În căutarea banilor pierduţi. Urmele Marelui Război asupra Iaşului
In search of lost money. The consequences of the Great War on Iaşi

Summary/Abstract: By paraphrasing the famous Proust novel launched around the war time, which consecrated the idea of time fluidity and flexibility, the title introduces – in a both rigid and determinable universe, through the economic and financial tangents, but also incandescent and dynamic, through the political and social implications produced by the accounting document – the financial estimate and the budget. Focusing on the phenomenon of population and central authorities retreat to Iaşi, in 1916, on the pain caused by this refuge, on epidemics, on the lack of spaces, the Romanian historiography gave les attention to the reversed process and to the immediate consequences of the “guests” leaving the city, according to Nicolae Iorga. The issues of destructions, of consequences, of the negative assessment, effects of the two years of refuge were interesting for both specialists and the public, but most of the times the discourse has been too enflamed, in one way or another. The accounting of money, financial or moral debts made spirits agitated, mostly given that the analysis started from the proportion of paying the “debt” of Bucharest towards Iaşi, thus at the end of the equation. In this context, we propose to avoid the patterns of praising discourse or of finding scapegoats or justifications. Actually, we want to start the accounting assessment of the money lost by Iaşi at the first level of evidence: identifying, estimating and assessing the damage, caused by local authorities. How was this assessment made, who made it, what were the criteria, how did they adjust to the national standards after 1918, what were the stages, were there exaggerations, were estimates turned into certain financial data, did the city hall of Iaşi try to use this moment in order to solve older urban development issues? And, not least, was such money really lost, given that the material effort made by the city of Iaşi served the same national interest that animated soldiers in the great battles of 1917 or the government during its negotiations? The “search of money” is difficult. It is at the same time an accounting endeavour and an incursion in the process of self-evaluation, of local definition, of the periphery relating to the centre.

• Details
• Contents