Agenten der Nederlandsche Bank: The Branch Network of De Nederlandsche Bank and its Role in Regional Financial Development in the Netherlands, 1864-1914

Abstract

Despite its far-reaching consequences on our daily lives, the continuing academic interest in the histories central banks proves that there are still many aspects of its development to uncover. One such topic is the era when central banks branched out from the capitals and most important financial centres to reach those citizens who did not have the means to fulfil their financial needs beyond their hometown. This thesis contributes to this strand of financial historical literature by analysing how De Nederlandsche Bank and its agents aimed to fulfil the financial needs of the provincial cities and towns they came to reside in, and to which extent its success harmed the local financial development between 1864 and 1914. The analysis employs a new dataset containing credit data on the level of individual agents from DNB annual reports, and by comparing and contrasting this with financial employment data and data on the creation and location of banks, presents nuanced insights on the consequences of the entire branch network. These insights are complemented by the reports of the agents to understand what the agents did in practice and how they understood their role in the local economy. This approach is novel for the history of De Nederlandsche Bank and allows us to appreciate that despite the developmental inheritance of the Dutch Republic, major differences between cities and regions persisted well into the turn of the twentieth century.