and Vienna, as director.

1911 Ion I. Lapedatu becomes director of the newly established "General Assurance Bank" (Banca Generală de Asigurare) in Sibiu.

On January 1, 1922 he was appointed Professor at the Chair for Public and Private Finances of the Academy for High Commercial Studies and Industry in Cluj, a position he held till 1938.

He had numerous appointments to various administrative councils, among which at the "Albina" bank in Sibiu, at the "Gojdu Foundation", and since 1925 at SONAMETAN, the enterprise of national importance established to exploit the methane gas discovered in Transylvania where he became Chairman.

From 1928 to 1944 he was director, then Vice-Governor and finally Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

Political activity

Ion I. Lapedatu showed his political talent already as a student: 1902, he was elected President of the Academic Society "Petru Maior", the society of the Romanian students in Budapest sustaining the Romanian language and culture through conferences, celebrations, debates, evocations of personalities; it also entertained a choir and a library and issued publications like the review "The Rose with Turns" and the "Society Almanac".

Ion I. Lapedatu participated in the National Assembly of Romanians of Transylvania and Hungary in Alba Iulia that decided on December 1, 1918, the Union of Transylvania with Romania; he represented the Nocrich circumscription and received on this occasion his first political appointment as general secretary of the finance department in the "Directory Council of Transylvania, Banat and the Romanian Counties in Hungary" (Consiliul Dirigent al Transilvaniei, Banatului și ţinuturilor românești din Ungaria). Among other contributions, he made the proposal to establish the "Agricultural Bank" (Banca Agrara) adopted by the Decree-law 4167 from 12 September 1919.

Ion I. Lapedatu has been elected in the Arch-diocesan synod in Sibiu (1909-1911; 1915-1917; 1918–1920), in the National Church Council (1917), and was a Council in the Senate of the arch-diocese (1912-1921) and since 1921 in the Metropolitan Council of Transylvania.

Between 1919 and 1931 he was repeatedly elected in the circumscriptions Nocrich and Crasna-Sălaj in the Romanian Parliament: four times as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and twice as a member of the Senate.

Ion I. Lapedatu integrated early on the Romanian National Party in Transilvania and Banat (Partidul Național Român din Ardeal). He left it in 1926 together with Vasile Goldiș and Ioan Lupaș before its merger with the Peasants' Party (Partidul Țărănesc) when he became Finance Minister in the Government of the Marshal Alexandru Averescu (1926-1927). "The Goldiș group" - as the three dissidents have been named - tried to launch the National Party of Transylvania, but it did not survive. After 1927 he did not join any other political party.

1944-1945 he was appointed Governor of the Romanian National Bank.

Development of loan and assurance institutions in Transylvania

Ion I. Lapedatu played the central role in the institutionalization of the "Conference of the Directors of the Romanian Loan Institutions" (Conferința directorilor institutelor românești de credit) initiated by Dr. Cornel Diaconovici in 1898, a model also adopted by the Hungarian and Saxon institutions in 1903 and by the Austrian and Czech ones in 1905. He was elected in 1906 secretary of the "Romanian Banks Delegation" (Delegațiunea băncilor române) acting in between conferences; in this position he drove the development of the initiative from a consultative to an executive role. He elaborated the Statutes of the future "Solidaritatea" Association in compliance with the Hungarian financial law in power at that time, enrolled the support required for having it registered and approved in 1907; he became its secretary. Under his leadership, "Solidaritatea" functioned like a de facto "economic council" of the Romanian population in Transylvania. It was successful in imposing mandatory external controls through experts approved by "Solidaritatea"; this made redundant the control through Government experts, avoiding thereby potential tensions between the policy of consolidation of a centralized Hungarian national State and the aspirations for self-determination of the ethnic minorities.

Ion I. Lapedatu is credited to be the founder of the assurance system for the Romanians in Transylvania. He authored the "Theory of the Life Assurance" published in 1902 in Brașov, the first work on this topic in Romanian in Transylvania. He embraced the idea of a Romanian assurance bank launched at the Conference of the Directors and, in his quality as secretary of "Solidaritatea", launched an appeal in the September 27, 1909 conference; elaborated the feasibility study; advocated the initiative both with potential participants and with the authorities; and published "clarifications" in the "Economic Review", explaining the need by the fact that the institutions already existent in Transylvania and in particular in Sibiu, both those founded locally by the Saxons or the Hungarians and those established as branches of assurance companies from Austria, Germany, Italy or France, imposed conditions difficult to meet by the Romanian population. Ion I. Lapedatu prepared the foundation documents; run the successful subscription campaign; and obtained all necessary approvals so that the "General Assurance Bank" could be established on May 14, 1911. He was appointed general director, later chairman, and led it to become one of the most important assurance institutions in the united Romania, changing its name first in "Romania", then in "Prima Ardeleană".

International missions

Ion I. Lapedatu has been a Delegate of Romania to the International Conference from Brussels, 1920.

He has been nominated president and appointed the members of the "Liquidation Commission in Budapest" (Comisiunii de Lichidare la Budapesta) in March 1920, in order to close open public and private issues between Hungary and Romania, and between their citizens, that arose from the integration of Transylvania into Romania. In March 1921, the Commission was transformed into the "Romanian Financial and Economic Mission to Budapest" (Misiunea Financiară și Economică la Budapesta); it was closed in May 1922, and the issues have been solved in the subsequent "Bucharest Romanian-Hungarian Conference" (Conferința românoungară de la București) in 1923-1924 in which he participated as a member of the Romanian delegation.

Upon a request from the Ministry of External Affairs, he interrupted in November 1921 for a few weeks his mission to Budapest in order to join the Romanian delegation in the "Paris Reparations Commission" addressing the repartitions of the Austrian-Hungarian public debt.

1922 he was a member of the Romanian delegation in the "Conference of the Successor States of the Former Hapsburg Monarchy" in Rome, mandated to solve together with the Austrian and Hungarian representatives the issues arising from the peace treaties. 1925 he also participated in the second "Conference of the Successor States" (Conferință a statelor succesorale) that took place in Prague.

In the summer of 1927-1928 he participated in the commission that negotiated in Berlin the stabilization loans with Germany; he proposed the final version of the first economic agreement between Germany and Romania after WW1; it was approved by the Government and ratified by the Parliament on November 10, 1928.

1930 Ion I. Lapedatu has been elected as President of the Romanian delegation to address the question of the Gojdu Foundation, following the agreement between the Ministries of External Affairs of Romania and Hungary; he reached an amiable solution in 1936 ratified on 5 May 1938 by king Carol II of Romania and on 20 June 1940 by regent Miklós Horthy of Hungary; it could not be enforced in the aftermath of the Second Vienna Award, and the issue is still open.

He participated as the representative of the National Bank of Romania in the four "Conference of the Emission Banks of the Little Entente (Conferința Băncilor de Emisiune din Mica Înțelegere) among Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania in Bucharest (1934), Belgrade (1936), Prague (1936) and again Bucharest (1937); the activities have been interrupted 1938 by the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

1936 he participated as a member of the Romanian delegation in the first "Conference of the Emission Banks of the Balkan Entente" bringing together Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey in Athens, and in 1937 he participated in the same capacity in the second conference in Ankara

Publishing, cultural and social activities

Ion I. Lapedatu started publishing in his college years, 1897 in "Transylvania Journal" (Gazeta Transilvaniei) in Brașov, and 1898 in "Romanian Telegraph" (Telegraful Român) in Sibiu. As a student he was among the founders of the "Morning Star" (Luceafărul) review in Budapest in 1902, was a member of the redaction committee since inception together with Octavian Goga, Ioan Lupaș, Octavian C. Tăslăuanu etc., continuing in this capacity in the years 1906 – 1920 when the publishing took place bi-monthly in Sibiu.

He had an intensive publishing activity in his specialty. He started his long lasting collaboration with the "Economic Review" (Revista Economică) in 1904 with the first article of a series on accounting; he became its director in 1906.

Ion I. Lapedatu published 18 books; 2 monographs; 298 studies, notes, general economic analyses and reports; 20 papers; 13 speeches on economic, social and political subjects.

Ion I. Lapedatu has been elected Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy in 1936; he has been purged in August 1948 and reinstated in July 1990.

Ion I. Lapedatu had a passion for hiking; he was for more than 20 years an active member of the "Siebenbürgischer Karpathen Verein", the hiking association of the Saxons in Brașov; he was also a member in the "Turing Club of Romania"; in "Admir"; in the Hungarian "Brașov Touring Association"; and in the "Enczian" society of the young Hungarian hand workers in Brașov; in addition, he was long time President of the Cultural and Sportive Association of BNR Employees; he described his ideas and his experience in the inaugural speech delivered at the opening of the BNR Chalet at Diham in 1945.

Charities

In all his functions. Ion I. Lapedatu provided significant financial means to support artists, national schools and churches, among which the Administration of the Central Romanian Orthodox Schools (Eforia Școalelor Centrale Ortodoxe Române) in Brașov; the Central High Commercial School in Brasov; the orthodox cathedral in Orăștie; the monument of WW1 heroes form Săcele; and the restoration of patrimony monuments including the monasteries Curtea de Argeș and Aninoasa; and the Golești architectural complex.

Ion I. Lapedatu was elected together with Valeriu Braniște, Ioan Lupaș, Octavian Goga and Ion Agârbiceanu in the administration council of the Foundation for the support of Romanian journalists established by Dr. Ioan Mihu in 1911. He assumed the task to collect funds, and complemented contributions from significant donors with a "greetings fond" in which small contribution could be made instead of sending cards or gifts: the Foundation published the donation to inform the addressees of the greetings. 1918, as Ion I. Lapedatu stopped his activity to dedicate his time and energy to the integration of Transylvania in the united Romania, the Foundation and its patrimony have been transferred to the "Union of Transylvanian Journalists" (Sindicatul Ziariștilor Ardeleni).

On September 14, 1939, Ion Al. Lapedatu registered the "Establishment Veturia I. Lapedatu" (Așezământul Veturia I. Lapedatu), charitable institution for retired intellectuals with limited financial means and for deserving students; the founding act put it under the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Alba Iulia and Sibiu. Ion I. Lapedatu contributed almost one third of the starting financial contributions, that included donations from sponsors and further contributions from former beneficiaries of the "Students’ Table" (Masa Studenților) in Sibiu funded by the Albina bank that has been directed for several years by Veturia I. Lapedatu; by 1948, the patrimony of the Establishment was nationalized and its financial means lost their value following the monetary stabilization.

Distinctions

End of life

1945 Ion I. Lapedatu has been dismissed from the National Bank of Romania at the installation of the Dr. Petru Groza Government in March 1945. His pensions as Bank Governor and University professor were cut with the justification that he had revenues from his properties; between 1945 and 1948 all his properties were nationalized; without any means, he lived with his daughter’s family.

After a bus accident from 1947, he was immobilized in bed; for this reason he was not arrested in the night of May 5/6, 1950 in the group of "dignitaries", like his brother, although he was under investigation by the General Direction of State Security (Direcția Generala a Securității Statului). He died on March 24, 1951 in Bucharest, after long suffering. He is buried in the "Groaveri" cemetery in Brașov.