Abstract
‘This is my plan for you, my Lord, and you never had a better opportunity for executing it … Your Lordship should come over in the beginning of April, spend some weeks with us at The Hague till the end of May, then some weeks at one of my seats in this province from whence we make all our acquaintance to see the country … Towards the end of the year we may spend some time in Amsterdam, return to The Hague and from thence I give you my word of honour that I and my wife will accompany you to England to make a considerable stay there.’1
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References
Chapter One Page 3
Letter of 12th March 1776 from John Hope, The Hague, to the Earl of Hopetoun. Hopetoun Papers, Hopetoun House. With grateful acknowledgement to Mr.Gavin M. Goodfellow, who conducted investigations in Edinburgh to establish the Hopes’ Scottish origin.
Page 4
Johan E. Elias, De Vroedschap van Amsterdam, 11 (2nd ed.; Amsterdam, 1963), 941. Nederland’s Adelsboek, XXXI (The Hague, 1933), 301. Ibid., XL (The Hague, 1942), 632-633. Burke’s Peerage Baronetage and Knightage (99th ed.; London, 1949), 1032. H.W.Law and Irene Law, The Book of the Beresford Hopes (London, 1925), 16. Also investigations by Mr.Goodfellow of the Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses and the Edinburgh Marriage Register. We did not succeed fully in elucidating the origin. As the are many contradictions, we proceeded from the fact that the generations as a rule followed each other in the Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses and the Edinburgh Marriage Register at intervals of thirty years. Assuming that the first John Hope was admitted as a Guild Brother in 1528, his sons could have followed him in 1560 or thereabouts (allowing the necessary margin). In the following generation, Henry Hope, who married Jacqueline de Tot (or de Jot), would have been eligible round about 1590. Indeed, he was appointed a Burgess and Guild Brother in 1588. Thirty years later-in 1619, to be precise-Henry’s son, James, became a Guild Brother. James died in 1634, leaving a son, Henry or Harry, who was probably then still a minor. The keen interest which Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall displayed in his nephew points in this direction. D.Laing, ed., A Diary of the Public Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall. From the original in the library at Pinkie House. Printed for the Bannatyne Club, (Edinburgh, 1843). Henry or Harry became a Guild Brother of Edinburgh in 1642, a logical step since his father had died and he himself had for some time carried on the profession of merchant. In 1646 he married Catherine Jonkin. He was thus very young to be a husband and father, but not too young. The daughter of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, Anna, was married in 1653 to William Cochrane, and can thus not have been the wife of Henry Hope of Rotterdam. J.Balfour. Paul, ed., ‘The diary of Sir James Hope 1646–1654,’ in: Publications of the Scottish History Society, Second Series, Vol. XIX, Miscellany III, 97-168.
G.A. Rotterdam. Baptismal Registers of the Scottish Church. 7th December 1664: Arch(i)bald. Father: Hendry Hop. Mother: Anna Hop. In these registers, the mother appears under her maiden name. Margaret and Henry, born on 23rd January 1667 and 20th January 1669, presumably died young.
G.A. Rotterdam, Not. Arch., 1137–56.
G.A. Rotterdam, Not. Arch., 926–401, 927-164, 1498-164, 1508-352. J.Z.Kannegieter, Geschiedenis van de vroegere Quakergemeenschap te Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1971), 52, 154.
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G.A. Rotterdam, Not. Arch., 2091-612.
G.A. Rotterdam, Not. Arch., 1487-106. At the time of the authorization, Charles Hope of Hopetoun was no more than twenty years of age. His father had lost his life in a shipwreck in 1682. This probably explains why the authority was signed by his mother, Margaret. Charles Hope was made the first Earl of Hopetoun in 1703. Burke, Peerage, 1230.
Kannegieter, Quaker gemeenschap, 155 note 3, 165, 166. G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 8592-492.
Concerning Pels: Elias, Vroedschap, II, 813-817, 1062. Like Archibald Jr., Andries Pels, who in 1707 established the very well known house which bore his name, was not a self-made man. His father, Jean Lucas Pels, had already established a reputation as a merchant in Amsterdam. Concerning Muilman: Elias, Vroedschap, II, 864-870. Like Pels, Muilman and Meulenaer came from well-to-do merchant families and thus had adequate capital from the outset. Concerning Hogguer: Elias, Vroedschap, II, 979-985, 1054–1058; Herbert Lüthy, La Banque Protestante en France de la Révocation de l’Edit de Nantes à la Révolution, II (Paris, 1961), 331-342.
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G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 8598-709.
Concerning Clifford: Elias, Vroedschap, II, 880-886, 1045–1046. Concerning De Smeth: Elias, Vroedschap, II, 796-800. Clifford and De Smeth were also among the leading houses at the time when Archibald Jr. commenced business in Amsterdam.
Infra, Appendix A.
J.G. van Dillen ‘Bloeitijd der Amsterdamse Wisselbank, 1607-1701,’ Mensen en Achtergronden (Groningen, 1964), 397-398.
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G.A. Rotterdam. Extracts from registers of deaths.
G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 8613-1726. The earliest deed bearing a reference to Thomas and Adrian Hope is dated 1735. G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 8726–884.
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J.Hovy, Het voorstel van 1751 tot instelling van een beperkt vrijhavenstelsel in de Republiek (propositie tot een gelimiteerd porto-franco) (Groningen, 1966), 253.
Ibid., 334.
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Ibid., 397-408.
Ibid., 622-628; Van Dillen, Van Rijkdom en Regenten. Handboek tot de economische en sociale geschiedenis van Nederland tijdens de Republiek (The Hague, 1970), 531-533.
Page 11
Hovy, Propositie, 336. E.E. de Jong-Keesing, De economische crisis van 1763 te Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1939), 19-20.
Letter of 4th December 1730 from Henry Hope, Boston, to Messrs. Archibald and Thomas Hope, merchants in Amsterdam, in Amstelodamum, XXVI (1939), 160. As early as 1720, Archibald and Isaac Hope in Rotterdam were concerned with the conveyance of passengers to the United States: G.A. Amsterdam, Brants archives, number 1638; letter of 4th January 1720 from Archibald and Isaac Hope, Rotterdam, to Simon Bevel, Haarlem. During the War of the Austrian Succession, Thomas and Adrian Hope traded, via St.Eustatius, with Thomas Hancock of Boston. This trade was illegal and therefore quite risky: Discoveries made by Dr.Leonie van Nierop in the John Hancock Papers (1728–1761) in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Amstelodamum, XXVII (1940), 47 et seq.
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Letters of 29th July, 22nd, 29th and 30th August, 2nd, 4th and 8th September, 31 st October, 6th, 9th, 10th and 12th November, 2nd and 21st December 1758; 2nd, 11th, 14th, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 28th January, 1st, 3rd, 24th and 26th February, 3rd, 6th, 15th and 16th June, 14th, 16th, 17th and 25th July, 18th, 29th, 30th and 31st October 1759, from Isaac and Zachary Hope, Rotterdam, to Thomas and Adrian Hope, Amsterdam.
Letters of 14th August 1759 from La Compagnie des Indes, Paris, to Thomas and Adrian Hope, Amsterdam; 23rd November 1759 and 31st October 1760 from P.F.Goossens, Paris, to Thomas and Adrian Hope, Amsterdam. Liithy, La Banque Protestante, II, 322.
I. Schöffer, ‘De vonnissen in Averij Grosse van de Kamer van Assurantie en Avarij te Amsterdam in de 18de eeuw,’ Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek, XXVI (The Hague, 1956), 108-109. De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 19, note 2.
Ibid., 43-45. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 601.
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De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 121-129, 159-172. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 605.
De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 121, 159-160. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 605. With Baring, the name Pels was still a byword for lack of action and flexibility in 1802. Infra, 402.
De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, no, 123. Elias, Vroedschap, II, 799, note q.
G.A. Amsterdam, register of banns: Archibald Hope Junior and Geertruyd Reessen, 20th December 1725; Thomas Hope and Margareta Marcelis, 11th December 1727. Elias, Vroedschap, II, 937-939.
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G.A. Amsterdam, Quytscheldingen, C 6, 66 of 17th January 1758. H.F.Wijnman, Historische Gids van Amsterdam, II (Amsterdam, 1971), 410. Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 942, note ss.
G.W.Kernkamp, ‘Bengt Ferrner’s dagboek van zijne reis door Nederland in 1759,’ Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, XXXI (1910), 367-368. Ferrner noted that the Hopes had an office staff of 26, which at that time must have been large. The Hopes had earlier received special or famous visitors from abroad. According to his memoirs, Casanova was received in Amsterdam by a banker whom he identified only by a single letter (d’O.), and who is assumed to have been Thomas Hope. However, the story of the mysterious Esther, the daughter of his host, with whom Casanova had his umpteenth affair, renders it improbable that Thomas Hope was the banker concerned, for he had only a son. The innocence, bordering on naivety, with which Casanova’s host is said to have allowed himself to be persuaded to take part in a sort of spiritualistic séance is very much out of keeping with other descriptions of Thomas Hope: G. Casanova, Mémoires, II (1756–1763). Texte présenté et annoté par Robert Abirached (Paris, 1959), 134-147, 160-161, 166-167, 170. Henry Hope continued the tradition of receiving eminent foreign guests, for example Benjamin Franklin. Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous Swedish scientist, philosopher and theosopher, frequently dined with Henry Hope, who also looked after his financial affairs: P.J.Buijnsters,’ swedenborg in Nederland,’ Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde, LXXXIII, 3 (1967), 200.
Page 16
G.A. Amsterdam, ‘Particuliere Notulen van Mr.Pieter Rendorp. Aanteekeningen wegens de deliberatien en Resolutien genoomen bij Burgemeesteren, 1st July 1750’. G.A. Amsterdam, Heerenboekje 1760. A.R.A., The Hague, Hope Collection, 8468. Extract from ‘De resolutien van de O.I. Comp. ter Kamer Amsterdam van 7 April 1766 en van 13 September 1770’. W.M.F.Mansvelt, Rechtsvorm en geldelijk beheer bij de Oost-Indische Compagnie (Amsterdam, 1922), 106 note I.
Nederland’s Adelsboek, XXXI, 302.
Circular dated 1st January 1762. G. A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 12358-193.
Letter of 9th August 1787, to Laborde de Méréville, Paris, P.C. ′87, 83.
Obituary in ‘The Times’ of 5th March 1811.
H.W. and I.Law, Beresford Hopes, 272-273. The reference is to the diary of a cousin of John Williams Hope, Loveday Sarah Gregor.
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Partnership contract entered into by H.Hope, J.Hope, N.Bauduin and J.Williams Hope, enacted in the presence of C. van Homrigh, notary, on 4th July 1782. Elias, Vroedschap, II, 936, 942. Vincent Nolte, Fünfzig Jahre in beiden Hemispheren (Hamburg, 1853), 46, 193.
G.A. Amsterdam, Baptismal Register of the Mennonite Community, 14th February 1737, Nos. 298, 162. Baptismal Register of the Presbyterian Church of England, 13th June 1756, Nos. 137, 153.
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Elias, Vroedschap, II, 933-934, 940-941. John Hope had a fire engine built for his country estate. This was a type of steam engine, and was used to pump water into the ponds. It attracted a great deal of attention. The pump, or a copy of it, is to be found at the entrance to Groenendaal Park in Heemstede. The business correspondence of the Hopes contains no reference to the steam engine as a source of power in industry. J.Z.Kannegieter, ‘Een stoomwerktuig op de buitenplaats van een Amsterdams regent in het jaar 1781,’ Amstelodamum, LXVI (1973), 27-29. A. van Damme, De buitenplaatsen te Heemstede, Berkenrode en Bennebroek (Haarlem, 1903), 53, 56.
G.A. Hague, Register of Conveyances. Conveyance of ‘Het Tapijthuis,’ situated on the north side of the Nieuwe or Korte Voorhout, from Jhr.Carel Bigot, Burgomaster of Stavoren and Deputy of the States of Friesland, to John Hope. R.Meischke, ‘Het Kasteel Nederhorst Den Berg,’ Amstelodamum, XL (1957), 90. John Hope also acquired the title ‘Master of’ s Graven-Ambacht:’ Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 934.
Page 19
Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 457-458.
Ibid., 458-459. Elias, Vroedschap,11, 1046-1050. E.Baasch, Holländische Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Jena, 1927), 194, 201-203.
Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 1050. Infra, Chapter Fourteen.
Infra, 112.
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Infra, 74-90. Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 1059. G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 12403-263. The loan to Count Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken must have totalled cf 250,000, for 50 bonds were redeemed annually in the period 1770-1774.
W.W. van der Meulen, ‘Beschrijving van eenige Westindische Plantage-leeningen,’ Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, xxv (1904), 509-510.
Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 1059. Ch. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce & Finance in the Eighteenth Century (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1966), 182-183. Van der Meulen, Westindische Plantage-leeningen, 521. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 587.
G.A. Amsterdam, Not. Arch., 12404-468; 12410-447; 12413-1010, 1011. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 183-184. The loans concerned were those made to Patrick Maxwell and John Balfour, the security for which consisted of plantations on Tobago; to Charles Irvine and John Leith, also against the security of plantations on Tobago; to Alexander Campbell, against the security of plantations on Grenada; and finally to Robert Tuite, for which plantations on St.Croix served as security.
Page 21
W.P.Sautijn Kluit, De Amsterdamsche Beurs in 1763 en 1773 (Amsterdam, 1865), 65-67, 71-72. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 170. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 609-610.
Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 611-613. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 187. J. de Vries, De economische achteruitgang der Republiek in de Achttiende Eeuw (Amsterdam, 1959), 77-78. De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 72 note 1. Adrian Hope was appointed trustee following Clifford’s bankruptcy: Sautijn Kluit, Amsterdamsche Beurs, 98.
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Letters of 4th, 15th, 18th and 22nd May, ist and 3rd June 1770 from Alexander Fordyce, London, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam. Letter of 9th November 1770 from Henry Neale & Co., London, to Gurnell Hoare & Harman, London. Letter of 11th June 1772 from Gurnell Hoare & Harman, London, to Henry Neale & Co., London. Letter of 25th December 1772 from J.Harman, London, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam. Letter of 16th February 1774 from Cust, Ward & Matthews, London, to Gurnell, Hoare & Harman, London. Memorandum of 16th June 1775 concerning the Fordyce affair.
De Vries, Economische achteruitgang, 78-79. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 182, 187. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 608.
Letter of 30th January 1807 from Matthiessen & Sillem, Hamburg, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam.
Infra, 112.
Page 23
Infra, 94.
During the fourth war against England, Hope, in association with the Paris houses of Pourrat Frères and Vandenijver Frères & Co., floated French annuity loans on the Amsterdam market. The number of loans and the sums involved vary from one source to another. Liithy quotes sums of cf 3,000,000 in 1782 and cf 1,100,000 in 1784 (Lüthy, La Banque Protestante, 11, 522, 534, 546). The Notarial Archives in Amsterdam contain only the deeds relating to one loan on behalf of Pourrat Frères and one on behalf of Vandenijver Frères & Co., the sums being cf 282,000 and cf 1,100,000 respectively (12463-345, 12474-631). The grootboeken refer to a loan of cf 2,100,000 and not cf 1,100,000. Grootboek 1785, 83, 92, 94. Hope was at this time also engaged in the movement of shipbuilding materials for the benefit of the French fleet, Infra, 197.
Page 24
Memorandum of 24th October 1793 from Robert Voûte, St.Petersburg, to the Attorney General, Samaylov, St.Petersburg, Infra, 135.
P. J. van Winter, Het aandeel van den Amsterdamschen Handel aan den opbouw van het Amerikaansche Gemeenebest, 11 (The Hague, 1933), 466-468, 470, 472.
Page 26
Infra, Appendix D-11.
Infra, 86.
Page 27
Infra, Appendix C-1.
Infra, 79, 82.
Infra, 100, 167-168.
Infra, 116-117.
Page 28
Infra, 340, 345, 394.
Infra, 78, 112, 115.
Infra, 98.
Infra, 82, 84, 107-108.
Page 29
A.Trende, Barthold Georg Niebuhr als Finanz-und Bankman. Forschungen zur internationalen Finanz-und Bankgeschichte (Berlin, 1930), 51. Niebuhr later achieved fame as a historian. Infra, 136.
Infra, 336.
Infra, 249.
Infra, 109.
Page 30
Infra, Chapter Five, passim; 126-136, 240-242, 247-248, 253-255, 258, 266, 268-270; Chapter Thirteen, passim; 413-427.
Infra, 334-336.
Page 32
Infra, 115.
Infra, 104-105. Henry Hope’s Anglo-American origin, and with this his English nationality, will probably have influenced his refusal of the Russian title.
Infra, Chapter Five, passim.
Infra, 178, 182, 184-185, 190-191, 201.
Infra, 341-342, 347-349, 350-351, 364-365.
Infra, 257.
Infra, 366, 369, 420.
Page 33
T.P. van der Kooij, Hollands Stapelmarkt en haar verval (Amsterdam, 1931), 18-26.
J.C.Westermann, ‘Beschouwingen over de opkomst en den bloei des handels in de Gouden Eeuw,’ Zeven Eeuwen Amsterdam, ed. A.E. D’Ailly, 11 (Amsterdam, undated), 98. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 11. De Vries, Economische achteruitgang, 34. Van Dillen, ‘Honderd jaar economische ontwikkeling van het Noorden,’ Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, VII (Utrecht, 1954), 278-279.
Infra, 432.
Infra, 433, note 1.
Page 34
Infra, 125.
Infra, 127-128, 139-149, 150-151.
Infra, 289, 311-312, 411-412.
Infra, 144-145, 448-449.
For example, Lestapis, Nolte and Parish in connexion with the Mexican silver transaction, Coesvelt for the Spanish loans, Robert Melvil for the purchase of Russian produce, and Hieronymus Sillem for the sale of this produce. Infra, Chapter Eleven, passim; 347-356, Chapter Thirteen, passim; 210-214, 216-226, 242-248, 252-254, 266-267, 269.
Page 35
Infra, 237-239.
Infra, 443, 446-447, 450.
De Vries, Economische achteruitgang, 70. De Vries treats the subject cautiously here. The investigations which formed part of our study point towards the development of certain principal facets in the activities; however, this was not accompanied by the relinquishing of other activities. As in the various branches of trade, there were dividing lines, albeit these were obscure and were repeatedly disregarded. A far-reaching quantitative investigation of the journals and grootboeken, to which the data obtainable from the correspondence would have to be related, would undoubtedly throw more light on this.
Infra, 431.
Page 36
De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 72-78. The picture presented in this book accords with the findings from the Hope archives.
Infra, 173.
Infra, 124.
Infra, Appendix G.
Page 37
Infra, 177. Labouchère describes here how Rall of St.Petersburg prided himself on having a cash reserve of 100,000 roubles. Hope maintained a balance at the Exchange Bank, the size of which grew as the number of debits increased. In 1752, the half-yearly balance stood at cf 175,000, while the debits totalled approximately 700 per half-year. De Jong-Keesing, Crisis 1763, 70.
Letter of 22nd January 1806 from P.C.Labouchère, Amsterdam, to Vincent Nolte, B.I. 12.
Nolte, Fünfzig Jahre, 178-182.
Infra, 348, note 1.
4th July 1782: Partnership agreement between H.Hope, J.Hope, N.Bauduin and J.Williams Hope.
Page 38
Infra, Appendix G.
12th May 1785: Partnership contract between H.Hope, Nicolas Bauduin, J.Williams Hope and J.C.Hartsinck. 3rd April 1765: Contract wherein Nicolas Bauduin bound himself to Messrs. Hope & Co. for a period of twelve years, commencing on 1st January 1765. As a ‘clerk,’ Bauduin was to receive 5,000 carolus guilders per annum. On 1st February 1772 his salary was raised to 10,000 carolus guilders.
16th November 1789: Deed of resignation of J.C.Hartsinck. 29th November 1789: Receipt signed by J.C.Hartsinck. On 13th March 1787, the remaining partners paid to Paul Degalz, the executer of Nicolas Bauduin’s Will, a sum of cf 304, 252.10.8 representing Bauduin’s share in the capital of the firm. Bauduin’s share of the profit from 31st December 1785 until his death on 18th January 1787, totalling cf 33,578.1.8, was also paid. Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 1015.
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16th November 1789: Convention between Henry Hope, J.Williams Hope and the widow of John Hope.
S.Baumgarten, Le Crépuscule Néo-Classique, Thomas Hope (Paris, 1958), 25, 31-40. H.W.Law and I.Law, Beresford Hopes, 19-26. On Thomas’s activities as a collector and patron of the arts: D.Watkin, Thomas Hope 1760–1831 and the Neo-Classical Idea (London, 1968).
A.G.Voûte-Esser, Robert Voûte als zakenman en financier (Amsterdam: By the Author, 1969).
Grootboek 1785: 252; grootboek 1786: 224; grootboek 1787: 82, 141, 146.
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Nolte, Fünfzig Jahre, 47-48. As in other instances, Nolte’s account is not entirely reliable.
R.W.Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), 3-13.
Hidy suggests that the relationship between Hope and Baring was based on an exceptionally rapid and profitable sale of drafts by Baring on behalf of Hope (p. 14-15). The oldest surviving grootboek, which dates from 1770, contains an account in the names of John and Frederick Baring of London. In some later years, however, no entries were made in the account, and it was not until the mid-1780s, when the houses jointly engaged in speculations, that really large sums appeared. At the same time, Hope’s letters to Francis Baring reveal that a large measure of confidence and deep respect for Baring’s judgement already existed in 1787. Infra, 432.
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H.T.Colenbrander, De Patriottentijd, (3 vols, The Hague, 1897-9), 1, 324-332, Chapter VIII, and II, Chapter 1.
Ibid., 11, 116-117, 121, 128-139.
Ibid., 11, Chapter IV, and III, Chapter II.
Ibid., in, 205-206, 207, note 1; Infra, 88, 431-432.
Page 42
Letter of 9th August 1787 to Laborde de Méréville, Paris, P.C. ′87, 83.
K.Blauw, ‘Het Provinciehuis van Noord-Holland,’ Haerlem, jaarboek 1958 (Haarlem, 1959), 69-83. K.Blauw, ‘Van “Hofstede” tot “Paviljoen” Welgelegen,’ Haerlemjaarboek 1962 (Haarlem, 1963), 53-64.
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Infra, Appendix B. Henry Hope’s great liking for the Italian baroque painters is evidenced by the fact that he had copies of works by Guido Reni and Annibale Caracci mounted in the skylight above the staircase of ‘Welgelegen.’ Blauw, ‘Het Provinciehuis,’ 78.
Colenbrander, Patriottentijd, III, chapter vI.
Letter of 30th August 1787 to Vve. Councler & Fils Ainé, Marseilles, P.C. ‘87, 120. Letter of 14th September 1787 to J. & F.Baring, London, P.C. ‘87, 143.
Colenbrander, Patriottentijd, III, 282-283, 285, 287.
Page 44
Letter of 4th October 1787 to Vve. Councler & Fils Ainé, Marseilles, P.C. ‘87, 173.
Nieuwe Nederlandsche Jaarboeken 1787 (Leiden and Amsterdam), 5374.
Ibid., 5376, 5380. Colenbrander, Patriottentijd, III, 288.
Nieuwe Nederlandsche Jaarboeken 1787, 5381.
Page 45
Letter of 18th October 1787 to Bournissien Despreaux & Fils, Rouen, P.C. ‘87, 200. Letter of 23rd October 1787 to J.&F. Baring, London, P.C. ‘87, 208.
Infra, 86, 114-115.
Infra, 90.
Infra, 95-96.
Infra, 98-99.
Page 46
Infra, 104.
Infra, 105.
Infra, 107.
J.B. Manger Jr., Recherches sur les relations économiques entre la France et la Hollande pendant la Révolution Française, 1785–1795 (Besançon, 1923), 67-68, 70. Colenbrander, De Bataafsche Republiek (Amsterdam, 1908), 33. Van Dillen, ‘Eenige brieven der Firma Hope & Co., medegedeeld door Dr.J.G. van Dillen,’ Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek, 1 (The Hague, 1915), 267-268. Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 621. Alice Carter, ‘Dutch foreign investment, 1738–1800’ Economica, Vol. xx (London, 1953), 329, 338-339. Grootboek 1789: 248, 264, 271, 281.
Page 47
Manger, Recherches, 75-77.
Infra, 108.
Infra, 109, 281-282.
Infra, 109.
Page 48
Van Dillen, Rijkdom en Regenten, 618-620.
Infra, 94, 141.
Letter of 4th October 1808 to the Committee for Foreign Loans, St.Petersburg, VII, 498. Letter of 27th October 1808 to R. Melvil, Amsterdam, R.I.
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 1, ed. by Anne Cary Morris (London, 1889), 303.
Colenbrander, Bataafsche Republiek, 24, 27.
Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken der Algemeene Geschiedenis van Nederland van 1795 tot 1840, 1 (The Hague, 1905), 473. Infra, 109, 138.
Page 49
Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken, 1, 475-476.
A.J. van der Meulen, Studies over het ministerie van Van de Spiegel (Leiden, 1905), 342-344, 375-376. Van de Spiegel visited Henry Hope at ‘Welgelegen’ in 1788. In 1790 Henry Hope received the stadholder, William v, there. H.W. and I.Law, Beresford Hopes, 272. Van Winter, Aandeel, 1, 125, note 2.
Letter of 21 st October 1974 from A.Caxtier to J.Williams Hope, London. Letter of 11th November 1794 from I.Eckhardt, to J.Williams Hope, London. On 21st August 1794 Thomas Hope advertised seven horses and two carriages for sale in the ‘Amsterdamsche Courant:’ Baumgarten, Crépuscule, 25-26. There is no truth in the story that Mrs.Williams Hope stayed in Amsterdam, or returned there, in order to defend Hope’s property: Letter of 17th June 1797 from Hope & Co., London, to J.J.Voûte Jr., Amsterdam.
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12th July 1794: unsigned letter headed ‘My Lord.’ 11th October 1794: unsigned letter to ‘Monsieur le Baron.’
Letter of 19th January 1795 from Jacob Hoogland, Den Helder, to Paulus Taay, Amsterdam.
H.W.Law and I.Law, Beresford Hopes, 272. On 28th March 1799, Henry Hope, John Williams Hope, Thomas, Adrian Elias and Henry Philip Hope, partners in the firm of Hope & Co., informed the Office of Commercial Commissioners that 8,000 pounds sterling constituted 10% of their income. This 10% income tax was levied annually as a special contribution for the prosecution of the war.
Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken, 1, 366.
Page 51
Letter of 26th February 1795 from P.Taay, Amsterdam, to Vilmain, Nantes, A XXIV. 14.
G.A. The Hague, Not. Arch., 3893-48. Letters of 3rd/6th and 19th May 1795 from P. Taay, Amsterdam, to Hope & Co., London. Taay gave a moving description of the difficulties which faced him: ‘In order to uphold your noble honour and house, I was obliged to go and beg from one or other good friend, a task which came very hard to me. The one was deaf and could not grasp my meaning, another wanted to help but was in great straits himself, a third had no money to hand, and so on and so forth. When a bill of yours is protested, I am consumed with anxiety and get the fever. I am already so ashamed that I do not dare to show myself in the street during the daytime …’
Infra, 282.
Hermann Albrecht Insinger was born on 6th January 1757 in Bückeburg. In 1768 he moved to Amsterdam, where on 19th August 1787 he married Anna Maria Swarth. He initially traded under the name of Insinger & Prins, and later as Insinger & Swarth. On 30th December 1800 he founded the house of Insinger & Co., which has retained the name up to the present day. Insinger probably visited the Caribbean, and is said to have been shipwrecked there. Such a visit would explain his numerous contacts with plantation owners in the area. Data obtained from the Insinger archives and furnished by Mr.J.Nauta, adviser to Insinger & Co.
Supra, 51, note 2. Infra, 282.
Page 52
Letters of 26th November 1796, and 4th, 17th, 20th and 21st January, and 20th February 1797 from J.J.Voûte, Jr., Amsterdam, to Hope & Co., London. An attempt was made in association with the Swedish East India Company to set up a speculation in tea, but this probably failed to materialize. Letters of 11th and 18th June, and 16th July 1796 from De Coninck & Co., Copenhagen, to Voûte & Co., Amsterdam. Letters of 18th and 21st June, and 9th July 1796 from Voûte & Co., Amsterdam, to De Coninck & Co., Copenhagen. De Coninck’s correspondence shows also that the plantation owners on St.Croix sent produce to Copenhagen to be sold, in order to provide funds for interest and principal instalments. At the end of May 1798, Insinger paid Taay a sum of cf 8,000, which was debited to the account headed’ st.Croix negotiations A and B.’ Letter of 2nd June 1798 from H.A.Insinger, Amsterdam, to P.C.Labouchère, Hamburg.
Letters of 25th March, 28th April and 17th June 1797 from Hope & Co., London, to J.J.Voûte Jr., Amsterdam. Letters of 13th April, 28th June, 4th and 5th July 1797 from J.J.Voûte Jr., Amsterdam, to Hope & Co., London.
Infra, 162-163, 165-166.
Infra, 168.
Infra, 163-164.
Page 53
Infra, 173-176.
Van Winter, Aandeel, 11, 367 note 1. Van Winter, ‘Louisiana gekocht en betaald,’ Verkenning en Onderzoek (Groningen, 1965), 380-382. We are indebted to Prof. van Winter for allowing us to consult the revised edition of his book Aandeel van den Amsterdamschen handel aan de opbouw van het Amerikaansche Gemeenebest which is to be published in English.
Van Winter, ‘Lousiana gekocht en betaald,’ 382-383. Hidy, House of Baring, 28-30.
Henry Hope, John Williams Hope, Thomas Hope and Henry Philip Hope each shouldered a quarter of the cost. The Hopes acquired 445,334¼ acres, for which they paid 48,126 pounds sterling. Expenses up to 1804 totalled 5,360.12.6 pounds sterling against which stood revenues totalling 3,067.9.10 pounds sterling, VI-ba-8 (‘America.’)
Page 54
Letter of 12th June 1799 to William Gordon Coesvelt, St.Croix. Letter of 4th April 1800 from Friderici, Paramaribo, to Mr.Hope, London.
Infra, 387. Letters of 16th and 24th March, 15th and 17th August 1799, and 20th May 1800, and 11 undated letters from Count Starhemberg, London, to Messrs. Hope, London. Letters of 14th June, 16th and 19th July, 2nd and 6th August 1799 from J. Schubach, Hamburg, to Hope & Co., London; of 16th July, 2nd and 23rd August 1799, from Count von Pergen, Hamburg, to Hope & Co., London; and of 1st October 1799 to J.Schubach, Hamburg, VI, 118. Letter of 12th April 1800 from Count von Pergen, Vienna, to Hope & Co., London.
Page 55
30th April 1801: Memorandum to Robert Voûte.
Letter of 30th June 1801 from R.Voûte, Amsterdam, to Hope & Co., London.
Letter of 8th November 1801 from R.Voûte, The Hague, to H.Hope, London. Letter of 5th December 1801 from R.Voûte, Utrecht, to H.A.Insinger, Amsterdam. The total value was then put at cf 825,000.
Infra, Chapter Fourteen.
Page 56
Early July 1802: ‘Circumstances,’ written by Robert Voûte, Middagten, to Hope & Co., London.
Letters of 4th May 1802 from R.Voûte, The Hague, to J.Williams Hope, London, and 22nd May 1802 from R.Voûte, Middagten, to J.Williams Hope, London. Infra, 399, note 2.
Letter of 6th November 1802 from Henry Hope, London, to J. Williams Hope, Norwich.
Page 57
Infra, 396,402.
Infra, 407-410.
Infra, 201-202.
Infra, 188-190.
Infra, 192. ‘Propositions faites au Ministre du Trésor Public par M.Labouchère, associé de la Maison Hope & Cie. d’Amsterdam.’ Labouchère received from the minister drafts from F.Baring & Co. to a value of 34½ million francs. These were dated 3rd May 1803 and had been accepted by Hope & Co. In exchange for these, Hope was required to furnish: 1) drafts issued by the Receveurs Généraux and totalling 15 million francs, of which 5 million fell due on 30 Fructidor of the year 12 and 10 million on 30 Vendémiaire of the year 13; 2) eight bonds involving in all 12 million francs and falling due at monthly intervals from 1st May 1804 to the end of that year; these were to be used for credits opened by the French Admiralty; 3) a sum of 5,825,000 francs in the form of six bonds from Hope & Co., payable in Paris; these payments, however, would not be made until the remaining two-thirds of the bonds had been surrendered to Hope, and pending this the Company would pay ½% interest per month on the sum remaining unpaid. In recognition of the acceleration of the payments, Baring and Hope were allowed a discount of 1,675,000 francs.
Page 58
Van Winter, Aandeel, 11, 387-388.
Ibid., 388. VI-ba-8 (‘America’).
Van Winter, ‘Louisiana gekocht en betaald,’ 386-387.
1804: Contract between Hope & Co. and R. & Th. de Smeth.
vi-ba-8 (‘America’).
Page 60
Letter of 15th February 1805 from P.C.Labouchère, Amsterdam, to A.Baring, London. Because of the poor rate of exchange, an issue quoted at 98 in London came out at 105 in Amsterdam. The nominal price there was 107, but the arrival on the market of a large number of bonds would have rendered this unattainable.
Van Winter, Aandeel (revised edition).
Van Winter, Aandeel, 11, 388, note 5. ‘Louisiana 6 %, Staat van Deelneeming in Americaansche Fondsen,’ 1805-1821. The 1,346 bonds purchased would each have grossed the participants cf 120.
Infra, 394.
Page 61
Infra, 292-294.
Infra, 306-309.
Infra, 327-328.
Infra, 331.
Page 62
Infra, 335-336, 340-342.
Infra, 338-339.
Infra, 339-340, 344-346.
MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN: Letter of 26th May 1808 to Van Herzeele, Amsterdam, VII, 384. BADEN: Letters of 23rd September 1808 and 31st January 1809 to Gronovius, Karlsruhe, vn, 491. GRAND DUCHY OF WARSAW: Letter of 15th January 1808 to Jean Ant.Noffolk, Warsaw, vn, 282. PRUSSIA: Letters of 5th January and 16th February 1808 to Niebuhr, Berlin, vn, 261, 315; of 10th and 19th February 1808 from Niebuhr, Berlin, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam; and of 7th April 1808 from Hope & Co. to R. Voûte, Utrecht, VII, 342. Ch.Lesage, Napoléon I, Créancier de la Prusse (Paris, 1924), 232. DENMARK: Letter of 5th February 1811 from P.F.Lestapis, Amsterdam, to P.C.Labouchère, Antwerp, KINGDOM OF ITALY: Letters of 17th July and 4th August 1809 to Rougemont de Löwenberg, Paris, A XXVII, 127, 141; of 24th July 1809 from Rougemont de Löwenberg, Paris, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam, and of 18th August 1809 from Nic.Hubbard, Geneva, to P.C.Labouchère, Amsterdam.
Page 63
In a ‘report concerning the foreign policy of the Netherlands’ dated 23rd January 1829, the sum of the capital invested in foreign loans was estimated to be cf 640,000,000. Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken, IX; (The Hague, 1917), 474. In October 1829, O.J.A.Repelaer van Driel, director of the Algemeene Maatschappij in Brussels, put the figure at cf 1,600,000,000, a difference of 1,000 million guilders. Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken, IX, ii, 913. In the Netherlands, the heaviest losses were incurred on domestic loans. In 1814 the national debt amounted to 1,250 million guilders, of which only one-third bore interest, which was at the rate of 2½%. Of the interest-free portion, four million guilders, later to be increased to five million, was to be transferred annually to the interest-bearing debt. In 1841 the interest-free debt, which then totalled nearly 900 million guilders, was converted to an interest-bearing loan; the conversion rate was 6.8 % and the interest rate 2½%. J.T.Buys, ‘De Nederlandsche Staatsschuld sedert 1814,’ Werkzaamheden van de Afdeeling Koophandel der Maatschappij onder de Zinspreuk: Felix Meritis te Amsterdam (Haarlem, 1857), 112, note 1, 156-157. JJ.Weeveringh, Handleiding tot de Geschiedenis der Staatsschulden, I (Haarlem, 1852), 214.
Infra, 338.
Infra, 196.
Infra, 366, 368-369, 420, 424.
Page 64
Infra, 336, note 2.
Infra, 257.
Letter of 13th August 1812 from P.C.Labouchere, Pyrmont, to A.v.d. Hoop, Amsterdam. The French campaign against Russia had dislocated postal communications in Germany.
A.Trende, Niebuhr, 40, 46, 47 note 71, 50, 55. As a precondition for any loan to Prussia, Labouchère stipulated that a settlement be reached in the matter of a loan granted to Austria against the security of revenues from Silesia, which Prussia had seized from Austria in 1742. No interest had since been paid on the loan, and the principal repayments had ceased immediately following the seizure. The loan sum was cf 4,800,000. Niebuhr also feared that Labouchère, by reason of his contacts with Talleyrand, was fully aware of Prussia’s extremely vulnerable position vis-à-vis France.
Page 65
Letter of 1st December 1808, from Hope & Co., Amsterdam, to J.Williams Hope, London.
Infra, 357-360, 366-368, 374-375.
Infra, 413-415.
Obituary of Henry Hope in‘The Times’ of 5th March 1811.
Page 66
Letters of 3rd April 1811 from John Hope, London, to Mr.Shadwell, London, and 14th and 15th April 1811 from John Hope, London, to P.C.Labouchère, London.
Infra, 375.
Infra, 246-254. Letters of 28th September 1812 from John Hope, London, to Hope & Co., Amsterdam, A V, 142, and of 28th February 1813 to John Hope, London.
Infra, 253.
Infra, 426.
Page 68
Letter of 23rd March 1813 to Mrs.J.Hope, London, A V, 170-171.
Agreement of 17th July 1813 between Mrs. Anne Hope of the one part, and Thomas and Henry Philip Hope of the other part.
Deed of assignment and transfer by Thomas and Henry Philip Hope to Alexander Baring, dated 3rd September 1813.
Infra, 265.
Page 69
Infra, 246-248, 252, 254-255, 266-267, 268-270.
Concerning Hogguer: Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 1058. Infra, 91, note 3. Concerning De Smeth: infra, 235, 371. Concerning Muilman: Elias, Vroedschap, 11, 869 note n.
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© 1974 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Buist, M.G. (1974). The Family and the Firm Some Observations on Commerce and Banking in the Late 18th Century. In: At Spes non Fracta. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8858-6_1
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