On the corner of Kneuterdijk and Lange Vijverberg stands the former office of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij. It was founded in 1824 as a successor to the bankrupt V.O.C., to continue trade between the Netherlands and the colonies. And especially with the Dutch East Indies.
Take a moment to step away from the building so you can clearly see its architectural style. It was built in the early 1920s in a style inspired by the 17th-century Northern Dutch Renaissance. Note, for instance, the two heads next to the entrance and the decorated window frame that clearly shows tropical merchandise such as laurel and bananas, among others. A hundred years ago, it was not an issue to decorate buildings with this kind of colonial reference, while today we think very differently.
The Dutch Trading Company was an initiative of King William I, who was very fond of entrepreneurship. Not for nothing was its nickname: King Merchant. He was also closely involved in major national projects such as the construction of new canals and roads.
The Handel-Maatschappij was not only a trading company, but also a transporter and state banker all in one. And in the East Indies, it was also responsible for collecting taxes in kind, think sugar and spices. That stopped with Indonesia's independence in 1949 and the nationalisation of plantations by the Indonesian government. The Handel-Maatschappij did continue to exist as a bank and eventually merged into the Algemene Bank van Nederland, the A.B.N, one of the largest Dutch banking companies.