This is stated in the study that De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) had carried out into the slavery history of the central bank. The result, the study ‘Service to the chain?’, was presented on Wednesday. The report ‘has been received solidly’, said DNB president Klaas Knot at the presentation. ‘This is a hitherto unspoken history. Like the entire management, I deeply regret DNB’s involvement in slavery.’
In 2020, DNB itself commissioned the study after a number of publications that year about the slavery history of the Dutch banking sector. This showed that several old banks that still exist – such as InsingerGilissen and banks that merged into ABN Amro – were directly involved in slavery as financiers. They owned or accepted enslaved people as collateral. Many of these banking families were also involved in the establishment and management of DNB. With the investigation, the central bank followed the example of the British central bank, which previously had the archives screened to clarify the history of slavery.
The New Kingdom
DNB was founded in 1814 by King William I. In the same year, the King banned the transatlantic slave trade. But slavery itself was not abolished until 1863, although the freed slaves were then forced to work as ‘contract labourers’ for another ten years. The research focuses on the first six decades of DNB and was conducted by Leiden historian Karwan Fatah-Black, together with his colleagues Lauren Lauret from Leiden University and Joris van den Tol from Cambridge University.
The researchers describe how DNB was founded on the initiative of King Willem I, together with wealthy private investors. The bank was part of the plan to make the new kingdom a colonial prosperous world power again. The main aim of the bank was to stimulate the domestic economy by providing credit, and also by issuing money itself.
An important part of the study focuses on the people who were involved with DNB as shareholder or director in those years. These are mainly members of wealthy Amsterdam banking and trading families. It is significant that eleven of the sixteen lenders involved in the establishment of the bank had ‘direct intensive involvement’ in slavery, two of them were even born on Surinamese plantations. A little later, the extremely wealthy widow Johanna Borski also stepped in, taking a 40 percent share in DNB. Her capital was partly created thanks to the proceeds of several Surinamese plantations where ‘about 565 slaves’ were employed.
In those early decades, the bank’s directors also included a relatively large number of people who had interests in slavery. In those years leading up to the abolition, there was a fierce lobby by slave-holding companies for the most favorable compensation scheme. This also involved companies in which DNB directors owned shares. When slavery was officially abolished in 1863, three of the six DNB directors took advantage of this compensation scheme.
No direct involvement
But it would go too far to say that there was a unanimous pro-slavery sentiment within DNB. For example, the later Rotterdam DNB director Willem Cornelis Mees was actively involved in the anti-slavery movement.
The investigation further concludes that no evidence has been found for direct involvement of DNB as a financier of slavery. The researchers were unable to find any examples of loans where plantations were used as collateral. Mainly because the bank wanted to focus on financing projects and trade within the Netherlands. Requests from the king to make more colonial financing, were rejected by the government.
Slave goods already collateral
But indirectly, DNB’s day-to-day operations were completely intertwined with the colonial economy, and thus also with slavery. It appears, for example, that almost thirty percent of the products offered at DNB as collateral for loans at that time consisted of ‘slave goods’. Coffee, tobacco and sugar in particular were often borrowed, partly because of their long shelf life.
The big question now is what DNB will do with these findings. After the publication of the investigation into their past, the British central bank decided to at least apologize for the slavery involvement of the bank’s executives. The bank also promised portraits and images of this governors from the bank building.
The researchers write about this that they hope that ‘now that this research has shown the ways in which DNB was involved in slavery’ it ‘will be included in the history of DNB and its illustrious founders and administrators in a natural and sustainable way’.
Knot certainly does not rule out an apology, but said he now first wants to talk to social organizations under the leadership of Freek Ossel, chairman of the Trans-Atlantic Slavery History steering group and former alderman in Amsterdam. “We want to then make a gesture that has lasting value,” Knot said.
The portraits of the criticized bank managers are in storage due to the renovation of DNB. But according to Knot, they will certainly not just be hung back. ‘There are several options. You can no longer hang them. But we will also have an educational center in our new building. You can imagine that they end up there, including this context.’