Career
The Hope family originally came from Scotland. Archibald Hope, the father of Thomas, was a Quaker who had eight sons. His second eldest son Henry (later father of Henry Hope) went to seek riches in the United States.
Archibald and second youngest brother Thomas moved to Amsterdam.
In those early years he simply lodged with a cousin and spent his days at the Amsterdam exchange. He was clearly successful, because Thomas joined him and was given power of attorney in 1724.
When Archibald married they opened an office in 1726, and the next year Thomas married the daughter of a well-to-do Amsterdam merchant, Margaretha Marcelis. The business became successful in trade with England, America and the slave trade with the West Indies.
The stadholders William IV and William V (1766) appointed Thomas Hope as their representative with the VOC and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. Thomas Hope came up with a system of cost calculation.
Thomas Hope is considered as a possible author of the Proposition: a proposal at the Parliament of the Netherlands in 1751 to improve Holland"s diminishing trade position through abolition of the export tax and lowering import tax The proposal did not take up considerable time on the agenda, but was enacted by other countries. The Hope brothers" business affairs (like those of many others) flourished for many reasons, including loans for the war between England and France (1756–1763).
In 1758, Thomas bought Mattheus Lestevenon"s (then Dutch ambassador in France) attractive building at Keizersgracht 444-446.
In 1759, the Hope business had 26 co-workers. The next-door house at 448 was bought in 1763 for Henry Hope, the nephew from America.
Together they would continue to build the Hopes name internationally. In 1763 many Amsterdam businesses went bust when the Brothers De Neufville could not pay their creditors, resulting in an international financial crisis (Isaac de Pinto, for example, got into difficulties and had to give up his house), but Hope & Company continued to flourish through international loans and share dealing.
Mattheus Lestevenon
Thomas"s grandson Thomas Hope
Adriaan van der Hoop
Elias, J.E., De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, 2 volumes, Amsterdam, 1903-1905.
