Vraag 2 | The guilder is making a comeback, but not in the Netherlands. How about that? (Dutch spoken)
From 31 March, you can pay with the Caribbean guilder in Curaçao and Sint Maarten. So the guilder is making a comeback, but not in the Netherlands. How about that? Listen to historian Rosemarijn Hoefte in the latest episode of Vraag 2 on Spotify.
In this episode of Vraag 2, Jip Koene visits historian Rosemarijn Hoefte in Leiden. Hoefte is president of the Association for Caribbean Historians and professor of history of Suriname at the UvA, a chair established in cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies.
The fact that Curaçao and Sint Maarten will have their own currency has everything to do with the islands' autonomy, according to the historian. ‘The islands used to pay with the Dutch Antillean guilder,’ Hoefte explains. ‘But since the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are autonomous, and a new currency goes with that.’
Initially, the new currency was to be introduced no more than two years after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. We are now 15 years on. ‘This is partly due to the small scale of the islands,’ says Hoefte. ‘In Europe we pull out a can of civil servants like that, but that doesn't work on the islands. There are far fewer people there who have to do far more.’
Listen to the latest podcast episode on the Caribbean guilder on Spotify.
Production & presentation: Jip Koene
Final editing: Irene Schoenmacker
Music: Paolo Argento
