9 - The capital markets during revolutions, war, and peace

Summary

In February 1793, after war had been declared by the French revolutionary government against both England and Spain, and the Dutch “patriot” party was attempting its own revolution in Amsterdam in sympathy, the great Anglo-Dutch merchant banker Henry Hope removed himself from Amsterdam to London. He returned briefly in December when it appeared that the first invasion of the Austrian Netherlands had been defeated. But on 17 October 1794, as French troops were poised at the River Maas for the final offensive into Holland, he crossed over to England permanently, with John Williams Hope, while other members of the firm fled to Germany. The two remaining members, Pierre Labouchere and Alexander Baring, made their escape on 18 January 1795. Henry Hope carried with him 372 valuable paintings, insured for £26,000. Without selling his recently completed country seat at Welgelegen or his warehouse and office in central Amsterdam, he arranged for purchase of the East Sheen estate near Richmond and a palatial London residence that he began to expand in order to accommodate his collection of art.

This is only one example, albeit one of the largest and best-documented examples, of the displacement of capital from the European continent in front of the advancing French Revolution and its armies. The revolutionaries had abolished traditional property rights, including feudal obligations and seigneurial dues, and they disrupted customary channels of trade. Hope and his family, already having strong financial ties with England, were able to transfer their movable wealth nearly intact.