Dutch got one of the unique infastructures called banks whch other Euro civs don’t have in AoE III, this has some similiar signficance in RoN where Dutch have the power of commerence. Though it can be said that AoE III done it by accident, but they probably know that theres something special about the Dutch civ on banks, there is also unique unit of diplomatic envoys that other European civs don’t have, but that carries no signficance for me because every other civs has diplomatic envoys in the past. They should had added diplomatic civs of other civs in AoE III too.
The question of my intereset will be what’s historically special about Dutch’s past on bank and commerence, and what unique signficance and impact does the Dutch carries from the 20th century till the present century on bank and commerence???
there are a few ways in which banks make sense for the Dutch.
first of all there is the Dutch east India company, which was publicly owned through shares and which had some interesting assurances policies that lowered the risk for individual stakeholders by making you buy into the company rather than the individual ships as had been common practice in other parts of Europe.
the second 1 is the tulip boble that the Dutch experience which for a modern day equivalence you can look at bitcoin, essentially something with dubious actual value was sold to astronomical values because the buyers assumed they could sell it for even more, until it obviously crashed.
also keep in mind the dutch economy was extremely Mercantile, few other, if any, places in europe had such an emphasis on trade economy compared to agriculture.
Modern banking began with traders from northern Italy and the Low Countries. They had extensive trade through merchants and organizations like the Dutch East India company and Hanseatic League, and advanced financial systems. One of their upgrades is “Tulip Speculation” which alludes to the world’s first stock market crash.
Also, I think it is partially an acknowledgement of the fact that the Dutch were considered the most lucrative source of taxes for the Hapsburg when they controlled it, and were coveted for conquest by French, Austrians and Spanish precisely because of their riches as a tax source. Aside from the reasons exposed in the posts above, the banks are also way of reflecting that historical coin affluence.
I do believe firmly, though, that if Italians are ever added into the game, they should have access to at least one bank, because Italian city-states were as important as the Dutch (if not more) in the development of modern banking.
Random related fact: One of the main reasons why the Knights Templars were singled out for persecution by King Phillip IV of France and Pope Clement V in 1307 was that they coveted the wealth these guys had accumulated by offering banking services to various royal houses in Europe.
“…By that time the Templars had ceased to be primarily a fighting organization and had become the leading money handlers of Europe. From the beginning the knights aroused opposition because of their special privileges, their freedom from secular control, and their great military and financial strength. As their banking role increased—they served such kings as Henry II of England and Louis IX of France—and their landholdings grew, they aroused the hostility, fear, and jealousy of secular rulers and of the secular clergy as well.” (Source: Knights Templars: Rise to Power)
So yeah, banking was already well established even before Age I of the AoE3 time period.
I don’t know much about Duth history and its relation with banks, but I know that Dutch banking is responsible for american monetary stability. Back in 1782, just a couple years after independence, John Adams managed to get a loan of about 5 million Dutch guilders (which was about like 1% of american GDP by the time and its like a crazy amount of money), and thus guaranteed monetary stability for young America.
I think this was one of the reasons to associate the Dutch with banking in AoE3, considering the loan of 1782 is spot on with the AoE3 timeline. This is the only piece of history I know about Dutch banking, but surely they must have many more things on their banking past that would support the bank in AoE3.
Also they were very skilled merchants and all that stuff you guys know.
Intresting, questions would be how tulip speculation crashed the stock market???, what assests are involved??? and was it a human error or experimentation???
Everyone wanted tulips, then their cost was high, for this reason merchants bought them to sell them at higher cost. Some people bought tulips selling houses or salary of months to sell them later. But when everyone had a tulip, nobody want to buy one, then their value decrease and people waste their own money.
It was more of a market in commodities futures in the case of Tulip Mania. But I think they were selling stocks in trading companies like the East India Company at that point also. It was basically a speculative bubble where everyone thought the price of Tulip bulbs would keep rising far above what they were actually worth until it eventually burst.
The Dutch in their golden age where the wealthiest nation in the world, banks are mostly a game mechanic referencing that I suspect. However some bank centric history:
The Amsterdam stock exchange was the first official stock exchange in the world, which allowed for the first fully functioning capital market.
The bank of Amsterdam was the world’s first central bank and introduced the first ever international reserve currency.
And ofcourse the VOC, the world’s first publicly listed company.
That’s more relevant and intreseting information, the Dutch do had a hands on first ever vibrant history of the central bank and the resillent system of commerence.
