Zoosveel banken... zijn ze bezeten?

This Dutch satirical print mocks the proliferation of commercial banks in 1860s Amsterdam. A well-dressed banker juggles coins amid furniture labeled with bank names—Hypotheekbank, Credit- en Depositobank, Beurs Bankassocatie—while a figure on the right struggles to balance a precariously tilted building. The print, rendered as a wood engraving, channels the European tradition of financial satire perfected by Daumier and Gillray, using exaggeration and visual metaphor to critique speculative banking culture. The Dutch caption's wordplay asks if so many banks signal possession (by greed, perhaps). Such political and economic commentary through caricature formed a crucial predecessor to the sequential narrative panels of modern comics, establishing satire's power to challenge institutional excess through visual wit.