Prussian State Bank

The Prussian State Bank was a state-owned entity that played a significant role in the economy of the Kingdom of Prussia.

It was founded in 1772 as a shipping company, the Seehandlungsgesellschaft or simply Seehandlung, intended to boost Prussia's foreign trade.

The Prussian sea trading company was founded in Berlin on October 14, 1772 at the instigation of Frederick the Great under the name Generaldirektion der Seehandlungs-Sozietät.

With its ships flying the Prussian flag, the company was to trade mainly though not exclusively with Spain, and maintained a commercial agent in Cádiz.

Under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert [de], the Preußische Compagnie was merged into the Seehandlung.

The Third Partition of Poland (1795), which followed soon afterwards, restricted the sales area for salt, and in its aftermath, the Napoleonic wars negatively affected Prussian trade.

The Prussian government guaranteed all of the Seehandlung's obligations and appointed a board of trustees of three state officials to oversee it.

It was accepted in order not to let the nearest inland waters escape the "great advantages that steam navigation affords other countries".

[3] On February 14, 1845, it was decreed that the Seehandlung should no longer engage in any new commercial ventures and leave the salt trade to the tax authorities.

Trade in wine, flour and wool was maintained for a long time, however, and the Seehandlung also retained other commercial ventures, such as some textile factories and metalworking companies.

In 1777, Friedrich II rented the Domestikenhaus, built in 1735 under Frederick William I on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt at the corner with Jägerstraße, for the newly established Seehandlungsgesellschaft.