Leendert Pieter de Neufville

Herengracht 70-72 where De Neufville lived during his bankruptcy
The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, until the auction in June 1765 in the possession of De Neufville.[1]

Leendert Pieter de Neufville (Amsterdam, March 8, 1729 – Rotterdam, July 28, 1811) was a Dutch merchant and banker trading in silver, grain, silk, and providing the Prussian army since 1757. His business grew very fast during the Seven Years' War, but it appears that De Neufville was paid by the Prussian (temporarily) devalued currency. In the meantime De Neufville used bills of exchange. These "cavalry bonds" were not backed by any real transaction.[2]

After the peace of Hubertusburg in February 1763 De Neufville went to Berlin to offer his help in reviving the Prussian Asiatic Company. There he met with Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, the owner of a silk and porcelain factory. Together they bought a huge amount of grain, stored in warehouses, after the Russian army had withdrawn from Pommerania, etc. De Neufville invested 100.000 guilder in Gotzkowsky's project. The grain prices however continued to drop within the next three months.[3] On 18 July General Vasily Dolgorukov-Krymsky forced Gotzkowsky to pay for the (rotten) grain.

Following the end of the war, the sub-value Prussian coins were removed from circulation resulting in a shortage of cash money. From June 1763, new coins were minted in line with the pre-war monetary standard, but in shortage. The “war coins” were only exchanged at their metal value. Their loss in value had to be borne by the owners.[4]

The brothers De Neufville, who had been paid by "war coins", but obliged to pay out their bills of exchange in new coins, closed their business on 29 July and De Neufville he went bankrupt on 3 August 1763, as Gotzkowsky did on the next day. This also brought other banks, especially in Hamburg and Berlin into trouble. An international banking crisis ensued, which extended to Hamburg, Berlin and Stockholm, during which the banks were unwilling to give each other credit.[5]

Gotzkowsky was saved by Frederick the Great, who bought his porcelain and silk factory in August/September 1763. (From then on it became known as KPM.) The Prussian king also tried to help De Neufville, but the Amsterdam mayors and bankers were not interested in saving the Neufville company. On 7 October 1763 De Neufville was placed under guardianship. The Amsterdam Chamber of Insolvent Estates became responsible for his property. Twice an auction was organized to sell his paintings (in December 1763 and June 1765).[6] De Neufville promised to pay back his debtors 70, 60 and then 50%. As he did not succeed to pay his debtors more than 10% his debtors went to court in 1770.

Until 1777 De Neufville lived in Amsterdam or on his estate near Heemstede. The next year De Neufville moved to Rotterdam, where he remarried in 1805. Another auction of paintings was held in 1804; De Neufville had a special interest for the German painter Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich.[7] In the year of his death the debtors received another 1%.

References

  1. ↑ The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer by Walter A. Liedtke
  2. ↑ "Banking sector reform", Green Paper D66
  3. ↑ Studies in the Economic Policy of Frederick the Great by W.O. Henderson
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Risks at Sea: Amsterdam Insurance and Maritime Europe, 1766-1780 by Frank C. Spooner
  6. ↑ Jonathan Bikker (2012) The hidden collection of the spectacularly bankrupt banker Leendert Pieter de Neufville, p. 186
  7. ↑ J. Bikker (2012) The hidden collection of the spectacularly bankrupt banker Leendert Pieter de Neufville, p. 201

External links

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