Sometimes irking even the Dutch who grovel at how their defining moment lapses out of the

annals, the Dutch “Golden Age” may stand as one of History’s most overshadowed episodes. Kindred
to Louis XVI’s of France reign of excess in the dates at which they occurred, and precursor to Britain’s
shining “Glorious revolution” and subsequent rise to European great, this “Golden Age” can deplore
that many have forgotten it. Snubbed in this way because of the other European eras that it bordered,
few now remember the might the Dutch once had one their hands. Yet, this era, in which the Dutch
Republic would become one of the world’s foremost maritime and economic power, entertained lasting
consequences on the countries that neighbored it. Spanning across most of the XVIIth century, it also
complimented the Dutch with becoming unrivalled masters of trade, science, military and art. Praise
from French thinkers Descartes and Spinoza for the Dutch, the cacophony of Anglo-French relations in
this period due to the Dutch as a new player1, and the figures in painting known as the “Dutch masters”,
all frame how important the small Dutch republic came to be.
Most aggravating in what consequences we have been owed from this neglect of the Dutch
Golden Age in history circles is the relative confusion as to its causes. This aspect of the era is one quite
deserving of study one may find when peering into the chronology of the Golden Age. Indeed, half of
the Dutch’s shining moment is purported to have transpired while the Dutch Republic were in open
revolt against Spain, then Europe’s superpower, and from whom independence they only legally gained
in 1648. It is quite surprising that a great power could have achieved such status in the midst of a
secession from the feared Dutch empire. Quite telling of the misunderstanding of the origins of the
Golden Age is that leading historian K. Swart called it a “Dutch miracle”2, hinting at how ill explained
it is. In his study, he comments that of the Golden Age, and its reasons, “most Dutchmen dwelling upon
the good fortunes of their nation praised God rather than themselves, […] and saw God’s hand in the
events of their time”2. This research paper aims to dissect the various factors from which this era of
unchallenged dominion on the seas and trade sprouted. Although at the crossroads between European
giants, the Dutch Republic was able to derive from its geographic situation (1), and its revolutionary
financial and political system (2) the means to leverage their small territory into an actor of the Western
power struggle.

Europe in 1648

I-
Of all the things that the XVIIth century Dutch periodically cherished then cursed, the position
they were beset with inside Europe was the greatest. At a stone’s throw from France’s frontier to the
North, a day’s sail away from the English shoreline, and in the general vicinity of the Austrian’s
Habsburg influence, the Low Countries (or Dutch Republic) had trained themselves to rule with acute
awareness to these distances. The Austrian troops’ attempts to bind the Netherlands to Habsburg tutelage
in the Thirty years war, or even the multiple wars entertained between the English and Dutch, or the
Franco-Dutch war which would almost end the Republic would serve as reminders to its vulnerability
in that regard.
Despite this, this position the Dutch occupied brought them a bountiful of convenience too. In
reviewing the Dutch struggle for succession away from Spanish Habsburg dominance, one can also
appreciate the core the Dutch occupied in the concert of European nations. Indeed, as a lingering after-
effect of Europe’s many dynastic scuffles, the whole of what we know as Belgium and the Netherlands
were subjugated to the Spanish Habsburg family, kings of Spain’s empire. Since 1568, the year that
would ignite their 80 year-long fight for independence, the Dutch had been revolting against Spain, and
since 1585, established a de facto republic in the North. This had however brought Spain and the Dutch
Republic no closer to peace, and Spain remained headstrong in her ambition to bring the Netherlands
back under its yoke. The Thirty Years’ war, religious conflict ongoing since 1618, imparted Spain with
such an opportunity to squash the independent Dutch government. Or as MKay and Scott put it, “[Spain]
aimed to further the Catholic Counter-Reformation, to strangle the infant Dutch Republic”3, which they
very much might have if not for timely French intervention. “France at first diplomatically, then after
1635, militarily, cooperated with her traditional allies, the Protestant Dutch Republic […] against Spain
and Austria”3. In this way, the alliance to which France and the Dutch belonged were able to coerce the
Spanish into recognizing the Dutch republic as legitimate in 1648 when the war ended. The Dutch
Republic, in its path to appraising itself as a great power, had been rescued by its position: the French
royalty would have never accepted for the Austrians and Spanish to encroach on lands close to them. In
many ways, they would be rescued many times again by this ability to throw the Austrians against the
French, or the English against the French, all because none of the trio would suffer another great power
conquering the Netherlands. In the many wars through which England and the Low Countries would
clash at sea, the Dutch ensured that the French stood by them. Rather than see the Dutch Republic
overtaken by the English navy, the French had little choice but to oblige, even driving out an English
invasion of Dutch lands in 1666. The Dutch also checked France’s ambitions, and summoned English
assistance to dissuade French intentions from sending armies into their territory (Triple Alliance, and
English assistance to the Dutch in the Franco-Dutch war). Consequently, the geographic situation dealt
to the Dutch Republic had its dangers, but also left room for Dutch cunning to engender disputes between
the French, Austrians, and English.
Another bounty which the Dutch Republic relished from this geographic situation, and from
which much of their era as the world’s best fleet spiraled out of, was their access to rich fishing areas
and being at the heart of trade. By seceding from the Spanish Netherlands in 1585, the Dutch Republic
renounced to the riches of the industry-heavy South of the region and had to assume the consequences
of how this may have prolonged their scarcity towards the South. Agriculture relieved little of the
economic stress weighing down on the Low Countries, for “although agriculture made up the largest
segment of the economy, cereal production could not keep with demand particularly by the XVIIth
century”4. As a means to alleviate this absence in grain, the Dutch ships took to the seas to import grain
from the Baltic coast, and so the Baltic grain trade became a major employer for the Dutch economy,
even coming to be called the “mother trade”5 by some (Milja van Tielhof). Donald J. Harreld writes,
“Baltic grain imports experienced sustained growth from about the middle of the sixteenth century to
roughly 1650”4. This Baltic trade had even become so ingrained in Dutch economic wellbeing that their
navy would play an important role in the Baltic and Northern wars of the century, and “in 1658-59, it
saved Denmark from possible extinction as an independent state by Sweden”6 to safeguard their
interests. This Baltic trade which would also become a trade of tar, hemp, flax, and wood, with
destinations such as England, Spain, Portugal via Amsterdam. And gradually, Dutch dominance over
these markets would translate into successes in Russia, the Mediterranean, the Levant, and even America
and Asia. Competitors were either rid of by the Dutch “cost advantages and institutional efficiencies”7,
in effect, cost-cutting strategies, or ignored entirely: for example, rather than exploit the Portuguese-
dominated slave trade, the Dutch sought out opportunities in the gold, ivory, and sugar trade of Africa.
Supremacy by the Dutch in global trade also laid the foundations for the emerging Dutch empire, whose
possessions would come to span Indonesia and South Africa. Dutch fishing also emerged from their
favorable coastline, and an occurrence that was almost a Godsend to them, that “in the 1400s, the herring
shoals […] migrated from the Baltic to North Sea”8, sent fish right on the doorstep of the Dutch
Republic. The massive fishing industry this would spur complimented the rise of the Dutch economy in
matters of trade, and “reached its zenith in the first half of the seventeenth century”8.

II-
Hugely important in shaping the “Golden Age” the Dutch were subsequently blessed with were
their innovations in matters of economy and governing. Already distinguished as an anomaly by its
contemporaries for its awkward status as a confederation of provinces amongst a sea of monarchies and
empires, contemporary Jonathan Swift said of it that it “crazily instituted”9. The Dutch Republic also
awed foreigners for its findings in finance which would propel many of the country’s ventures. Only
through these factors was the country matured into an economic and cultural powerhouse.
Somewhat of a novelty in the European political landscape, the Dutch Republic born from the
secession away from the Spanish Netherlands was a confederation of seven provinces, and several
Generality Lands. Each province had its own independent government, the Provincial States, or were
ruled by the States General in regard to those Generality Lands, which we might approximate to a federal
government. In David Onnekink’s own words, “sovereignty devolved again to the provincial assemblies,
although matters of foreign policy were delegated to the States General”10. But it was the Dutch
bourgeois elite that imprinted their values most on this new system, that trickled down to a “substantial,
urbanized, literate middle-class”10. Owing to this, the Dutch Republic was a uniquely tolerant state for
the time, allowing Protestants, as well as Catholics and Jews (though covertly) to attend religious
service. In this way, it had accrued a steady influx of religious refugees, “such as Jews from the Iberian
Peninsula, Huguenots from France, and Scottish Puritans”10, which would prove vital to the Golden Age
in part due to their expertise and capital. Bertrand Russel remarked on this surprising tolerance that, “it
is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Holland in the 17th century, as the one country where
there was freedom of speculation. Hobbes had to have his books printed there; Locke took refuge there
during the five worst years of reaction in England before 1688; […] and Spinoza would hardly have
been allowed to do his work in any other country”11. It was such an environment that Dutch culture
would flourish, that Rembrandts would practice their art, or that many buildings now iconic such as the
Gouda Cheese Weigh House (Kaaswaag) would be commissioned.
Also, instrumental to raising the small territory to great power were the Dutch advancements in
public and corporate finance. Taxation was a feature of the Dutch Republic that was detailed as early as
in its constitution, drafted in 1579. “The lion’s share (80%-90%) of the federal budget came from
provincial taxes”12, and Provincial States were then free to raise money for themselves. According to
figures collected by historians de Vries and van der Woude7, Holland’s revenues grew tenfold in the two
decades following their revolt, then rising threefold until 1630, all reflecting the expansion of the tax
base that had been overseen by the young Republic. The Dutch would also enable the state to better its
liquidity through public debt, usually with provincial borrowers issuing promissory notes, redeemable
bonds and life annuities. Bonds of smaller worth were also issued, ensuring that small savers like
craftsmen and women could buy, all of which accelerated a form of “popular capitalism”. Dutch
capitalism was also embodied in the exchange bank built in 1609 in Amsterdam, and a lending bank that
was founded in 1614 likewise in Amsterdam. Both these bodies would be able to address the need for
investment that seduced many Dutch, and often those whose savings grew from the economic prosperity
of the Golden Age. Especially the exchange bank “was wildly popular with merchants, deposits
increasing from just less than one million guilders in 1611 to over 16 million in 1700”4. Established in
that general period as well, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (now Euronext, stock exchange center for
France, Belgium and the Netherlands), also remedied the need for Dutch ventures to be afforded capital.
By becoming publicly traded companies, many projects could receive money from eager investors, as
was the case with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and West India Company (WIC) in 1602, both
vehicles to the Dutch colonization efforts. As van Landen, Jonker, and Hart write, “a novelty of the
VOC was its size”, and “already by 1608, the method of selling and buying VOC stock was simple, but
new”13. Speaking to the success of this operation, and the efforts of the VOC, when king Louis XIV of
France intended to create a commerce company of his own, the Compagnie française des Indes
orientales, he hired François Caron, an exiled Huguenot who had worked within the VOC to preside it.
All these new financial instruments enabled capital to better flow within the Dutch Republic, and for
new projects to be financed while the French and English would lag behind for decades.

In conclusion, the Dutch Golden Age is a quite an astonishing era, and one that has difficulty
being accepted as fact by crowds nowadays, the mere notion of the cozy and neutral Dutch as a power
that defied France, Sweden, England, Spain… being so preposterous. The Dutch themselves were
elusive2 as to what reasons had channeled them into the first economic and sea superpower ever yet
seen, and as has been the intent of showing in this research paper, the hodgepodge of all its reasons was
nothing short of the Godly intervention that was thought to have occurred. But if this blend of geographic
situation, and political as well as financial innovation were enough to breed a superpower, this would
not be lasting in the face of France’s centralization efforts in the XVIIIth century, Britain’s hyper-
mercantilist culture, and looming Germanism…

Bibliographie

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Butler, C. (2018, 31 3). The Rise of the Dutch Republic in the 1600s. Récupéré sur Flow of History:
http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/14/FC93
Glete, J. (2001). The Dutch navy, Dutch state formation, and the rise of Dutch maritime supremacy.
Paper for the Anglo-American Conference for Historians, University College London.
Harreld, D. J. (s.d.). The Dutch Economy in the Golden Age. Brigham Young University press.
Hart, M. '., Jonker, . J., & Zanden, J. L. (2010). A Financial History of the Netherlands. Cambridge
University press.
McKay, D., & Scott, H. M. (1983). The Rise of the Great Powers 1648-1815. Addison-Wesley
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Onnekink, D. (2011). The Dutch Republic. University of Utrecht press.
Russel, B. (1946). A History of Western Philosophy. Routledge Classics.
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Swart, K. (1967). Miracle of the Dutch Republic. University College London press.
Swift, J. (1758). The History of the Last Four Years of the Queen. A. Millar.
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Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Century. Brigham University press.
Vries, J. d., & Woude, A. v. (1997). The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure and Perserverance
of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815. Cambridge University press.

1: “Histoire de France”, chapter 13, J. Bainville

2: “Miracle of the Dutch Republic”, K. Swart

3: “The Rise of the Great Powers 1648-1815”, page 2-3, D. McKay, H. M. Scott

4: “The Dutch Economy in the Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries)”, D. J. Harreld

5: “The ‘Mother of All Trades’: The Baltic Grain Trade in Amsterdam from the Late Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth
Century”, M. van Tielhof

6: “The Dutch navy, Dutch state formation and the rise of Dutch maritime supremacy”, J. Glete

7: “The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815”, p. 374,
Jan de Vries, Ad van der Woude

8: “The Rise of the Dutch Republic in the 1600s”, http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/14/FC93

9: “The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen”, J. Swift

10: “The Dutch Republic”, D. Onnekink

11: “A History of Western Philosophy”, B. Russel

12: “War and society, the Dutch Republic”, B. Slantchev

13: “A Financial History of the Netherlands”, van Zanden, Jonker, Hart