The Hamburger Bank was a public credit institution founded in 1619 by the

Free City of Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. It operated independently until 31 December 1875, when it became part of the newly created

Reichsbank The ''Reichsbank'' (; 'Bank of the Reich, Bank of the Realm') was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945. History until 1933 The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empi ...

History

The Hamburg City Council made the decision to create the bank in February 1619, following lengthy negotiations with its civic stakeholders. Like its model, the

Amsterdamsche Wisselbank The Bank of Amsterdam ( nl, Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, lit=Exchange Bank of Amsterdam) was an early bank, vouched for by the city of Amsterdam, and established in 1609. It was the first public bank to offer accounts not directly convertible to co ...

which had been founded in 1609, it was intended to improve monetary stability in uncertain times and to simplify trade between merchants. The numerous English merchant adventurers, Portuguese

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

and Dutch religious refugees living in Hamburg at the time brought their capital and knowledge to the bank, thus contributing to its initial success. The bank was administered free of charge by two senators, two City elders (''Oberalten''), two "treasury citizens" (''Kammereibürger'') and five "bank citizens" (''Bancobürger''), namely citizens who had an account at the bank. The bank's premises were in

Hamburg City Hall Hamburg City Hall (german: link=no, Hamburger Rathaus, ) is the seat of local government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is the seat of the government of Hamburg and as such, the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parliame ...

. To open an account at the bank, one had to bring an initial amount of at least 400

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

Marks. In addition, regulations were issued that prohibited bills of exchange and private trade in metallic money, and bills of exchange over 400 Lübeck Marks had to be processed through the Hamburger Bank. On 20 November 1619, ''Lehnbanco'' was founded as a department of the Hamburger Bank. It gave loans against collateral to merchants as well as to the City of Hamburg itself. The Hamburger Bank was also assigned the municipal

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...

and the municipal grain warehouse, but these still had independently accounting. From 1725 to 1736, the ''Courantbank'' was set up as a subdivision of the Hamburger Bank, with the aim to counteract massive currency

debasement A debasement of coinage is the practice of lowering the intrinsic value of coins, especially when used in connection with commodity money, such as gold or silver coins. A coin is said to be debased if the quantity of gold, silver, copper or nick ...

at the time. ''Courant'' is an old word for

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general def ...

and refers to coins whose precious metal content supports their value. The Hamburger Bank held a reputation for good governance and integrity. German economist described it as follows: The Savary brothers made similar observations: The bank weathered successive crises with various degrees of success. Unsecured loans were a fundamental problem. In 1770 the bank was comprehensively reformed. During the era of Napoleonic rule in Hamburg, the bank was looted and hit hard by economic crisis, but it survived. The Hamburger Bank ceased to be a stand-alone entity following the

Unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...

and was converted into a branch of the newly created

at the end of 1875.

Units of account

The bank's unit of account was the

Reichsthaler The ''Reichsthaler'' (; modern spelling Reichstaler), or more specifically the ''Reichsthaler specie'', was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for th ...

banco, worth 3 ''

Hamburg mark The Hamburg Mark refers to two distinct currencies issued in the city of Hamburg until 1875: * The Hamburg Mark Banco, a bank money and an accounting unit, and * The Hamburg Mark Courant, an actual coin. Each mark is divided into 16 ''schillin ...

banco'' or 48 ''schillings banco''. On the date of the bank's foundation, this ''Bankothaler'' corresponded to the fine silver weight of the ''

'' based on the

Imperial Minting Standard Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

(''

Reichsmünzfuß The ''Reichsmünzfuß'' ("Imperial Minting Standard") was a coinage standard or '' Münzfuß'' officially adopted for general use in the Holy Roman Empire. Different imperial coin standards were defined for different types of coins. History Af ...

'') of 1566. Similar to the

Amsterdam Wisselbank The Bank of Amsterdam ( nl, Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, lit=Exchange Bank of Amsterdam) was an early bank, vouched for by the city of Amsterdam, and established in 1609. It was the first public bank to offer accounts not directly convertible to co ...

, the Hamburger Bank was established in 1619 in order to guarantee the full silver equivalent of the German Empire's ''Reichsthaler'' despite the ensuing crises of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

and the resulting

Kipper und Wipper ''Kipper und Wipper'' (german: Kipper- und Wipperzeit, literally "Tipper and See-saw time") was a financial crisis during the start of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).Cologne Mark of fine silver (or 25.984 g silver), Amsterdam's more extensive operations meant that its

Dutch rijksdaalder The ''rijksdaalder'' (Dutch, "Imperial dollar") was a Dutch coin first issued by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in the late 16th century during the Dutch Revolt which featured an armored half bust of William the Silent. It was the ...

's slightly lower standard of 25.4 g silver prevailed (hence, 8.46 g silver per Mark Banco). Silver received from depositors were converted in the books in reichsthalers banco of 3 marks or 48 schillings credited to their accounts (or ''Folium''). From there they could make cashless payments to other account holders with full confidence of payment in the right quantity of silver. Since the Reichsthaler Banco was viewed as stable in value, it was used in wholesale and mortgage loans, and merchants carried their books in Thalers and Marks Banco. Rates for other currencies and goods were published regularly, the most important of which is the daily exchange rate of gold coins or bullion into

silver standard The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. Silver was far more widespread than gold as the monetary standard worldwide, from the Sumerians 3000 BC until 1873. Following t ...

marks banco. The ''reichsthaler banco'' of Hamburg and Amsterdam was also equal in value to the

Danish rigsdaler The rigsdaler was the name of several currencies used in Denmark until 1875. The similarly named Reichsthaler, riksdaler and rijksdaalder were used in Germany and Austria-Hungary, Sweden and the Netherlands, respectively. These currencies were ofte ...

specie and the

Norwegian rigsdaler The rigsdaler specie was a unit of silver currency used in Norway, renamed as the speciedaler in 1816 and used until 1873. Norway used a common reichsthaler currency system shared with Denmark, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein until 1873 when the go ...

specie. In 1770 the bank's currency unit was modified so that a Cologne Mark of silver made 9 reichsthalers banco or 27 marks banco (hence, 25.28 g fine silver per reichsthaler or 8.43 g per mark), or 59 marks banco per ''

Zollpfund The ''Zollpfund'' ("customs pound") is an historical German weight based on the old pound. In 1854, the German Customs Union, the ''Zollverein'', fixed the pound weight or at exactly 500 grammes, making it about seven percent heavier than the old ...

'' (Customs Pound of 500 g fine silver). The Reichsthaler Banco was worth 1.5169 ''

Vereinsthaler The Vereinsthaler (, ''union thaler'') was a standard silver coin used in most German states and the Austrian Empire in the years before German unification. The Vereinsthaler was introduced in 1857 to replace the various versions of the North Ger ...

s'' of 16 g fine silver introduced by the

Vienna Monetary Treaty The Vienna Monetary Treaty (also known as the Vienna Coinage Treaty) of 1857 was a treaty that set a currency standard for use across the German Zollverein states, Austria, and Liechtenstein. The official name of the treaty was Monetary Treaty Betw ...

of 1857. At the time of German currency unification in 1875, the new currency was named ''Mark'' (the

German gold mark The German mark (german: Goldmark ; sign: ℳ) was the currency of the German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the pfennig (₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the g ...

), as a comparatively neutral choice to replace the various southern

Guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empir ...

and northern

Thalers A thaler (; also taler, from german: Taler) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter of ...

, and to accommodate sensitivities in Hamburg about the disappearance of the celebrated local bank. Hamburg's currency was retired at 1 mark banco = 1.5 German marks and 1 reichsthaler banco = 4.5

s. The German national currency would retain the name ''Mark'', inherited from the Hamburger Bank, until its replacement by the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

Namesake

On 24 July 1861 a cooperative bank was founded with a similar name, the "Hamburger Bank von 1861 Volksbank eG". It is now known as .

Notes

{{finance-stub 1619 establishments in Europe Hamburg Banking in Germany Former central banks