Lottery bonds

By the beginning of the 1700's, the Dutch government had been issuing bonds for over a century to raise money to fight its wars. The largest share of the republic's and the provinces' budget was debt service. Looking for other ways to keep raising money without raising taxes, they tried a system that had been used successfully in England.

Starting in 1711, the Dutch government, both the republic and the province of Holland sold bonds that paid a low annual rate, in this case 4%. They were not subject to the usual 0.5% tax. However, periodically, the government entity that issued the bonds drew numbers. Those bonds, which "won" the lottery, were bought them back by the government at a higher price, called the supplement (augmentatie).

The image on the right (click to enlarge) shows an announcement for the lottery in 1713. The Generaliteyts is the national government. "The other half of the six million guilders, augmented with three million guilders." It consisted of thirty thousand lots, at two hundred guilders each. The bonds in articles 17 - 20 and 32 - 35 below came from this lottery.

We don't know how many of these bonds the Leeuwenhoeks bought. On Maria's death, eleven such bonds remained in her estate. Four had been purchased from the republic (Comptoire Generaal van de Unie) and seven from the province's den Haag office (Geemeneland van Holland ende Westvriesland ten Comptoire Generaal in 's Hage). Since she still had them, they must not have won the lottery before 1744.

The face value of these eleven bonds in total was 2,300 guilders. For the final ten years of Leeuwenhoek's life and the final thirty years of his daughter's, these government offices paid the Leeuwenhoeks 92 guilders per year on these bonds alone, well in excess of their face value by the end of Maria's life. A good investment.

Notes:

• I don't know what is meant by aggreatie (or geaggr'd), called approval on the table below. When the approval date came before the first annual payment, it probably did not affect the number or size of those payments. However, for approval dates later than the first annual payment, I am not sure when the annual payments began.

• The final payment that Maria collected was in 1744. She lived long enough to have collected on the four bonds that paid in January and the four that paid in April.

The inventory's records of the bonds below are on the right sidebar (click to enlarge). The table belows shows bonds from the issue that raised 6 million guilders in 1713. Antony van Leeuwenhoek is named on these bonds, all issued by the republic (Comptoire Generaal van de Unie). These bonds did not have a classis number.

The table belows shows bonds from the issue that raised 6 million guilders in 1711. Antony van Leeuwenhoek is also named on these bonds, all issued by the province, den Haag office (Geemeneland van Holland ende Westvriesland ten Comptoire Generaal in 's Hage). These bonds had a classis number.

These bonds came from the second 1713 lottery that also raised 6 million guilders. Marijtge Teunes is named on these bonds, so Leeuwenhoek and his daughter must have bought them on the secondary market. These bonds were also issued by the province, den Haag office (Geemeneland van Holland ende Westvriesland ten Comptoire Generaal in 's Hage) and they also had a classis number.

Note the similarities in the registry pages for the bonds in articles 33 and 35 (right sidebar; click to enlarge):

A great lottery bond for two hundred guilders capital (being supplemented to 90 guilders when redeemed) from the 28th class invested in the name of Marijtge Teunes, on April 1, 1713, page 1554, no. 144, approved on October 22, 1716, no. 144, registry page 15. On which interest was paid on April 1, 1744.

key to column headings

• art no - article number in the inventory
• reg pg - registry page where the sale and approval were recorded
• gl - face value of bond, in guilders
• sup - supplement, in guilders
• yr - annual payment, in guilders
• # - number of payments
• gr - gross, in guilders