Bank

The Bank is a unique Dutch and Japanese building in Age of Empires III.

Dutch
The Bank produces coin automatically once it is built (by a Settler or wagon). Initially there is a build limit of four Banks for the Dutch, but the number may be increased for Dutch players with various upgrades and Home City shipments to a total of ten banks. Banks allow the Dutch to focus their villagers on collecting food and wood. With the unique ability to produce infinite coins at a startling rate, the Dutch may use markets to their advantage and buy up large amounts of resource if a quick age jump is needed. As well, banks allow the Dutch to hire mercenaries much more easily than other civilizations, because they produce a limitless supply of Coin, unless the building is destroyed.

Each Bank generates approximately per second before any upgrades.

The Dutch have two Home City Cards which allow the Bank limit to be increased by two, once both are sent.

Overall, the total coin production after each all possible shipments and upgrades built is about 38 coins/second. This results in a hefty amount of coin, with the gather rate from these banks alone being more than 40 settlers working on plantations or mining.

Japanese
The Japanese can send one Bank from the Consulate in the Colonial age if allied with the Dutch (Level 25 Home City required). This bank cannot be replaced, so it should be well protected, as it can only be sent one time.

Upgrades and Cards

 * Increases build limits


 * Bank of Amsterdam card (+1 Bank). Available in Discovery Age
 * Bank of Rotterdam card (+1 Bank). Available in Discovery Age
 * Religious Freedom card and then, the Coffee Trade upgrade from the Church (+2 Banks). Available in Colonial Age
 * Excessive Taxation upgrade in the Capitol (+2 Banks). Available in Imperial Age


 * Improve Coin generation rates.


 * Dutch East India Company card ([[File:Icon wood.gif]] -15%,[[File:Icon food.gif]] -15%, +100% HP). Available in Colonial Age
 * Tulip Speculations card ([[File:Icon coin.gif]] generate rate +15%). Available in Industrial Age

Shipments
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:1px;" ! sab="1148"| Click for a list of Bank-related Home City cards
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150"|

Dutch

 * }

History
"The seventeenth century saw the founding of the Wisselbank of Amsterdam. This financial institution rapidly became the wealthiest and most powerful bank in existence. They were the first to accept and actively promote the exchange of checks, and the government passed laws stating that large transactions between two parties had to be brokered by the Wisselbank. The successes of the Dutch East India Company kept Dutch coffers full and flowing, and the Dutch economy soared. Trade in tulips, iconically Dutch flowers, rose dramatically in the middle of the seventeenth century and crashed even more dramatically. A single tulip bulb at the height of the craze could purchase an entire estate. These bulbs were bought and sold on paper. This, with the practices of the Wisselbank of Amsterdam, put Holland on the cutting edge of finance. As prices skyrocketed, some people seeking to lock in their profits sold off their tulips at lower than peak prices, sending a ripple of fear through the market that grew to widespread panic as everyone began to realize these tulips, while beautiful, were just bulbs, cousins of the onion, and not worth a house, a life savings or even carriage with a pair of matched gray horses."