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Reserve Banle to lower its stocks of coins and coin materials to one-fifth of all money and
credit issued. 89 Also, on 3 August it gave the State Post Banle a time delay of two weeks to
hand out withdrawals of over f25. Fortunately, by 7 August, as the immediate threat of
invasion faded, withdrawals returned to pre-war levels (see Table 5) and the Banle rarely
used its emergency power. 90 Because dwindling gold stocks worried the government, it
issued an export prohibition on gold on 30 July as well.
TABLE 5: WITHDRAWALS MADE FROM THE RljKSPOSTSPAARBANK (STATE
POSTBANK) ,JULY - AUGUST 1914 91
DATE NUMBER OF WITHDRAWALS TOTAL AMOUNT WITHDRAWN
JuI29 1,408 f362,000
JuI30 2,871 f1,035,000
JuI31 6,874 f2,585,000
Aug 1 13,771 f4,821,000
Aug 3 11,228 f3,718,000
Aug 4 1,607 f515,000
Aug 5 1,777 f518,000
Aug 6 1,289 f336,000
Aug 7 696 f176,000
SOLDIERS, SOLDIERS EVERYWHERE, 1 - 3 AUGUST
When Bosboom issued Telegram A on 26 July, he set a highly detailed programme
in motion. The mobilisation plan culminated in the activation of the entire military and
landweer, which was phase two of three outlined in the 1913 Strategic Directives. The third
89 Staatblad 31 July 1914, no. 334. On 25 July 1914 cover of credit by coinage and coin material issued by the
Nederlandse Bank stood at 54%, by 2 August this had decreased to 37% (Meester, "Overzicht van den economischen
toestand van Nederland" p. 36).
90 Vissering et. al., "The Effect ofthe War upon Banking and Industry" p. 9.
91 On average 800 withdrawals worth around 1200,000 were made daily before August 1914 (Treub, Oorlogstijd pp.
203 - 204; Treub, "De economische toestand" p. 146).