88
WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
at Rotterdam, have been built since 1895, there is at present a lack of
storage room. New warehouses and sheds, however, are being built
constantly and the storage space still increases from year to year.
S. Ltstoe, Consul-General.
Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 12,1901¡..
AMSTERDAM.
(From United States Consul Hill, Amsterdam., Netherlands.)
In a report on stored goods as collateral for loans,® transmitted
July 10, 1902, I made the following résumé:
During the reign of the counts of Holland it had already become necessary to
establish a weigh-house in order to guarantee to merchants correct weighing by
means of measures controlled by the city authorities. It is supposed that as early
as the year 1275 such a weigh-house existed on the dam at Amsterdam. Later
the privilege of the weigh-house was transferred to the city. During the seventeenth
century, the period during which the East India Company and the West
India Company flourished so extraordinarily, every merchant, before delivering
goods, was compelled to have them weighed in the city weigh-house (Stadswaag).
Merchants brought their wares to the city and employed weigh-house
carriers (waagdragers) to place them upon the scales of the weigh-house
and to deliver them on board ship. These waagdragers formed corporations
called “ veems,r under the direction of four or five chiefs and four trustees
chosen from among the leading merchants. These directors employed laborers
to perform the work. When the city abolished the municipal weigh-houses
the waagdragers took a city oath and were then called “ sworn weighers ” and
workers for the trade. Their work consisted of receiving goods from on board
ship, weighing them, and either warehousing or delivering them.
For a long period—perhaps forty or fity years—the veems have issued
“ cedullen ” (warrants) to bearer for the goods stored by them in their warehouses.
These warrants are accepted by the Netherlands Bank, and also by
private bankers and banking institutions, as collateral for loans. In making
loans upon merchandise, the Netherlands Bank requires the following: (1)
The borrower must be well known to the bank. (2) An application for a loan,
accompanied by an estimate by a broker accepted by the bank, and a statement
of the value must be furnished. (3) The application must be approved by the
direction of the bank. (4) A contract deed of the loan must be made, whereby
the merchandise is transferred to the Netherlands Bank. Loans may be made
up to G5 per cent of the value on articles that are not very largely dealt in ;
up to 70 per cent on most articles of merchandise; on sugar and cotton, 75 per
cent, and on tin, 80 per cent.
The warrants of only such veems or warehouses as have a guaranty deposit
with the bank are accepted by the Netherlands Bank as collateral for loans. The
warrants of the Dutch Trading Company and of the municipal bonded warehouse
are accepted by the bank bona fide. The average amount loaned on merchandise
in this way by the Netherlands Bank during the last three years [to 19021
has been about 7,000,000 florins ($2,814,000).
In consequence of the increase of trade and of the extension of warehouses,
the veems of late years have been transformed into stock companies, each having
a capital of from 1,000.000 florins ($402,000) to 3,000,000 florins ($1,200.000).
Amsterdam, besides being preeminent in the diamond polishing,
splitting, and cutting industry (which on account of the small bulk
of its materials makes no figure in warehouse statistics), is the largest
colonial market on the Continent. It is first in tobacco and cinchona
bark, it is a large coffee market, and the names of its manufacturers
of chocolate are known everywhere. It is also a large grain and
flour market, and its trade in timber, iron, petroleum, dyewoods,
“Published in Special Consular Reports, volume xxv, page 63.
