Historical Resources

Banknotes

NTS Shanghai 5 dollar banknote, 1909 The difference between note-issuing banks and commercial banks is one of the first principles of economics taught at secondary schools. This difference has not always been clear-cut, however, as the background and historical collection of ABN AMRO Bank clearly shows. Netherlands Trading Society (NTS), for example, issued legal tender on several occasions.

Due to the complete political, social and economic chaos prevalent in China in the early part of the 20th century, there was no central authority whatsoever, let alone a central bank. Various foreign banks active in China stepped in and issued their own money in an attempt to fill this monetary void. One of these was the NTS, which had opened an agency in Shanghai in 1903. From 1909 to 1946, the so-called Shanghai dollars were put into circulation by NTS, in denominations of 5, 10, 50 and 100 dollars.

The Javasche Bank - a combination of a note-issuing bank, a commercial bank and banker to the Dutch East Indies colonial administration - had confined its business to Java up until the start of this century. In the outlying regions beyond Java, people still engaged in barter transactions or used Dutch coinage after the introduction of the Currency Act in 1854. Coins from the days of the United East India Company (VOC) also served as tender, while on Sumatra and Borneo English money known as "Straits dollars" was widely in use. In response to this situation, the NTS sub-agency in Medan began issuing cash orders in 1888, exchangeable for silver dollars at this branch in return for a certain fee. The company expected cash orders to become a generally accepted means of payment in this region as an alternative to English and Dutch money. The bank's hopes were dashed with the introduction of the Dutch East Indies guilder in the outlying regions in 1908.

The Surinaamsche Bank was founded in 1865 as a private bank that also issued bank notes. In 1949, the bank looked in danger of losing this privilege to a state-owned enterprise. In order to survive as an 'ordinary' bank, it approached and became part of the Netherlands Trading Society. This created a peculiar situation where the note-issuing bank of one part of the Kingdom was owned by and managed by a general bank in another part of the Kingdom. The Surinaamsche Bank was allowed to continue issuing bank notes until 1957, when this role was taken over by the Central Bank of Surinam.