The Bank of Amsterdam, or Wisselbank, was a public bank established on January 31, 1609 under the backing of the city of Amsterdam to stabilize the value of money for merchants, resolve difficulties in domestic payments, and facilitate international trade through reliable coin and book-entry transfers. It is described by some historians, though the characterization remains debated, as the first true central bank, and its introduction of deposit receipts in 1683 created an early form of paper money; it maintained close to full reserve backing for its deposits for most of its history and gave the Dutch guilder something close to reserve-currency status across seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe, before excessive lending to the Dutch East India Company brought it to insolvency in 1790 and final liquidation in 1819.
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