Amsterdam Wisselbank

Timeline

1. 1609Amsterdam City Hall, Republic of the United Provinces · AmsterdamIn 1609 the Amsterdam city council issued a regulation founding the Wisselbank inside the city hall. Any bill of exchange with a face value over 300 guilders had to be settled through a bank account, and deposited coins were valued in standard bank money (florin banco), eliminating settlement risks from debased and unevenly alloyed circulating coins, and it quickly became the monetary settlement hub of Amsterdam's international trade.
2. 1620–1660Amsterdam, Republic of the United Provinces · AmsterdamWith the expansion of the Dutch East India Company (VOC, 1602) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC, 1621), the Wisselbank took on huge volumes of cross-border remittances and precious metal storage. Bank deposit balances rose rapidly from the 1640s, and Amsterdam's bank money became the de facto standard currency for settling international bulk commodities.
3. 1660–1680Amsterdam, Republic of the United Provinces · AmsterdamDuring the 1660s–1670s bank deposit balances reached a historic peak, estimated at about 16 to 20 million guilders, with accounts of merchants from across Europe cleared here. By providing short-term liquidity support to the VOC, the bank effectively performed some central bank functions. During the French invasion of 1672 (the Disaster Year), depositors ran on the bank on a large scale, but the bank coped smoothly thanks to ample reserves, further consolidating its reputation.
4. 1780–1820Amsterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands · AmsterdamIn the late 18th century the bank made large undisclosed secret loans to the VOC and the East India trade, severely eroding its reserve base. After the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780 the bank's credit collapsed; in 1820 the Dutch government transferred its assets to the newly founded De Nederlandsche Bank, formally ending the Wisselbank.