Hope & Co.

Hope & Co. was a Dutch bank that existed for two and a half centuries. The bank was located in Amsterdam until 1795; originally it concentrated on Great Britain. In the second half of the 18th century, it was the most powerful merchant bank of Amsterdam, and thus Europe, as Amsterdam was at that time Europe's leading financial centre.[1] From 1750 it played a major part in the finances of the English East India Company and Dutch East India Company (VOC) through Thomas Hope and his brother Adrian. During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) the Hope brothers profited from the Netherlands' neutral position and became very wealthy.

The Hopes became heavily involved in the Dutch Caribbean, and Danish West Indies.[2] They specialised in plantation loans, in which the entire produce of the plantation was remitted to the lender, who would supervise its sale in order to secure repayment. In this way, the Hopes helped the plantation economy to become integrated into a global network of financiers and consumers.[3] The Hope family were among the richest in Europe at the time. The family business focused on financing commercial transactions and especially on issuing money loans to monarchs and governments in Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Portugal, Spain, France and America. The bank was famous for having Catherine the Great as its client and Adrian supplied her several times with diamonds.[4]

History

Six of eight sons of the Scottish merchant Archibald Hope (1664–1743) – Archibald Jr. (1698–1734), Isaac, Zachary, Henry, Thomas (1704-1779), and Adrian (1709–1781) – were merchants of trade. They were active in shipping, storage, insurance, and credit in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In 1720 they barely survived the bubble that led to the passage of the Bubble Act in London.[5] Archibald and Henry invested in the Provinciale Utrechtsche Geoctroyeerde Compagnie (1720-1752).[6] Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun was a cousin.[7]

In this early period the Hope brothers made money organizing shipment for Quakers and Swiss Mennonites out of Rotterdam (under the direction of Archibald, Isaac and Zachary). The top years for the transport of migrants to Pennsylvania were 1738, 1744, 1753 and 1765. These transports were paid for by the city of Rotterdam and the local Mennonite church.[8]

Art collection

Thomas Hope was a member of the China-committee and likely started to collect blue and white Chinaware.[41] In 1770 the mansion was renovated and in 1771 they acquired a fine collection of paintings from two Mennonite brothers in Rotterdam. Both Jan, supported by his wife, and Henry collected paintings, statues and Loosdrecht porcelain.[42] In 1783 Jan Hope sued the painter Louis Gerverot.[41] Around 1790 John Williams Hope was portrayed by Angelika Kaufmann.

When Pichegru occupied the south Henry fled from Hellevoetsluis on 17 October 1794.[43] Henry took as much art he could ship according to August Schlegel.[44] The paintings that were too large to take to London and which remained in the possession of the bank, came into the hands of

Archive

The Hope archive (1725–1940), at the Amsterdam City Archives, is an important source for the history of Amsterdam and the Netherlands as the center of world commerce in the 18th century.[47] The archive of Thomas Hope is mixed up with the archive of Jean Chrétien Baud because of the latter's interest in the Dutch East India Company.[48][49]

Unlike banks today, the partners of Hope & Co. mixed up their private business with public business and the bank's business. Letters in the archive touch on many subjects at once. A particularly rich portion of the archive is the correspondence in the period 1795–1815, when Henry Hope was forced to leave the Netherlands and set up offices in London. The regular correspondence between the Amsterdam and London branches give important insights into trade negotiations of the period and how they were done.

Hope family

In many historical documents, this bank is referred to as simply "Hopes" and sometimes "Hopes of Rotterdam" or "Hopes of Amsterdam".

Later years

In the 19th century Hope & Co. specialized in railway investments in the United States and Russia. In the 20th century the emphasis shifted from international transport to Dutch investments. From 1885 Hope & Co. cooperated and in 1937, Hope & Co. acquired Van Loon & Co., formerly Wed. Borski.[35] In 1966 Hope & Co. merged with R. Mees & Zoonen to form Mees & Hope. In 1969, the Company merged with Nederlandse Overzee Bank. Ultimately, it was bought by ABN Bank in 1975. After the merger of ABN Bank and Amro Bank to form ABN Amro, Bank Mees & Hope merged with Pierson, Heldering & Pierson (then wholly owned by Amro Bank) in November 1992 into MeesPierson and was subsequently sold to Fortis. It subsequently became part of ABN Amro again when Fortis failed and Fortis' Dutch businesses were re-established as ABN Amro.

See also

• List of banks in the Netherlands

Further reading

• At Home on the World Markets: Dutch International Trading Companies from the 16th century until the present by Joost Jonker, Keetie Sluyterman (2000)
• Heijenbrok, J & G. Steenmeijer (2020) Onderzoek De Fabryck naar Paviljoen Welgelegen