(1763) Six of eight sons of the Scottish merchant Archibald Hope (1664–1743) – Archibald Jr. (1698–1734), Isaac, Zachary, Henry,
Thomas (1704-1779), and Adrian (1709–1781) – were merchants of trade. They were active in shipping, storage, insurance, and credit in Amsterdam and
Rotterdam. In 1720 they barely survived the bubble that led to the passage of the
Bubble Act in London. Archibald and Henry invested in the
Provinciale Utrechtsche Geoctroyeerde Compagnie (1720-1752).
Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun was a cousin. In this early period the Hope brothers made money organizing shipment for Quakers and Swiss
Mennonites out of Rotterdam (under the direction of Archibald, Isaac and Zachary). The top years for the transport of migrants to
Pennsylvania were 1738, 1744, 1753 and 1765. These transports were paid for by the city of Rotterdam and the local Mennonite church. In 1743 the brothers inherited a fortune from their father. For many years the brothers traded with Saint Petersburg,
Bilbao,
Cadix and
Sint Eustatius which became a
free port in 1756. The Hopes traded in sugar,
cocoa beans,
tobacco and
timber, especially sailing masts from the
Baltic states. In 1750, Stadtholder William IV appointed
Thomas as his representative in the meeting of directors of the West India Company (WIC), but it ended the year after when all the appointments were reverted. In 1752, he became a member of the "Lords XVII", the managers of the VOC. Four years later Thomas represented
Anne of Hanover in the VOC. The company moved to
Keizersgracht in 1758. The firm operated as agents to the British government which supplied loans to
Frederick the Great during the
Seven Years' War. The turnover raised from 10 to 37 million between 1755-1762. In October 1759 and March 1760 the Hope brothers bought at auction from the Dutch East India Company a massive 595,879 pounds of tea, at a cost of more than one million guilders. There is no doubt that they intended to flood the North American market. by
Charles Howard Hodges after a now-lost painting by
Sir Joshua Reynolds. , 1796). In 1762 when
Jan (John) and his nephew
Henry Hope (1736–1811) joined Hopes, the name was changed to Hope & Co and a new era began. From that time the firm concentrated on banking. During the
Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763 Hope & Co helped out
Leendert Pieter de Neufville. Henry's first substantial foreign loan was to
Adolf Frederick of Sweden in 1768; in the next twenty years, Sweden was to borrow a total of 15 million guilders (
securitised foreign
loans); in 1770-1771 to the kings of Bavaria and Prussia. The Hope Company cooperated with
Alexander Fordyce and
Gurnell, Hoare, & Harman in 1770. In 1771
George Colebrooke and
James Cockburn, directors of the EIC, recruited
Paul Wentworth (spy) to borrow £66,000 from Hope & Co. In 1771 Adrian Hope bought together with
Andries Pels negotiaties for 904,000 guilders. Hope & Co suffered from the
crisis of 1772 and the fall of the EIC-stocks. The turnover with the Amsterdam Exchange Bank plummeted from more than 50 million guilders in 1772 to 30 million in 1773. In 1774 Fordyce was forced to sell his estate to
Sir Joshua Vanneck, 1st Baronet; the
plaintiffs were Hope & Co and
Harman and Co. George Colebrooke went bankrupt. Though primarily interested in trade deals from the start of their activities, the Hope brothers expanded their interests to longer-term investments in land and the arts. During the 18th century Hope & Co. set up a profit sharing agreement for the partners to reduce the risk of bankruptcy of the entire firm due to the indiscretions of one member, as happened in the case of rival banking house
Clifford in 1772. In March 1781 Adrian Hope died without offspring; the heirs paid a small amount on inheritance tax, which was regarded as fraud. Hope & Co. threatened to move the company to
Ostend. The company lend an enormous amount of money to
Charles III of Spain. For Spain Hope organised state loans for nine million guilders in the 1780s. The adopted John Williams joined the Hope company in 1782. The company supplied
Frederick VI of Denmark with money, a plantation on
Saint Croix served as
collateral; in 1786 they supplied a loan to
Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1785 Nicolas Bauduoin (-1787) and Jan Caspar Hartsinck were members in the board; two years later Hartsinck was appointed in the
city council by the stadtholder and in the
Bank of Amsterdam. In the summer of 1789 when the French population suffered from famine
Jacques Necker intervened personally and successfully at Hope & Co. to supply
Louis XVI with grain. The 2.4 million in the royal treasury he used as a collateral. Between 1787 and 1794 the company lost million of guilders in a deliberate effort to manipulate the price of
cochineal from Mexico. In January 1790
Thomas Hope (designer) was admitted to the board of the Hope company; he owned almost a sixth of the shares, but preferred to travel to Italy, and
Pierre César Labouchère became a partner. Labouchère played an important role in negotiations with France, handling most of the financing for Holland with that country. In 1792
Alexander Baring started to work at Hope & Co. In November 1792, French Minister of Finances
Étienne Clavière harshly pointed out that Hope & Co. was the leading member of a group of bankers engaged in speculation against the French credit and currency. Between 1788 and 1794 Hope & Co. issued loans totalling 53 million guilders on behalf of the Russian Empress. Early 1795 all the Hopes had fled to London to avoid the
Batavian Revolution and the
French occupation of the Netherlands and never came back. Their stock in warehouses was shipped to Hamburg? In 1796/97, after the
Third Partition of Poland Robert Voûte, an employee, went to Saint Petersburg; by buying up Polish bonds prudently in 1798, the partners of Hope & Co. made a huge profit. Then Hope & Co supplied loans to Portugal (to
Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho and
John VI of Portugal). In 1803, the bank was involved in financing the
Louisiana Purchase. Hope took over the direction of the financial operation on Louisiana, and they were the sole executors of the French part of the operation after Baring withdrew in 1803. The Hope brothers sold the real estate at Keizers- and Prinsengracht to John Williams Hope. Also Henry sold
Villa Welgelegen to his
fiduciary, who continued to hold that office until the establishment of the monarchy under
Louis Bonaparte in 1806. When
Henry Hope died in 1811, the London offices of Hope & Co. merged with
Baring Brothers & Co. Adriaan van der Hoop inherited the Amsterdam portion of the investments, together with
Alexander Baring. ==Art collection==