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History of the company/bank and archive description for De Nederlandsche Bank
History of the
company/bank:		 After the French occupation, the Bank was established in 1814 by King William I. Enterprises and private individuals from all over the country could take up credit through the purchase (discount) of bills of exchange or against collateral of securities and goods.
The Bank was charged with the task of stimulating the circulation of money through the issue of banknotes. Other activities which the Bank undertook from the beginning were the trade in coins and bullion and the management of the Government's receipts and payments. The first Bank Act (until 1864 the Bank had been subject to a Royal Charter) provided for the obligation to set up a network of branches. In the years between 1875 and 1914 the task as administrator of the gold and foreign exchange reserves and guardian of the guilder's purchasing power abroad was established.
Since World War II, the Bank has acted as banker for the banks only. The Bank Act 1948 and the Act on the Supervision of the Credit System give the Bank the authority to exercise influence on the bank's lending activities. The Bank became guardian of the guilder. Its task is to regulate the value of the Dutch currency in a direction which is beneficial to the Dutch economy, and in doing so to keep the value as stable as possible.
The Bank Act of 1998 clears the way for co-operating within the European System of Central Banks and for the Euro as single European currency.
Archive description When in 1918 a 'new' Archive-Law became effective in the Netherlands, the Bank expressed the wish to have a history of its own. Thus from the 1920s an archive-policy was formulated. Since the 1980s, maintaining the archives has been professionalised.
The Central Archive of the Bank is an archive with semi-current and non-current records. Routine action-oriented documents, with a retention period and thus meant to be destroyed, as well as policy-oriented documents, meant to be preserved for at least 100 years, are held in custody under the responsibility of the Central Archive. Retention to the semi-current archive-stage takes place, by the way, when documents are between 2 and 5 years of age. All descriptions of files under Central Archive supervision are available via an automated inventory. Total physical extension of the Central Archive is around 8,500 meters. Of these, around 1,500 meters are semi- and non-current policy oriented documents (i.e. the "Historical Archive" of the Bank). The archive consists of documents from 1814 to the present. The archives of the Bank also contain parts of several other bank archives. The most important are 'Amstelbank', 'Teixeira-de-Mattos' and 'Bankassociatie'.
An audio-visual archive is also considered part of the Central Archive. This collection comprises, photos, videos and museum-objects, as well as cartoons about the economic and monetary situation in the Netherlands since the 1870s and in Europe since the 1950s. From 1 January 1996, the archive of the Bank came under the regime of the 1995 Archive-Law. Under this law, basically all documents and files, older than 20 years of age, become public. Thus the de facto company-archive of the Bank became a de jure governmental-archive.
Publications Selection of most important publications:
  • A.M. de Jong: De geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Bank, Eerste deel. De Nederlandsche Bank van 1814 tot 1864. Haarlem 1972. (History of the Nederlandsche Bank, Part one in 2 Volumes).
  • A.M. de Jong: De geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Bank, Tweede tot vierde deel. De Nederlandsche Bank van 1864 tot 1914. Haarlem 1967. (History of the Nederlandsche Bank, Part two till four in Volumes).
  • Dr Joh. de Vries: De geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Bank, Vijfde deel. De Nederlandsche Bank van 1914 tot 1948, Visserings tijdvak 1914 - 1931. Amsterdam 1989. (History of the Nederlandsche Bank,Part five, Volume one).
  • Dr Joh. de Vries: De geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Bank, Vijfde deel. De Nederlandsche Bank van 1914 tot 1948, Trips tijdvak 1931- 1948.Amsterdam 1994. (History of the Nederlandsche Bank, Part five, Volume two).
  • Dr M.M.G. Fase: De geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Bank, Zesde deel. De Nederlandsche Bank van 1948 tot 1971 (in preparation). (History of the Nederlandsche Bank, Part six).
Conditions of use The Central Archive of the Bank is accessible to researchers. Detailed written request should be sent to the above address. Questions will be answered by letter or an invitation will be extended to visit the Bank.
The Central Archive is entitled to turn down a request for information without giving any reasons. Visitors are obliged to complete a questionnaire on the item or project studied.

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