History of Vardan and the Armenian War

Portugal immediately took over the Inspection of the Bank. The articles of organization had been prepared by Nuri Bey, then the inspector of Agriculture. The administration was entrusted to the Inspector, with an auxiliary council presided over by a member of the State Council. Mikael Portugal managed the Inspection of this bank for three years and brought it to a very prosperous position, establishing no fewer than 450 agencies. The current state of the bank rests on a ministerial decree by which the new organization of the revised articles of association, which Mikael Portugal had drafted, was established, and on an additional article that was prepared by the same Inspector. It follows, therefore, that the Agricultural Bank is in a way the personal handiwork of Mikael Portugal, whom an imperial decree had called to the head of the Inspection.

And he himself would say sometimes: "This institution owes its life to me, and I love it like a child to whom you give birth, whose development you watch with longing, and whom you care for and strengthen against future struggles." Is it not one of those institutions for which all development seems to be blocked because their days are numbered? For six years he had been appointed Minister of the Imperial Treasury when, shortly before his death, he heard with tearful eyes in what danger the Bank was. It was proposed to use the public capital to guarantee the operations of the Ministry of Finance.

However, the giant-stepped progress that the Bank had enjoyed under the Inspection of Mikael Portugal would not remain unknown.

The French government immediately awarded him the Agricultural Order of Merit. He loved to look at its white enameled star, which brought before his eyes the days spent in difficult work and reminded him of his realized hopes and the effort crowned with success. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan would also, shortly after, reward his boundless services and express his satisfaction and great confidence by appointing him, in 1891, Minister of his Private Treasury, following the death of Yakob Pasha.