Lucien Gillard, La Banque d’Amsterdam et le Florin européen. Lucien Gillard, La Banque d’Amsterdam et le Florin européen au Temps de la République néerlandaise (1610-1820), Paris, Éditions de l’Ehess, 2004, 420 p.

The Bank of Amsterdam or Wisselbank, celebrated in its day, has had mixed fortunes in the historic and economic literature. Held up on the one hand as a central factor in the creation of the Dutch Republic's economic miracle, the Wisselbank is also generally seen as an archaic institution. The bank neither gave credit nor issued notes, which is thought to have prevented it from evolving into a true central bank such as the Bank of England, itself modelled on the Wisselbank, became during the ...