The SMN was founded on May 13, 1870, in Amsterdam for the trade between North Western Europe and the former Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) via the newly opened Suez Canal.

The congress stated that it thought the immediate establishment of a steam shipping line to be the best way to profit from the new canal, and recommended the company to the trading community and the government.

Bunge and J. Boissevain and was to negotiate the foundation of a regular steam shipping line from the Netherlands via Suez to the Dutch East Indies.

The Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce was also involved in the discussion, and addressed the finance minister to support and cooperate in the plan for a direct shipping line between the Netherlands and Java.

The Netherlands Trading Society still had a quasi monopoly on the production of coffee, tea, sugar and indigo, and Dutch shipping lines could subscribe to transporting these for the lowest price.

Therefore, the Netherlands Trading Society had to agree beforehand on paying for this advantage, instead of using (or being forced to use by law) her monopoly to drive down prices on steamships to the level of those for sailing ships.

There was also a supervisory board of commissioners, not directors, consisting of Cornelis Jacob Arnold den Tex [nl] mayor of Amsterdam, E. Fuld, E. Mohr, A.R.J.

Ships had become longer, carried more cargo, had smaller engines, lower coal consumption and combined all this with sufficient speed.

The ships would be of 2,000 tons cargo space and 400 nominal horse power, 1,600 ihp in order to ensure a more regular service.

The company also had its own warehouses in Nieuwediep for loading and unloading to smaller ships, that could reach Amsterdam via the Noordhollandsch Kanaal.

Passengers, mail and some freight that required fast service could go by train to and from Naples, Marseilles or Genoa in order to keep the travelling time as short as possible, but this was not done on the first trips.

A critic noted that the board gave a rather limited account of why it needed more money to strengthen the capital, and why it wanted to buy two more ships.

[19] Five shareholders from Rotterdam (Mees, Plate, Pincoffs, Pols and Ruys) required a change in the articles so that the directors would no longer appoint captains and shipping agencies.

Plate noted that: while he was busy promoting the establishment of the SMN among investors in Rotterdam, he could not imagine that one of the directors would appoint himself as its exclusive shipping agent.

The loss for 1871 was 141,000 guilders, about 85,000 was caused by the burning of Willem III, 10,000 by the delayed first trip of Prins van Oranje.

The report by the Franssen van de Putte commission was treated, and led to more authority for the executive directors.

The board mentioned that the backward harbor of Batavia cost her 12-16 guilders a last for transloading, and compared it to the much cheaper Singapore.

The board also mentioned that Prins van Oranje had been allowed to use the navy dry dock at Onrust Island in order to repair her screw, and that she wanted to invest 25,000 guilders in the establishment of the Nederlandsch Indische Droogdok Maatschappij, which would establish dry docks for merchant ships.

It created an easier route to SMN's home base, but it took some more time to make it deep enough for big fully loaded sea ships.

In order to be able to repair her ships, SMN enabled the foundation of the Amsterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij by taking almost three-quarters of the shares.

In the Dutch East Indies ships plied mainly to the ports on the northern coast of the island of Java, e.g. Jakarta (then known as Batavia), Surabaya and Tanjung Priok.

[31] In September 1915 the 9,000 GRT passenger liner Koningin Emma struck a mine that UC-7 had laid near the month of the Thames Estuary.

The United Kingdom also seized Dutch ships, including SMN's Boeroe, Kambangan, Lombok, Prinses Juliana, and Sumatra.

[35] The next loss was on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands, when the British Royal Navy scuttled the 11,000 GRT liner Jan Pieterszoon Coen in the harbour mouth at IJmuiden as a blockship.

On 7 November 1943, the 19,000 GRT Marnix van Sint Aldegonde was carrying 3,000 troops when a German aircraft torpedoed her in the Mediterranean.

[34] Indonesia won its independence in 1949, the Dutch colonial empire declined, and commercial aviation took an increasing share of passenger travel.

As well as its freight and passenger services, SMN also took part in other transport ventures – for example, Martin Air Charter (now Martinair), the specialized liquefied natural gas tanker Antilla Cape, Container Terminal Amsterdam (CTA) and van Swieten Trucking.

Hailing from Amsterdam, SMN always enjoyed friendly competition and rivalry with Rotterdam shipping company Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL), especially on the East Indies route.

On January 20, 1970, the SMN joined with three other companies to form the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie (NSU) and ceased to exist as a separate entity, having just failed to reach its 100th anniversary.

The history and heritage of the Stoomboot Maatschappij 'Nederland' and other Dutch shipping companies is preserved at the Amsterdam and Rotterdam maritime museums.