Voor Handel en Maatschappij: Geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, 1824-1964

Abstract

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Netherlands Trading Society) or NHM was founded in The Hague in 1824 on the initiative of King William I. The king’s object was to resuscitate the national economy in the wake of the period of French rule (1795-1813). NHM was an import/export company set up to expand existing trade relations and open up new channels. Through its close ties with the Dutch government, NHM played a major role in developing trade between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. From 1826 onwards its activities in the East Indies were co-ordinated by the branch in Batavia (Jakarta). In 1830 the Dutch Governor Johannes van den Bosch introduced the so-called Cultivation System under which the native population was compelled to pay taxation in kind (chiefly coffee, sugar and tea). NHM acted as state banker, merchant and shipping agent. It sold and shipped the products the Dutch Government obtained through the Cultivation System. After 1830 when the Netherlands and Belgium became separate states, NHM also provided risk and loan capital to industrial enterprises. In 1850 NHM began to finance companies operating plantations in the Dutch East Indies. NHM even owned a number of plantations itself. In the Dutch colony of Surinam NHM had from 1866 on an interest in cultivation companies, most famous of which was Mariënburg. At this time the company had not yet developed into a bank in the present sense. But the advent of a less protectionist policy on the East Indies and the gradual abolition of the Cultivation System forced the bank to turn its attention towards banking. The ban on trading in bills and securities was lifted in 1874 and Batavia embarked in 1882 on business such as credits, time deposits and securities orders. In 1902 banking business was started in the Netherlands itself. The issue of banknotes was another activity NHM was involved in during its history. Faced with the precarious financial and economic situation in Shanghai where it had opened a branch in 1903, and with the absence of a Chinese central bank, NHM put so-called Shanghai dollars into circulation. In the 1930s a deep agricultural crisis hit the Dutch East Indies, nearly causing the downfall of Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij. The 1934 restructuring of NHM reduced its capital by 75%. Subsequently, NHM had to readjust its position in the Netherlands. For many years the bank only had three Dutch branches. The numerous branches in the Dutch East Indies and the Far East had been the bank’s cornerstones. The branch network in the Netherlands was significantly expanded by the NHM take-over in 1936 of Geldersche Credietvereeniging. After World War Two, NHM opened a large number of branches, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Its plantations in Indonesia were nationalised in 1959, followed one year later by NHM’s banking business in this former Dutch colony. The growing concentration of banking in the Netherlands reached a climax in October 1964 when NHM and Twentsche Bank merged to become Algemene Bank Nederland.