The Société Générale pour favoriser l’Industrie Nationale was founded in 1822 by William I, King of the Netherlands, and took on the role of an emergency bank for the area ceded by the Netherlands to become the independent country of Belgium. It performed this role until the Banque Nationale de Belgique was established in 1835. At the beginning of the First World War, the company, following a break of 80 years, was authorised to issue paper money again by the German government, after the Belgian government had fled into exile at the outbreak of the war, taking the printing plates of the Banque Nationale de Belgique with it. The occupation banknotes were issued between 1914 and 1918 in nominal values of 1, 2, 5, 20, 100 and 1,000 francs.
