De Bazel Amsterdam NHM Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij

The Netherlands Trading Society ( nl, Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij or NHM) was a Dutch trading and financial company, established in 1824 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

by King William I to promote and develop trade, shipping and agriculture. For the next 140 years the NHM developed a large international branch network and increasingly engaged in banking operations. In 1964 it merged with Twentsche Bank to form Algemene Bank Nederland, itself a predecessor of

ABN AMRO ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...

History

The NHM was a private company which issued publicly traded shares. According to the king, the NHM would act to leverage economic activity and encourage the development of national wealth. However, in practice it came down to expanding existing trade, by gathering data and searching for new markets as well as financing industry and shipping. Its close association with the

Dutch government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekk ...

meant it played an important role in the development of trade between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. Its former headquarters in

De Bazel De Bazel is a listed/protected historic building on the west side of the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam (at number 32), and stretches from the Herengracht to the Keizersgracht. It stands as an example of Brick Expressionism. History The building wa ...

in Amsterdam houses the Amsterdam Archives today.Amsterdam Archives
The NHM is sometimes called the successor of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

or VOC, as it was also a private company that issued shares and financed trade with the Dutch East Indies. The establishment of the NHM can be seen as an attempt to bring new impetus to trade with the Dutch East Indies after the depression of the years of French domination (1795–1814) and the final collapse of the VOC two decades earlier. With playful reference to the greatness of the VOC, the NHM was colloquially known as or the "little company". The NHM financing of trade and shipping led to the development of a network of branches which increasingly engaged in financing and banking operations. The network extended throughout South East Asia and on the trade routes between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies and the NHM continued to extend its network into the 20th century. It lost a number of its branches when the

Indonesian government The term Government of Indonesia ( id, Pemerintah Indonesia) can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the executive branch, legislative branch and ju ...

nationalised them in 1960 to form a new locally owned bank, but by then had branches in many other parts of the world.

Time line

*1824: King William I created the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) by Royal Decree to revive trade between the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies. *1826: NHM opened an office in Batavia (now Jakarta), known as *1858: NHM opened a branch in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

*1870s: NHM expands its overseas activities into banking *1888: NHM opened a branch in Penang *1889: NHM opened a branch in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

*1902: NHM starts banking operations in the Netherlands *1920: NHM opened branches in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

) and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

) primarily to work with clients in the

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

business *1926: NHM opened a branch in Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. Known later as the Saudi Hollandi Bank (currently Alawwal Bank), it was the first, and until 1948 the only,

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with co ...

in the Kingdom. The branch existed to serve the needs of Indonesian Muslims coming to perform Hajj, the

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

*1934: Financial restructuring; NHM reduces its capital by 75 percent *1936: NHM initiates a retail presence in the Netherlands beyond its previous branches in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, by acquiring the Guelders Credit Union nl, Geldersche Credietvereeniging) *1941: NHM opened an agency in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

*1948: NHM opened a branch in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

to become the first foreign bank to receive a banking license from the new government of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

*1949: NHM acquired De Surinaamsche Bank *1951: NHM opened branches in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, (

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

), and

Dar-es-Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

, ( Tanganyika) *1954: NHM opened a branch in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, (

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

), and one in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, (

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

) *1959: The Indonesian government nationalized NHM's plantations *1960: The Indonesian government nationalized NHM's banking operations into ''Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia'', later

Bank Mandiri PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk or Bank Mandiri, headquartered in Jakarta, is the largest bank in Indonesia in terms of assets, loans and deposits. Total assets as of March 2021, were IDR 1.58 quadrillion (around US$110.56 billion). As ...

*1963: NHM set up its

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n head office in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

*1964: NHM merged with De Twentsche Bank to form Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN)

Buildings

The building at Vijzelstraat 32 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

known today as "

"is named after its architect Karel de Bazel. It was originally built in 1919-1926 for the NHM and it is decorated with many details reminiscent of Indonesia, most notably the brickwork, which earned the building the nickname "

spekkoek Spekkoek (kue lapis legit or spekuk in Indonesian) is a type of Indonesian layer cake. It was developed during colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. The firm-textured cake is an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) version of the European multi-laye ...

" It was later repurposed as the Amsterdam Archives. File:HOFDIJK (1860) HET GEBOUW DER HANDELMAATSCHAPPIJ.jpg, NHM head office building in Amsterdam, 1860, at Heerengracht 466 File:Amsterdam - Herengracht 466.JPG, The same building in 2011 File:Gebouw de Bazel.jpg, "

", built in 1919-1926 File:Rotterdam blaak34.jpg, Former NHM branch in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, now Blaak House office center File:Den Haag - Kneuterdijk 1.JPG, Former NHM branch in

, now File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Luchtfoto van het gebouw van de NHM in Djakarta Kota TMnr 60054793.jpg, NHM branch in Jakarta, circa 1955 File:Museum Bank Mandiri - panoramio.jpg, The same building in 2017, Bank Mandiri Museum File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Filiaal van de factorij van de NHM langs de Molenvliet in Noordwijk Batavia TMnr 10015447.jpg, NHM branch in Weltevreden, Batavia (now

Sawah Besar Sawah Besar is a district (''kecamatan'') of Central Jakarta, Indonesia. Its neighborhoods are among the most historic, containing the 1820-established Pasar Baru ("New Market"), the new colonial city – Weltevreden – and the old cours ...

, Central Jakarta) File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor van de Nederlandse Handelsmaatschappij in Soerabaja Oost-Java. TMnr 60007982.jpg, NHM branch in Surabaya,

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor van de NHM aan de Cremerweg TMnr 10015337.jpg, NHM branch in

Medan Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four mai ...

, North Sumatra File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Handelskantoor (Nederlandsche Handels Maatschappij) te Semarang TMnr 10014765.jpg, NHM branch in Semarang, Central Java File:Beach Street Penang Dec 2006 002.jpg, Former NHM branch in Penang,

File:Tcitp d126 netherlands trading society.jpg, NHM branch in Queen's Building,

, 1908 File:Carlowitz & Co..JPG, Former NHM branch in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

from 1919 to 1951, previously office of German trading house Carlowitz & Co. expropriated in 1917

References

External links

* {{Authority control Defunct banks of the Netherlands History of banking Banks established in 1824 Banks disestablished in 1964 ABN AMRO 1824 establishments in the Netherlands

History

Time line

Buildings

See also

References

External links