![]() The attempt of the Spanish monarchs (who also ruled Portugal and its possessions from 1580 to 1640) to exclude Dutch merchants and shippers from the lucrative colonial commerce with East Asia led the Dutch to trade directly with the East Indies. Excise and other indirect taxes made the Dutch cost of living one of the highest in Europe, although there was considerable variance between the different areas of the republic.Įxplore the founding of the Dutch East India Company or the United East India Company See all videos for this articleĭutch prosperity was built not only upon the “mother trades”-to the Baltic and to France and the Iberian lands-but also upon the overseas trades with Africa, Asia, and America. But as mercantile competition became stiffer, the rate of such taxation could not be safely increased, and the burden therefore fell increasingly on the consumer. Taxes were imposed on the transit trade in and out of the country. Yet the economic burden of repeated wars caused the Dutch to become one of the most heavily taxed peoples in Europe. Nonetheless, the wealth earned during a long century of prosperity made the United Provinces a land of great riches, with more capital by far than could find outlet in domestic investment. Although the Dutch tenaciously resisted the new competition, the long-distance trading system of Europe was transformed from one largely conducted through the Netherlands, with the Dutch as universal buyer-seller and shipper, to one of multiple routes and fierce competitiveness. The half century that followed was marked by consolidation rather than continued expansion, under the impact of the revived competition from the other nations, notably England and France, whose policies of mercantilism were to a large degree directed against the near monopoly of the Dutch over the trade and shipping of Europe. It was a grandeur that rested upon the economic expansion that continued with scarcely an interruption until 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. The century from the conclusion of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1609 until either the death of Prince William III in 1702 or the conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 is known in Dutch history as the “Golden Age.” It was a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness during which the little nation on the North Sea ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world.
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