NEDERLANDSCHE HANDELMAATSCHAPPIJ

(NHM; NETH ERLANDS TRADE CORPORATION)

A company founded in 1824 to stimulate the integration of industry (especially textiles) in the Southern Netherlands and the tradeand shipping of the Northern Netherlands, the parts of the new state that had been politically united in 1815. Its initial capital was 37 million guilders, of which King William Itook a personal share of 4 million. The king guaranteed the dividends during the first years. The NHM had a monopoly in the transport of products that the government had cultivated in the Netherlands East Indiesby means of the cultuurstelsel, a system of forced agriculture. The company also organized the auction of these products in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Profits were high, particu larly on coffee and sugar. After the liquidation of the cultuurstelsel in the 1860s and 1870s, the NHM became a banking institution that founded its own agricultural enterprises. In 1964, the NHM and Twentsche Bank merged as the Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN), which in 1991 joined together with the Amsterdamsche Rotterdamsche Bank (AMRO) as ABN AMRO.