Eugène Marie Ignace Prévinaire (18 October 1805 – 2 June 1877) was a Belgian businessman, liberal politician, civil servant, and from 1870 to 1877, governor of the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; nl, Nationale Bank van België, french: Banque nationale de Belgique, german: Belgische Nationalbank) has been the central bank of Belgium since 1850. The National Bank of Belgium was established with 100% pr ...

(NBB). Born in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

on 18 October 1805, Prévinaire started his career as a civil servant, but after a few years he established a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

in Huizingen in 1839. Together with its first governor, François-Philippe de Haussy, he was one of the pioneers in establishing the NBB.

Walthère Frère-Orban Hubert Joseph Walthère Frère-Orban (24 April 1812 – 2 January 1896) was a Belgian liberal statesman. Early life He was born at Liège, received his education at home and in Paris, and began the practice of law in his native town. He identif ...

appointed him as secretary-director of the newly established bank in 1850, of which he became vice-governor in 1864 and governor in 1870. During his first year as governor of the NBB, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out. In order to control the financial consequences of the war, Eugène Prévinaire took several measures such as doubling the discount rate and transferring the Belgian gold reserves to the fortified city of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. After the war followed several years of economic prosperity, and the term of Eugène Prévinaire as governor of the NBB was extended by thirty years in 1872. On 20 June 1873 the law on cheques was published and banknotes became legal tender. He died in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 2 June 1877.

References

Sources

* De Paepe, Jean-Luc, Raindorf-Gérard, Christiane (ed.), ''Le Parlement Belge 1831-1894. Données Biographiques'', Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique, 1996, p. 472.
Eugène Prévinaire

Managing a foreign portfolio before the gold standard era: the National Bank of Belgium in the 1850s
1805 births 1877 deaths Politicians from Leuven Liberal Party (Belgium) politicians Members of the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Governors of the National Bank of Belgium 19th-century Belgian civil servants {{Belgium-bio-stub