• The first funding for the Dutch central bank came in part from the slave trade.
• When slavery was abolished in 1863, compensation was provided to plantation owners.
• . He stated that the central bank would “become more diverse and inclusive” by responding “decisively” to racism and increasing recruitment diversity.

The head of the Dutch central bank has issued an apology for the institution’s involvement in the slave trade during the 19th century, when the majority of its founding directors owned, funded, or sold foodstuffs grown on colonial plantations that employed slave labour.

Read More: Crypto equipment company Compass Mining has lost both its CEO & CFO

Klaas Knot, governor of De Nederlandsche Bank since 2011, said at a ceremony commemorating the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands in 1863, “We apologise to all those who, due to the personal choices of my predecessors, were reduced to the colour of their skin; to an amount; to a commodity listed in a ledger.”

The first funding for the Dutch central bank came in part from the slave trade, and plantation goods like as coffee and sugar were accepted as collateral for loans. When slavery was abolished, compensation was provided to plantation owners, according to Knot, who called them “reprehensible realities.”

In February, Leiden University published a study revealing that only five of the sixteen founding investors and executives of the Dutch national bank in 1814 had no “direct extensive participation in slavery.”

Read More: US Supreme Court limits EPA’s ability to control greenhouse gas emissions

Knot stated that the Dutch central bank would invest €5 million in programmes “in the service of society” over the next decade, as well as €5 million in larger efforts such as the National Research Centre on the History of Slavery

His remarks demonstrate how Dutch institutions are confronting their role in the history of slavery. The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, apologised for the city’s role in the slave trade last year, while the Dutch bank ABN Amro offered a similar apology in February.