THE HAGUE: The third-largest Dutch bank, ABN AMRO, apologised Wednesday for its involvement in slavery, saying the practice in the 18th and 19th century caused “untold suffering”.
The bank is one of the first Dutch private companies to apologise for its role in the Atlantic slave trade amid growing debate over a painful period in the Netherlands’ colonial past.
Research commissioned by ABN AMRO found that some of its legal predecessors were involved in “plantation slavery and the trade in products that originated in slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries.”
“Slavery caused untold suffering, and ABN AMRO apologises for the actions and activities of these predecessors,” the said in a statement.
One of its predecessors, Hope & Co., “played a pivotal role in the international slave economy of the 18th century,” ABN AMRO said.
“Not only were slavery-related operations a source of much of Hope & Co.’s profits, the firm was also actively involved in the day-to-day business of plantations,” it said.
Hope & Co. became the largest financial and commercial company in the Netherlands at the end of the 18th century. Another predecessor, Mees en Zoonen, brokered insurance for slave ships and shipments of goods harvested by enslaved persons, said the researchers of the Amsterdam-based International Institute of Social History (IISH).
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