Dutch central bank ‘regrets’ role of directors in slave trade

The Netherlands central bank (DNB) said on Wednesday it deeply regrets the important role many of its early directors played in the 19th century slave trade, as found by an independent investigation into the bank’s early years.

The Dutch were engaged in global slavery from the 17th century until the transatlantic slave trade was abolished by the Netherlands in 1814, the year DNB was founded.

The investigation showed that most of the members of the Amsterdam financial elite that supplied the starting capital for the bank had direct ties with the slave trade.

“DNB played an active part in the persistence of slavery. More than others at that time, DNB directors were involved personally and politically with colonial slavery”, central bank governor Klaas Knot said at the presentation of the report.

“Directors had more of an eye for their personal interest than for the enslaved. These facts and the deeply racist ideas behind them deeply move us.”

Eleven of 17 early private investors either owned plantations in overseas colonies in the Caribbean and South America where slaves were put to work, provided finance to these plantations or traded in the goods produced there, such as sugar, coffee, cotton and tobacco.

The investigation also showed that DNB’s directors actively lobbied against the abolishment of slavery, despite a growing tide of resistance in the Netherlands, and for compensation of slavekeepers.

Three of the six DNB directors received compensation themselves when slavery was finally abolished by the Netherlands in 1863.

“I had not realised that my predecessors had used their role at DNB so actively to resist the abolishment of slavery and to very vocally demand to be compensated for it. That makes us far from proud,” Knot said.

The central bank will try to establish whether apologies or some kind of compensation would be warranted.

“This report shows the pervasiveness of slavery,” said Viola Muller, researcher at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies. “It is one piece among many that will follow to paint a comprehensive picture of the centrality of slavery in Dutch history.”

The Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded about 600,000 slaves, according to Dutch state data.

DNB commissioned the investigation into its early years in July 2020, after similar moves in the British financial sector.

Lloyd's and the Bank of England have each hired a historian to delve into their roles in the slave trade and are planning on publicising the results this year.

Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2020 commissioned a similar investigation, with the results still pending.

Reuters