Read Online The relentless revolution: a history of capitalism by Joyce Appleby, Joyce Oldham Appleby - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Joyce Appleby, Joyce Oldham Appleby
Tags: General, History, Economics, Business & Economics, Historiography, Capitalism - History, Economic History, Capitalism, Free Enterprise
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during which authorities were elsewhere engaged, many defended defiance of restrictions as good for the country. With less formal direction, an informal system of cooperation had prevailed. Once some restraints were removed, the subsequent commercial buoyancy earned more supporters for freeing up economic life. In the Netherlands and England, merchants and manufacturers ended up with a greater share of political power and a louder public voice than they had before.
After the Dutch achieved independence, they established a loose confederation with each province headed by a regent who was usually a prominent merchant. This decentralized blend of political and economic power put government squarely behind the commercial interests in the Netherlands. Only the northern provinces of Holland and its neighbors, which were largely Protestant, gained independence. More than offering protection to traders and manufacturers, Dutch leaders devised new supports for their economy with free ports, secure titles to land, efficient processes for settling lawsuits, the teaching of bookkeeping in schools, and the licensing of agents to sell marine insurance.
The Dutch as an Economic Model
In their struggle to hold on to the Spanish Netherlands, Spanish troops had destroyed Antwerp, whereupon its famous bankers simply moved north to Amsterdam. As a magnet of payments as well as of goods Holland became Europe’s financial center. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in 1609, offered interest rates less than half those available elsewhere. Again flexibility triumphed as the Dutch developed credit arrangements for every circumstance and customer. Even the spurned Spanish monarchs turned to the bankers of their erstwhile possessions to borrow money. Over time the Spanish monarchy became so indebted to Dutch financiers that the famous silver fleet convoyed across the Atlantic sailed directly to Amsterdam. Those largely Catholic provinces that remained in the Hapsburg Empire later formed themselves into an independent Belgium.
Everyone marveled at the prosperity of the Dutch. How could a couple of million people packed into cities and towns along the North Sea defy all odds and grow rich? The backbone of their trade was a humble fish, the herring. Herring could be easily dried, and as an all-season source of protein in a protein-short world, it was in great demand. One contemporary estimate concluded that the fishing industry with its hundreds of boats employed half a million Dutchmen and women, twice as many as in agriculture and almost as many as those in crafts, retailing, and finance. Guilds closely controlled the fishing industry, making sure that fishermen observed the government standards of quality. During the first half of the seventeenth century, more than a thousand Dutch ships carried grain from the Baltic countries, exceeding the English by thirteen to one. 9 In England, Dutch success started a cottage industry of pamphlet writing to explain it.
Shipbuilding also flourished in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Boatwrights created the flyboat, a flat-bottomed seagoing barge well designed for carrying heavy cargo like herring, timber, and grain. From their perch on the North Sea the Dutch reached out across the Atlantic to the colonies of the New World, down the west coast of Africa, into the Mediterranean, and around Cape Hope to the East Indies. Beginning with a few basic commodities for transshipment like herring, iron, timber, grain, and salt, Dutch merchants branched out to everything that the world’s population wanted to sell or buy. They built a fleet that was larger than all the boats plying the waters under the flags of Portugal, Spain, England, France, and Austria combined. 10
Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, shrewdly described the Dutch as “the Middle Persons in Trade, the Factors and Brokers of Europe…. They buy,” he continued, “to sell again, take in to send out, and the greatest Part of their
After the Dutch achieved independence, they established a loose confederation with each province headed by a regent who was usually a prominent merchant. This decentralized blend of political and economic power put government squarely behind the commercial interests in the Netherlands. Only the northern provinces of Holland and its neighbors, which were largely Protestant, gained independence. More than offering protection to traders and manufacturers, Dutch leaders devised new supports for their economy with free ports, secure titles to land, efficient processes for settling lawsuits, the teaching of bookkeeping in schools, and the licensing of agents to sell marine insurance.
The Dutch as an Economic Model
In their struggle to hold on to the Spanish Netherlands, Spanish troops had destroyed Antwerp, whereupon its famous bankers simply moved north to Amsterdam. As a magnet of payments as well as of goods Holland became Europe’s financial center. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in 1609, offered interest rates less than half those available elsewhere. Again flexibility triumphed as the Dutch developed credit arrangements for every circumstance and customer. Even the spurned Spanish monarchs turned to the bankers of their erstwhile possessions to borrow money. Over time the Spanish monarchy became so indebted to Dutch financiers that the famous silver fleet convoyed across the Atlantic sailed directly to Amsterdam. Those largely Catholic provinces that remained in the Hapsburg Empire later formed themselves into an independent Belgium.
Everyone marveled at the prosperity of the Dutch. How could a couple of million people packed into cities and towns along the North Sea defy all odds and grow rich? The backbone of their trade was a humble fish, the herring. Herring could be easily dried, and as an all-season source of protein in a protein-short world, it was in great demand. One contemporary estimate concluded that the fishing industry with its hundreds of boats employed half a million Dutchmen and women, twice as many as in agriculture and almost as many as those in crafts, retailing, and finance. Guilds closely controlled the fishing industry, making sure that fishermen observed the government standards of quality. During the first half of the seventeenth century, more than a thousand Dutch ships carried grain from the Baltic countries, exceeding the English by thirteen to one. 9 In England, Dutch success started a cottage industry of pamphlet writing to explain it.
Shipbuilding also flourished in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Boatwrights created the flyboat, a flat-bottomed seagoing barge well designed for carrying heavy cargo like herring, timber, and grain. From their perch on the North Sea the Dutch reached out across the Atlantic to the colonies of the New World, down the west coast of Africa, into the Mediterranean, and around Cape Hope to the East Indies. Beginning with a few basic commodities for transshipment like herring, iron, timber, grain, and salt, Dutch merchants branched out to everything that the world’s population wanted to sell or buy. They built a fleet that was larger than all the boats plying the waters under the flags of Portugal, Spain, England, France, and Austria combined. 10
Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, shrewdly described the Dutch as “the Middle Persons in Trade, the Factors and Brokers of Europe…. They buy,” he continued, “to sell again, take in to send out, and the greatest Part of their
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