Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1889-01-04
THE BANK OF AMSTERDAM.
Interesting sketch Of a Famous Dutch
Monetary Institution.

thqrold hQaersgp The story OF the Ma
uoHis-- Holland, Venice had established
bank which should receive the coins Of
all nations and give warrants TO those per.
sons. .Fbo deposited such coins. which.war-
rants should circulate from hand to hand,
Just as bank notes do now. Three centu-
ries after the bank Of Venice was founded |
a Similar institution was established at |
tienoa, on a somewhat similar basis.
ln,l6O0, the year Of tbs truce, the bank
Of Amsterdam was founded, and before
the end of the ceotury was known to have |
metallic depopfs with it to the amount of
SlS0,000, ,00o-a treasure more prodigious
than any Eoropean inancer at that time
thought could be possibly accumulated
The notes issued by the bank were sup
posedto be, and in theory were, exactly
equal in amount to the specie or metallic
money deposited in the strong-room of the
bank. But the notes of the bank always
bore premium, due to the convenience
and the absolutely guarded security which 4
the holder of The note possessed. Then
the bank charged a small sum on every ac-
count which was opened with it, small
sum for negotiating bills and transferring
balances, besides profit which they de-
rived from their own subscribed capital
and their customers money at call
The bank was under the management of
lhe Amsterdam corporation, the chiefs of
which examined the treasure annually,
and made bath that il was of the full
amount at which the managers of the
bank affirmed it to be. 1t was seen that
the well being of this great commercial
center was so much the interest Of the Am
sterdam municipality that they could be
more safely trusted with the control of tie
institution than any state official could be.
When nearly a century afterward the pro-
lject Of starting great central bank in
I England was entertained it was thought
for long time that the system under
which the bank Of Amsterdam was man
aged should be the model of bank to be
established in London. In the end, and
fortunately 80, other cOunsels prevailed,
for in the seventeenth century London had
not been so completely educated IN the
principles of commercial honor as 10 make
the Amsterdam experiment safe or con-
yenient mode fer English practice. 1t is
remarkable that not few of the first di-
rectors of the bank of England were Flem-
sh settlers in London, who, driven out for
their religion, brought over with them tho
intelligence, sagacity aud integrity OF
Ntthcrland finance.
The reputation 4of4he bank of Amster-
dam received remarkable confirmation
in 1872. In this year Louis XIV, having
secured by heavy bribSs the completely
anil assistance Of Charles II OF England,
declared sudden war on the Dutch 1t
was perhaps the most Infamous war ever
wagcd, the most unproyoked and the most
unexpected. The king of France was at
this time at the height Of his power. The
iking,of E6ghnd had been in what was
supposed 10 bp firm alliance with Holland,
whose stakeholder. afterwards William
I'll Of England, was his nephew. The ad-
ministration Of Holland was IN the HANDS
of the brothers Dewitt who were supposed
to have been willfully Negligent Of affairs
when the war broke out. The Dutch were
panic-stricken at the calamity which came
on hem and the political enemies of the
DeWitts goaded toe populace on into muir
dering the twB statesmen-a crime to
which it Is to be feared William was privy,
and Oy which heScertainly prohled. 9'hc
Dutch saved themselves from permanent
RUN by prodigious seli-inficted calamity.
They cut the dykes; laid the country un-
der water, and bnfiied the inEeder.
They punished Charles, or rather his peo.
pie for the Kings perddy Now IN that
crisis there was run on the bank of Am
slerdam. But the city magistrates took
the alarmed depositors into the treasury
Of the bank aud showed them its store un-
touched. Among the pieces of money
(which lay there were masses of coin which
had been soorched and half melted in the
great fire which many years before had oc-
cured in the stadthonse. The panic was
allayed, the mesrhants were satisfied, sand
the reputation Of the bank becAfhe higher
and higher.
Cerrillos Rustler; In taking his depart
ure for Boston President Jay Hubbel OF