used sometimes to rise so high as nine per
cent. agio, and sometimes to sink so low as
par, according as opposite interests happened
to influence the market.
The bank of Amsterdam professes to lend
out no part of what is deposited with it, but,
for every guilder for which it gives credit in
its books, to keep in its repositories the value
of a guilder either in money or bullion. That
it keeps in its repositories all the money or
bullion for which there are receipts in force,
for which it is at all times liable to be called
upon, and which in reality is continually going
from it, and returning to it again, cannot
well be doubted. But whether it does so likewise
with regard to that part of its capital for
which the receipts are long ago expired, for
which, in ordinary and quiet times, it cannot
be called upon, and which, in reality, is very
likely to remain with it for ever, or as long as
the states of the United Provinces subsist,
may perhaps appear more uncertain. At Amsterdam,
however, no point of faith is better
established than that, for every guilder circulated
as bank money, there is a correspondent
guilder in gold or silver to be found in the
treasures of the bank. The city is guarantee
that it should be so. The bank is under the
direction of the four reigning burgomasters,
who are changed every year. Each new set
of burgomasters visits the treasure, compares
it with the books, receives it upon oath, and
delivers it over, with the same awful solemnity,
to the set which succeeds; and in that sober
and religious country, oaths are not yet disregarded.
A rotation of this kind seems alone
a sufficient security against any practices which
cannot be avowed. Amidst all the revolutions
which faction has ever occasioned in the government
of Amsterdam, the prevailing party
has at no time accused their predecessors of
infidelity in the administration of the bank.
No accusation could have affected more deeply
the reputation and fortune of the disgraced
party; and if such an accusation could have
been supported, we may be assured that it
would have been brought. In 1672, when
the French king was at Utrecht, the bank of
Amsterdam paid so readily, as left no doubt
of the fidelity with which it had observed its
engagements. Some of the pieces which were
then brought from its repositories, appeared
to have been scorched with the fire which happened
in the town-house soon after the bank
was established. Those pieces, therefore, must
have lain there from that time.
What may be the amount of the treasure in
the bank, is a question which has long employed
the speculations of the curious. Nothing
but conjecture can be offered concerning
it. It is generally reckoned, that there are
about 2000 people who keep accounts with
the bank; and allowing them to have, one
with another, the value of L.1500 sterling lying
upon their respective accounts (a very
large allowance), the whole quantity of bank
money, and consequently of treasure in the
bank, will amount to about L.3,000,000 sterling,
or, at eleven guilders the pound sterling,
33,000,000 of guilders; a great sum, and sufficient
to carry on a very extensive circulation,
but vastly below the extravagant ideas
which some people have formed of this treasure.
The city of Amsterdam derives a considerable
revenue from the bank. Besides what
may be called the warehouse rent above mentioned,
each person, upon first opening an account
with the bank, pays a fee of ten guilders;
and for every new account, three guilders
three stivers; for every transfer, two stivers;
and if the transfer is for less than 300 guilders,
six stivers, in order to discourage the multiplicity
of small transactions. The person
who neglects to balance his account twice in
the year, forfeits twenty-five guilders. The
person who orders a transfer for more than is
upon his account, is obliged to pay three per
cent. for the sum overdrawn, and his order is
set aside into the bargain. The bank is supposed,
too, to make a considerable profit by the
sale of the foreign coin or bullion which sometimes
falls to it by the expiring of receipts,
and which is always kept till it can be sold
with advantage. It makes a profit, likewise,
by selling bank money at five per cent. agio,
and buying it in at four. These different emoluments
amount to a good deal more than
what is necessary for paying the salaries of
officers, and defraying the expense of management.
What is paid for the keeping of
bullion upon receipts, is alone supposed to
amount to a neat annual revenue of between
150,000 and 200,000 guilders. Public utility,
however, and not revenue, was the original
object of this institution. Its object was
to relieve the merchants from the inconvenience
of a disadvantageous exchange. The
revenue which has arisen from it was unforeseen,
and may be considered as accidental.
But it is now time to return from this long
digression, into which I have been insensibly
led, in endeavouring to explain the reasons
why the exchange between the countries which
pay in what is called bank money, and those
which pay in common currency, should generally
appear to be in favour of the former, and
against the latter. The former pay in a species
of money, of which the intrinsic value is
always the same, and exactly agreeable to the
standard of their respective mints; the latter
is a species of money, of which the intrinsic
value is continually varying, and is almost
always more or less below that standard.