Managing markets and money : issues and institutions in Dutch nineteenth-century economics

Dutch nineteenth-century economics was more modern than conventional scholarship has suggested. In a number of studies of individual economists and of the formal aspects of academia, it has been concluded that at least before 1870 there were no original contributions by Dutch economists and there was a general academic backwardness of the discipline. Here we try to examine simultaneously the issues of the day and the institutional setting of academic and political economic discourse. We concentrate upon the discussion of markets, in particular the question of free trade, and the discussion of money, in particular the problems of regulating the national debt and the currency. Our picture will be that in the new Kingdom of the Netherlands economics was embraced as the science of modernity, that very soon many courses of the subject were taught in the law faculties, and that a considerable number of university professors engaged in practical policy issues. In our opinion, there is more continuity in the economic thought of Van Hogendorp (who never held a university chair) and of Ackersdijck, Mees and Pierson than most historians of Dutch economics have perceived. The fact that the latter two have also been presidents of the central bank is significant for the importance of this institution in the history of Dutch economics. We conclude that in the first two decades of the century, the new discipline gained ground outside and inside academia. From around 1820 it was well established as a subject in the law faculties, and professors like Tydeman and Ackersdijck were seen as respected authorities in the public debate on economic issues. The year 1848 saw the acceptance of a new liberal constitution and the take-off of economics as an organised community with its own specific role in Dutch society.

Delenda est haec Carthago: the Ostend company as a problem of European great power politics (1722-1727)

The Ostend Company (1722-1731) is a symbol of present-day Belgium’s strangling by European Great Power politics in the Ancien Régime, and more specifically of the limitations imposed on the Southern Netherlands by the Dutch Republic in 1648. The present contribution analyses the right of Emperor Charles VI to send out ships to the East Indies. Pamphlets by Abraham Westerveen and Jean Barbeyrac, argued for the exclusion of the Southern Netherlands based on the Treaty of Munster. Against this, Patrice de Neny and Jean du Mont invoked the peremptory character of the natural law-rules governing free trade. However, the Treaty of Commerce concluded between Charles VI and Philip V, King of Spain, on 1 May 1725, constituted a strong basis to refute the Dutch attacks. Yet, norm hierarchy between the balance of power inscribed in the Peace of Utrecht and secondary bilateral treaties between sovereigns dominated multilateral diplomacy after 1713 and prejudiced the “Belgian” East India trade

Performances of peace: Utrecht 1713

The Peace of Utrecht (1713), which brought an end to the War of the Spanish Succession, was a milestone in global history. Performances of Peace aims to rethink the significance of the Peace of Utrecht by exploring the nexus between culture and politics. For too long, cultural and political historians have studied early modern international relations in isolation. By studying the political as well as the cultural aspects of this peace (and its concomitant paradoxes) from a broader perspective, this volume aims to shed new light on the relation between diplomacy and performative culture in the public spher

Machiavelli's Belfagor and the Dutch Mirror of Evil Women

Machiavelli’s Belfagor (written in the 1520’s and first published in 1549), a satirical tale about the devil who takes a bride, enjoyed a circulation of its own in the seventeenth-century, independently of the author ’s political writings. This article deals with the Dutch translation of this novella, by placing it in the context of popular and misogynist literature in the Early Modern period, as well as in the context of Dutch seventeenth-century culture and practices of translation. Belfagor combines Florentine folklore with statements about gender, politics and religion. In 1668 it appeared in the Netherlands in a printed miscellany, the Spiegel der quade vrouwen [Mirror of Evil Women]. In France and in England, in the context of the debate known as the ‘querelle des femmes’ or ‘battle of the trousers’, pamphlets and collections on the theme circulated widely. Belfagor fits perfectly within this tradition, also thriving in the Dutch Golden Age. But Machiavelli’s tale could also be valued by Dutch readers for its anti-absolutist strain and its polemic against the clergy. These issues were particularly welcome in the Protestant Dutch republic. Furthermore, the translation of Italian prose (Boccaccio and Machiavelli) helped the Dutch literary system to develop its own ‘middle style’

State communication and public politics in the Dutch Golden Age

Funding: The British Academy has generously supported the author since 2020 as part of their Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme, which has also enabled the author to publish this work in the British Academy Monograph series.State Communication and Public Politics in the Dutch Golden Age describes the political communication practices of the authorities in the early modern Netherlands. Der Weduwen provides an in-depth study of early modern state communication: the manner in which government sought to inform its citizens, publicise its laws, and engage publicly in quarrels with political opponents. These communication strategies, including proclamations, the use of town criers, and the printing and affixing of hundreds of thousands of edicts, underpinned the political stability of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Based on systematic research in thirty-two Dutch archives, this book demonstrates for the first time how the wealthiest, most literate, and most politically participatory state of early modern Europe was shaped by the communication of political information. It makes a decisive case for the importance of communication to the relationship between rulers and ruled, and the extent to which early modern authorities relied on the active consent of their subjects to legitimise their government.Publisher PD

The politics of print in the Dutch Golden Age : the Ommelander Troubles (c. 1630-1680)

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The revolution of 1688 in Dutch pamphlet literature: a study in the Dutch public sphere in the late seventeenth century

This thesis examines the pamphlet literature published in the Dutch Republic during the period surrounding the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Although the Dutch side of the Revolution has been afforded significant attention in recent years, writing on the subject has focused largely on assessing the motivation of William III and the Dutch regents in taking the decision to intervene in England, or on considering how particular groups responded to the events of 1688-89. This study provides a broader perspective, analysing the pamphlet literature published in the Dutch Republic between 1685 and 1689 in reference to Habermas' theory of the public sphere. Through rigorous content analysis of the pamphlet literature, this thesis examines and quantifies the main subjects of interest to the Dutch public, both within a given year and over time, as well as evaluating the information and commentary available to them. Particular focus is placed on the nature of the public debate concerning England, in order to assess Dutch views and opinions of the English situation. The main source used is the Knuttel collection of Dutch pamphlet literature in the Royal Library at The Hague, the largest and most extensive collection in the Netherlands.The Dutch Republic had a broadly accessible public sphere in the seventeenth century, in which political and religious matters were debated relatively freely and widely via the pamphlet medium. During the 1685-1689 period, a wide range of domestic and international issues were addressed in the pamphlet literature. The Dutch public had access to a variety of information sources including official documents, news reports, polemic, propaganda and graphic prints. Dutch interest in English domestic affairs reached its peak in the 1688-89 period, prompted by the translated works of British authors and unidentified anti-Stuart propagandists, which significantly influenced Dutch views of the English situation in the lead up to William's expedition. Dutch pamphleteers gave overwhelming support to William's intervention in England, which was regarded as a defensive measure designed to safeguard Europe's Protestant religion and liberties. However, the Dutch public quickly lost interest in English affairs from 1690 onwards

The Jesuitesses in the bookshop : Catholic laywomen's participation in the Dutch book trade, 1650-1750

The institutional Catholic Church in seventeenth-century Amsterdam relied on the work of inspired women who lived under an informal religious rule and called themselves ‘spiritual daughters’. Once the States of Holland banned all public exercise of Catholicism, spiritual daughters leveraged the ambiguity of their religious status to pursue unique roles in their communities as catechists, booksellers and enthusiastic consumers of print. However, their lack of a formal order caused consternation among their Catholic confessors. It also disturbed Reformed authorities in their communities, who branded them ‘Jesuitesses’. Whilst many scholars have documented this tension between inspired daughter and institutional critique, it has yet to be contextualized fully within the literary culture of the Dutch Republic. This article suggests that due to the de-institutionalized status of the spiritual daughters and the discursive print culture that surrounded them, public criticism replaced direct censure by Catholic and Reformed authorities as the primary impediment to their inspired work.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe