Sea power session 2-dutch golden age

Sea Power
1588-1782
How Western Nations Shaped
the Modern World

Sea Power
Session ii
The Dutch Golden Age

Not Guns, Germs, and Steel. Rather oceanic commerce and
the ships which have guarded it. That’s the factor to explain
the amazing rise of the English-speaking peoples. Their
naval campaigns underlie this history.
jbp

Johannes Vermeer - De Soldaat en het Lachende Meisje c. 1657-Frick collection

Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the
Global World is a book by the historian Professor Timothy Brook in
which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century,
through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes
Vermeer.[1] It focusses especially on growing ties between Europe
and the rest of the world and the impact of China on the world,
during what Brook sees as an "age of innovation" and improvisation.
Brook argues that globalization, which is often taken to be a modern
(i.e. late-20th/21st-century) phenomenon, actually had its roots in
the 17th century;.…—Wikipedia

The Netherlands's transition from a possession of the Holy Roman
Empire in the 1590s to the foremost maritime and economic power
in the world has been called the "Dutch Miracle" by historian K. W.
Swart.—Wikipedia

Eighty Years War
The Downs, 1639
The Rise of Amsterdam
Life in the Dutch Golden Age

Eighty Years War
The Relief of Leiden,1574
Otto van Veen

Sea Power, pp. 30-31.
The Rise of English Sea Power
“Historians of later times recognized that the catastrophic failure of the Armada marked
the beginning of Spain’s decline. The true situation was not so clear to contemporaries.
Philip II at once lost some credit as defender of Catholicism, and England was stimulated
into those ventures in commerce, exploration, and colonization which, together with the
flourishing of the arts, mark the Elizabethan Age. Neither Englishmen nor other Europeans
perceived that Spain was no longer a first class power, that bullion from America was
neither wealth itself nor a producer of lasting wealth, or that the spice trade of the East
Indies was not enough to offset Spain’s lack of industries and poverty of internal resources.
Spain survived, and even retained some of her colonies for three more centuries, mainly
because her enemies failed to take advantage of her inherent weakness.…”
The Challenge of Spain

Sea Power, p. 31
“The Anglo-Spanish conflict became a desultory raiding war, neither side daring to take
decisive measures against the other. It ended at last in 1603 with the death of Queen
Elizabeth and the accession of James I, king also of Scotland and son of Mary Stuart.
James, even more hypnotized than Elizabeth by the Spanish myth, soon sealed an alliance
with England’s erstwhile enemy. In so doing he abandoned the struggle for Dutch
independence and sowed the seeds of future hostilities between England and Holland.”
The Challenge of Spain
“…weakness.

Ibid.
“Not even King James took Spain’s claim to the entire heathen world seriously. Before
the Armada campaign, non-Spanish seafarers had limited themselves to smuggling in the
Spanish colonies, to quasi-military, quasi-piratical attacks on Spanish shipping in the
manner of Hawkins and Drake, or to hopeful searches for NE or NW passages to rival
Spain’s SE and SW passages to the Orient. After the Armada, all that was changed.
Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Dutchmen, at first circumspectly and then more and more
boldly, infringed on lands and trade that the King of Spain claimed as his own.”
The Challenge of Holland
“…Holland.

“England planted the most stable and flourishing colonies, not because of any
intentional encouragement from the King but mainly because most English colonists were
true home seekers. Some were in flight from economic distress; more were refugees from
religious and political intolerance. The practice of ‘salutary neglect’ by the London
government left them mainly to their own devices and bred in them self-sufficiency and a
spirit of independence. During the 1600s, Englishmen settled the seaboard of North
America from Nova Scotia and the valley of the St. Lawrence, which the French staked off
for themselves, to Florida, which Spaniards occupied. Until past the middle of the century
however, the Dutch claimed the Hudson Valley and maintained on Manhattan Island their
prosperous colony of New Amsterdam. In the West Indies English, French and Dutch
adventurers rushed to seize islands that were not firmly in the hands of the Spaniards. The
French and Dutch, moreover, obtained footholds in South America; and the English, in
Central America.…”
The Challenge of Holland
Ibid.
“…own.

Padﬁeld, p. 57.
“THE DEFEAT OF the armada in 1588 and the legend of English gallants and sea dogs
tormenting Philip II on every coast has overshadowed the real winners of this conflict: the
rebel United Provinces.• Parma had been deflected from his campaign to subdue them by
Philip’s orders to prepare his army to cross the Channel. Even if this was a gigantic
deception and his true target was Zeeland, he had nonetheless spent three years on a
project rendered abortive by English and Beggar control of the sea.
“The following year, 1589, the last of the Valois kings, Henri III, was murdered in Paris
and Philip again diverted Parma, this time to intervene in France to prevent the Protestant
Henri of Navarre ….”
The Downs, 1639

Padﬁeld, p. 57.
“THE DEFEAT OF the armada in 1588 and the legend of English gallants and sea dogs
tormenting Philip II on every coast has overshadowed the real winners of this conflict: the
rebel United Provinces.• Parma had been deflected from his campaign to subdue them by
Philip’s orders to prepare his army to cross the Channel. Even if this was a gigantic
deception and his true target was Zeeland, he had nonetheless spent three years on a
project rendered abortive by English and Beggar control of the sea.
“The following year, 1589, the last of the Valois kings, Henri III, was murdered in Paris
and Philip again diverted Parma, this time to intervene in France to prevent the Protestant
Henri of Navarre from succeeding to the throne. And since Elizabeth’s sailors continued to
torment him, and her young favorite, the Earl of Essex, sailing with Howard, repeated
Drake’s sack of Cadiz, he launched two more powerful armadas against England. Both
were scattered by gales and never reached their destination….”
The Downs, 1639

op. cit., pp. 57-58.
“The rebel provinces were thus allowed time to strengthen their defenses, build up their
army,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…destination.

op. cit., pp. 57-58.
“The rebel provinces were thus allowed time to strengthen their defenses, build up their
army, reopen trade with the German interior via the great rivers, and tighten their naval
grip on the coastline of the southern provinces, particularly the Schelde estuary. This
finally ruined Antwerp and the other south-Netherlands cities. Since falling to Parma in
1585, they had suffered an exodus of merchants, money and skilled workers; by 1589
Antwerp’s population had halved, from 84,000 to 42,000. The cities of the northern
provinces gained most from this huge transfer of capital and skills, particularly Leiden
(which had become a new focus of textile industries) and Amsterdam. Investment flowed
into shipping, particularly for the ‘rich trade’ in the Eastern and New World commodities
of Portugal and Spain that had formerly come to Antwerp.
“Philip tolerated this trade with the enemy because he had little option: Spain needed a
northern outlet for colonial wares, and needed the Baltic grain and naval stores [timber,
pitch and hemp—jbp] only the Dutch could supply. For their part, Dutch merchants never
minded with whom they traded so long as they made profits….”
The Downs, 1639
“…destination.

op. cit., p. 58.
“The effect of grafting the
‘rich trades’ and associated
finishing, refining and
manufacturing processes on to
t h e D u t c h b u l k - t r a d e
monopolies with the Baltic
t r a n s f o r m e d t h e r e b e l
provinces in remarkably short
time into Europe’s leading
commercial-industrial power,
and Amsterdam into the motor
of world commerce….•
The Downs, 1639
“…profits.

op. cit., p. 58.
By 1594 the Dutch were ready to take the offensive on the oceans. The Compagnie van
Verre—Long Distance Company—was founded in Amsterdam, and over the following
years increasingly large fleets penetrated the Portuguese monopolies in the Indonesian
spice islands and the West African slaving coast, reaping vast profits of 400% of outlay.
The Portuguese were unable to resist. Their galleons, like those that had sailed in the
armada, were sluggish and unhandy by comparison with Dutch armed East-Indiamen….
The Downs, 1639
“…commerce.

Ibid.
“By the time Philip II died in 1598, the prosperity
of the rebel provinces had been translated into armed
strength on the ground. William of Orange’s young
son and successor as stadtholder and captain-general,
Mauritz of Nassau,• had been able to place
campaigning on a business footing, paying his mainly
foreign troops regularly, supplying them with
quantities of ordnance and engineering materials, and
paying at generous rates for the labors and dangers
involved in siege works—a remarkable and effective
innovation in warfare. Clearing Spanish garrisons
from the inland provinces, driving the borders of the
republic E and S, his army had become the most
technically advanced in Europe….”
The Downs, 1639
“…East-Indiamen.

Paying special attention to the siege theories of
Simon Stevin, he took valuable key fortresses and
towns during a period known as the Ten Glory
Years: Breda in 1590,• Zutphen in 1591,• Steenwijk
in 1592,•
Wikipedia

in 1592,• and Geertruidenberg in 1593.—Wikipedia

in 1592,• and Geertruidenberg in 1593.• In 1597 he
went on a further offensive and took Rheinberg,
Meurs, Groenlo, Bredevoort, Enschede,
Ootmarsum, Oldenzaal and closed off the year
with the capture of Lingen.• These victories
rounded out the borders to the Dutch Republic,
solidifying the revolt and allowing a national state
to develop behind secure borders. They also
established Maurice as the foremost general of his
time. Many of the great generals of the succeeding
generation, including his brother Frederick Henry
and many of the commanders of the English Civil
War learned their trade under his command.—
Wikipedia

This change affected the entire conduct of warfare, since it required the officers to train men in addition to
leading them, decreased the size of the basic infantry unit for functional purposes since more specific orders
had to be given in battle, and the decrease in herd behavior required more initiative and intelligence from the
average soldier. One major contribution was the introduction of volley fire, which enabled soldiers to
compensate for the inaccuracy of their weapons by firing in a large group. It was first used in European
combat at the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600.—Wikipedia
Maurice founded a whole new school of military professional practice. These
pointed the way to the professional armies of the future by reapplying Roman
tactics and innovating in the fields of logistics, training, and economics (e.g.,
paying troops regularly and on time). Many graduates of service under Maurice,
such as his nephew the Marshal Turenne, or his disciples such as Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden, applied the Mauritian reforms to great effect in the
remainder of the 17th century.
The training of his army is especially important to early modern warfare and the
Military Revolution of 1560-1650. Previous generals had made use of drill and
exercise in order to instill discipline or to keep the men physically fit, but for
Maurice, they "were the fundamental postulates of tactics."

An unusually crisp volley by re-enactors at the Napoleonic bicentennial

The Downs, 1639
The naval battle against the Spanish near Dunkerque,1639
Willem van der Velde, the Elder

“The same could not be said of the navy, which consisted almost exclusively of small
vessels for river and coastal blockade and defense. Naval organization had been the
subject of dispute for years, and was only resolved, unsatisfactorily, in 1597 with the
establishment of five local admiralties—in Amsterdam, Rotterdam…—each responsible
for patrolling, exacting customs dues in its own waters, and providing escorts for
merchantmen trading with the enemy;….
“Since each admiralty maintained its own ships, shipyards, arsenals and recruiting
organization, appointed its own officers, and was governed by the politics of its own
region, the result was five distance forces…each with its own flag officers and ways of
doing things. It was fortunate that this weakness was offset by the wealth of material
filling the warehouses of the maritime cities: timber, masts, yards, cordage and canvas,
ordnance, munitions and victuals of a quality and abundance unavailable—except through
trade with the enemy—to Spain, which since the failure of the armada had built up an
imposing fleet of great galleons….”
The Downs, 1639
“…Europe.
op. cit., p. 59.

“When Philip III succeeded to the Spanish
throne, he attempted to strike at the wealth
underlying the military strength of the United
Provinces by reversing the policy of trading with
the enemy and banning Dutch ships and merchants
from Spanish and Portuguese ports. This spurred
the States General into building larger warships to
blockade the Iberian coast. But after one attempt
this forward policy…was abandoned in favor of
building numbers of light, handy vessels for
convoy duty….”
The Downs, 1639
“…galleons.
Ibid.

“The other result of Philip III’s embargo—apart from adding greatly to the difficulties of
supplying the Spanish navy—was to provoke even heavier Dutch investment in direct trade
with the East. This led to a glut of spices and oriental wares, forcing prices down. To stabilize
the markets, in 1602 the rival Dutch companies were merged into the United East India
Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), —in abbreviation, the VOC. Like the navy,
the VOC was actually a federation of distinct chambers. These were based in Amsterdam,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…duty.
Ibid.

“The other result of Philip III’s embargo—apart from adding greatly to the difficulties of
supplying the Spanish navy—was to provoke even heavier Dutch investment in direct trade
with the East. This led to a glut of spices and oriental wares, forcing prices down. To stabilize
the markets, in 1602 the rival Dutch companies were merged into the United East India
Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), —in abbreviation, the VOC. Like the navy,
the VOC was actually a federation of distinct chambers. These were based in Amsterdam,•
Rotterdam, Delft, Hoorn, Enkhuizen and the chief ports of Zeeland, each having its own stock
and commercial operations, but following guidelines set by a board of seventeen directors, on
which Amsterdam, with eight of the so-called Heeren XVII, predominated….”
The Downs, 1639
“…duty.
Ibid.

Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom,The Return to Amsterdam of the Second Expedition to the East Indies, 1599
rijksmuseum.nl

“The charter granted by the States General gave the VOC monopoly rights in the East
and the Pacific as well as virtually sovereign powers to raise troops, maintain warships,
build forts, install governors, make alliances and conduct war. In effect this added another
(federated) arm to the state’s naval forces, and warships were transferred from time to time
from the admiralties to the company.
“By 1607 the VOC had so undermined the Portuguese hold in the spice islands that
Philip III gathered a fleet headed by ten great galleons to drive it out. The States General
learned of this in time to prepare a force of twenty-six armed merchantmen under the
veteran Sea Beggar Jacob van Heemskerck,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…predominated.
op. cit., p. 60.

“The charter granted by the States General gave the VOC monopoly rights in the East
and the Pacific as well as virtually sovereign powers to raise troops, maintain warships,
build forts, install governors, make alliances and conduct war. In effect this added another
(federated) arm to the state’s naval forces, and warships were transferred from time to time
from the admiralties to the company.
“By 1607 the VOC had so undermined the Portuguese hold in the spice islands that
Philip III gathered a fleet headed by ten great galleons to drive it out. The States General
learned of this in time to prepare a force of twenty-six armed merchantmen under the
veteran Sea Beggar Jacob van Heemskerck,• who found the Spaniards still at anchor in
Gibraltar Bay. The more numerous Dutch laying themselves along both sides of the
fighting galleons, overwhelmed and destroyed every one •….”
The Downs, 1639
“…predominated.
op. cit., p. 60.

Naval battle near Gibraltar, 25 April 1607 (Victory over the Spanish near Gibraltar by a Fleet Commanded by
Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck), Adam Willaerts, 1639—rijksmuseum.nl

“Two years later, in 1609, bankrupted by war in France and threatened by the States
General with the creation of a West Indies Company on the lines of the VOC, Philip
acceded to a truce to run for twelve years. With regained access to Iberian markets and the
suspension of Spanish and Flemish privateering against their ships, the merchants of the
United Provinces enjoyed another dramatic phase of trade expansion. [And European
diplomats extended de facto recognition to the Dutch Republic—jbp]
“WAR WITH SPAIN was resumed at the end of the twelve-year truce, in 1621. While the
VOC extended its empire in the spice islands, drove the Portuguese from Ceylon, and
established bases in India, the West Indies Company (WIC) formed on similar lines and
granted monopoly from West Africa to America wrested the trade in African gold and
ivory from the Portuguese, and later the African slave trade, invaded Portuguese Brazil,
and engrossed the expanding sugar trade….”
The Downs, 1639
“…one.
Ibid.

Against the Spanish the WIC was less successful, although its assault in the Caribbean
resulted in 1628 in a force under Piet Hein • fulfilling the dreams of generations of privateers
by surprising and capturing the annual fleet carrying treasure from New Spain and Peru. The
haul of silver, jewels and other commodities amounted to perhaps 15 million Dutch florins—
roughly £1.5 million—enabling the company to declare a dividend of 75%.
“The WIC expended most effort in conquering Brazil, but also took small West Indian
islands—most importantly Curaçao, with the finest natural harbor in the Caribbean—
establishing an entrepôt for trade with the Spanish islands and mainland colonies.• In North
America it founded settlements on the Hudson river, notably Nieuw Amsterdam on Manhattan
island near the entrance.• Of more significance for the future, the WIC offensive so occupied
the Spanish defenses that the English and French were able to establish colonies in the West
Indies and up the eastern seaboard of North America. Similarly in the East under the shelter of
the VOC’s assault—although at times in alliance with the Portuguese—the English and French
established trading bases in India….”
The Downs, 1639
“…trade.
op. cit., pp. 60-61..

“…Piet Hein fulfilling the dreams of generations of privateers by surprising and capturing the
annual fleet carrying treasure from New Spain and Peru. The haul of silver, jewels and other
commodities amounted to perhaps 15 million Dutch florins—roughly £1.5 million—enabling
the company to declare a dividend of 75%.
“The WIC expended most effort in conquering Brazil, but also took small West Indian
islands—most importantly Curaçao, with the finest natural harbor in the Caribbean—
establishing an entrepôt for trade with the Spanish islands and mainland colonies.….”
The Downs, 1639
op. cit., pp. 60-61..

In North America it founded settlements on the Hudson river, notably Nieuw
Amsterdam on Manhattan island near the entrance….”
The Downs, 1639
“…colonies.

In North America it founded settlements on the Hudson river, notably Nieuw
Amsterdam on Manhattan island near the entrance. Of more significance for the future, the
WIC offensive so occupied the Spanish defenses that the English and French were able to
establish colonies in the West Indies and up the eastern seaboard of North America. Similarly
in the East under the shelter of the VOC’s assault—although at times in alliance with the
Portuguese—the English and French established trading bases in India….”
The Downs, 1639
op. cit., pp. 60-61.

The British begin their presence in India

“In Europe, meanwhile, Spain was not only
defending her southern Netherlands fortresses
against Mauritz’s successor as stadtholder and
captain-general, Frederick Henry of Nassau,•
but was also embroiled with the ancient
territorial enemy, France, in the anarchic
conflict centered in Germany [‘the
Germanies,’—jbp] known as the Thirty Years
War, and French troops crossing the Rhine had
barred the Spanish overland route for
reinforcements to the Netherlands….”
The Downs, 1639
“…trade.
op. cit., p. 61.

“In Europe, meanwhile, Spain was not only
defending her southern Netherlands fortresses
against Mauritz’s successor as stadtholder and
captain-general, Frederick Henry of Nassau,• but
was also embroiled with the ancient territorial
enemy, France, in the anarchic conflict centered in
Germany [‘the Germanies,’—jbp] known as the
Thirty Years War, and French troops crossing the
Rhine had barred the Spanish overland route for
reinforcements to the Netherlands. In this critical
situation in 1639 Philip IV • of Spain made a
desperate throw reminiscent of his forebears,
sending an armada N with orders to beat the Dutch
and French fleets if encountered in Biscay or the
Channel, and then to land troops and supplies in
Flanders.….”
The Downs, 1639
“…trade.
op. cit., p. 61.

“In supreme command of this last Spanish
armada was Don Antonio Oquendo,• son of
one of Medina-Sidonia’s divisional
commanders [who died when his ship
foundered off the Spanish coast—jbp]. His
fleet, headed by 1,000 ton, 60-gun purpose
built warships but including a squadron of
light and handy Flemish privateers which
normally operated from Dunkirk against
Dutch shipping, represented the entire
remaining strength of Spain’s sailing navy
built up since the end of the truce.
Supplemented by hired and armed
merchantmen, it numbered in all fifty fighting
ships and twenty store ships—or
approximately half the total size of Medina-
Sidonia’s armada….”
The Downs, 1639
“…Flanders.
op. cit., p. 61.

“The 10,000 ‘troops’ embarked were untrained men seized by a commercial ‘press’ for
twenty-one ducats a head. The almost constant warfare over generations had bled the country.
In contrast to the maritime cities and towns of the United Provinces, which had grown
prodigiously since the turn of the century, large tracts of Spain had been depopulated. The
scenes around Corunna, where the armada gathered beggared description…miserable
processions of chained men followed by their distraught womenfolk.
“The States General had news of the preparations. One division of their fleet under Maarten
Tromp,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…armada.
op. cit., pp. 61-62.

“The 10,000 ‘troops’ embarked were untrained men seized by a commercial ‘press’ for
twenty-one ducats a head. The almost constant warfare over generations had bled the country.
In contrast to the maritime cities and towns of the United Provinces, which had grown
prodigiously since the turn of the century, large tracts of Spain had been depopulated. The
scenes around Corunna, where the armada gathered beggared description…miserable
processions of chained men followed by their distraught womenfolk.
“The States General had news of the preparations. One division of their fleet under Maarten
Tromp,• lieutenant admiral of the United Provinces, patrolled the narrows of the English
Channel; a second, smaller, squadron blockaded Dunkirk; a third cruised the North Sea on
fishery protection, for, despite her worldwide net of commerce, fishing remained one of the
staples of Dutch trade.….”
The Downs, 1639
“…armada.
op. cit., pp. 61-62.

“The armada was sighted on 18 September between Selsey Bill and Beachy Head, some
ninety miles short of the Strait of Dover. Tromp dispatched a small ship to summon the other
squadrons to the flag, and worked up westerly into the wind towards the Spaniards. Next
morning, with the wind still to the NW, Oquendo • dead to windward and the sails of the
squadron from Dunkirk in sight beating up from the E, Tromp bore down to join them. Uniting
off Beachy Head, he formed a single line close-hauled on the starboard tack, thus heading
SWterly, instructing the captains to keep their ships so close together the enemy could not
force a way between them….”
The Downs, 1639
“…trade.
op. cit., pp. 61-62.
_______
* As Padﬁeld doesn’t use bold face type all future such changes are mine and I will dispense with these intrusive bracketed notes.

“The armada was sighted on 18 September between Selsey Bill and Beachy Head, some
ninety miles short of the Strait of Dover. Tromp dispatched a small ship to summon the other
squadrons to the flag, and worked up westerly into the wind towards the Spaniards. Next
morning, with the wind still to the NW, Oquendo • dead to windward and the sails of the
squadron from Dunkirk in sight beating up from the E, Tromp bore down to join them. Uniting
off Beachy Head, he formed a single line close-hauled on the starboard tack, thus heading
SWterly, instructing the captains to keep their ships so close together the enemy could not
force a way between them.•
“These orders have an important place in tactical history, since they are held to be the first
example of fleet line of battle [emphasis added, jbp],* as opposed to group formations. They
were in fact the typical and obvious formation for an inferior fleet—as Tromp’s was—in the
inferior position downwind of the enemy….Tromp was no theoretician. [Son of a sea captain
—jbp] He was typical of the simple fighting sailors of Holland and Zeeland who literally grew
up in ships;….”
The Downs, 1639
“…trade.
op. cit., pp. 61-62.
_______
* As Padﬁeld doesn’t use bold face type all future such changes are mine and I will dispense with these intrusive bracketed notes.

in contrast to the grandees who commanded Spanish warships, he was an unpretentious,
paternal figure, known to his fleet as Bestevaer, ‘Dear Father’; he was also fiercely independent,
stubborn to the point of bloody-mindedness, and complete master of every aspect of navigating
and fighting his ships. It is interesting, therefore, that he explained to his captains the importance
of the whole line acting as one, so that each ship supported her consorts….
“The Spanish great galleons were larger and more heavily gunned than all except Tromp’s
flagship Amelia,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…ships;
op. cit., pp. 62-63.

in contrast to the grandees who commanded Spanish warships, he was an unpretentious,
paternal figure, known to his fleet as Bestevaer, ‘Dear Father’; he was also fiercely independent,
stubborn to the point of bloody-mindedness, and complete master of every aspect of navigating
and fighting his ships. It is interesting, therefore, that he explained to his captains the importance
of the whole line acting as one, so that each ship supported her consorts….
“The Spanish great galleons were larger and more heavily gunned than all except Tromp’s
flagship Amelia,• and in fighting vessels the Spaniards outnumbered the two Dutch divisions by
about three to one—some fifty against sixteen. In consequence Oquendo,• paying no attention to
order, simply led down on Tromp for a boarding-and -entering contest—as Medina-Sidonia had
intended and in one fleeting instance managed against Howard. Like the English then, Tromp
stood to give Oquendo his broadside, then bore away, leaving him astern, each ship following
doing the same when the Spanish flagship reached it.….”
The Downs, 1639
“…ships;
op. cit., pp. 62-63.

Tromp then came up into the wind and again lay close-hauled to receive a second
charge; this time Oquendo and the squadron of Dunkirkers had so far outstripped the rest of their
consorts that, instead of bearing away after giving his broadside, Tromp tacked and fired his
other side, followed by the rest of his line, taking care to ease the sheets and bear away if any
Spaniard approached too close. So a running battle continued downwind, the nimble Dutch
preserving their distance until, approaching the shoals off the mouth of the Somme, Oquendo lay
to, to repair damage and allow the rest of his straggling force to catch up.
“The fleets separated that night [18 Sept 39—jbp], but Tromp found the Spaniards next day
and resumed the action after nightfall, all his ships carrying a light on the poop for recognition.
The battle drifted easterly with the tide, and next day off Dover Oquendo shaped course for the
Flemish coast. The wind had gone round to the S, giving the Dutch the weather gage, and Tromp
harassed him exactly as Howard had harassed Medina-Sidonia and, with the advantage of the
wind, employing the same tactics of group attack in succession: firing one broadside, tacking,
and coming in with the other. He succeeded in so damaging Spanish masts and rigging that
Oquendo could not hold his course close-hauled to the southerly wind, but had to bear away and
return towards the English coast; he eventually dropped anchor off Dover at the southern end of
the sheltered waters inside the Goodwin Sands known as The Downs….”
The Downs, 1639
“…reached it.
op. cit., p. 63.

Thames Estuary
The
Downs
Goodwin
Sands

“Tromp sailed to Calais, replenished his ships with powder and shot from his French allies,
and returned, at which the Spanish cut their [anchor—jbp] cables and ran N into The Downs to
anchor close by a small English squadron under Sir John Pennington. Tromp followed and
anchored to the S of them. Pennington dispatched officers to warn both commanders not to fight
in English waters, but it was apparent he lacked the force to prevent them. That night Oquendo
sent his light Dunkirkers out through the difficult northern entrance to the anchorage with some
3,000 troops and silver to pay the Flanders army, but remained inside with the bulk of his fleet.
Next day Tromp blocked off the northern entrance, and thereafter Oquendo could do nothing but
watch as day by day fresh ships arrived from the Dutch admiralties to swell the force locking him
in.
“Tromp’s instructions from the States General were to attack directly a favorable opportunity
presented itself, without any consideration for territorial waters or any English ships which might
attempt to hinder him. By mid-October he was ready. He had 103 warships and sixteen
fireships….Gales caused him to postpone the attack until the morning of the 21st, when,
weighing at sunrise, he steered for the Spanish under a light breeze. Oquendo was already under
sail, and Pennington also weighed and tried vainly to interpose himself between the fleets.…
The Downs, 1639
“…The Downs.
op. cit., pp. 63-64.

“The first broadside rent the quiet morning at about 8.30; within half an hour the gun smoke
was so thick that it was impossible to make out friend or foe. A disordered running battle ensued,
erupting with bursts of fire when the smoke cleared. Dutch fireships were set ablaze, and in the
confusion several Spanish ships ran aground; others deliberately beached themselves. Oquendo
with a group of some twenty great galleons, escaped southward into the Channel and steered
south-westerly, Tromp following. Pennington, after some token long-range firing at the Dutch,
anchored, allowing de With to join Tromp in pursuit of the great galleons.
“That afternoon, as the tide began flowing westerly, Tromp sent fireships down, two of which
tangled with the flagship of Oquendo’s Portuguese squadron and set her ablaze. When it became
evident she could not be saved, Oquendo took off her remaining crew, set more sail, and
continued westerly down-Channel. Tromp and de With followed, harrying and engaging again at
dusk, but eventually lost the Spanish in the dark.…”
The Downs, 1639
“…the fleets.
op. cit., p. 64.

“So ended the Battle of the Downs. It was not the annihilation often claimed, for over the next
days Oquendo and some seventeen great galleons with him succeeded in working back through
the Strait of Dover and reaching Dunkirk. But it was decisive. of the Spanish ships which had
been locked up at the anchorage, some forty were lost—most wrecked on the Kent coast, one
on the Goodwin Sands, three sunk, four captured, the Portuguese flagship destroyed by
fire, and several of these that did escape so wounded they foundered on the Flemish shoals.
Many of those that reached Dunkirk were in a shattered condition; the hull of Oquendo’s flagship
had taken 1,700 shot.
“Only one Dutch ship was lost, and estimates of casualties show as great a disparity as that
between the fleets in 1588: 7,000 Spaniards lost against about 100 Dutch. This supports other
evidence suggesting that, while Spain undoubtedly built up a great sailing navy after the first
armada campaign, and again after the twelve-year truce with the United Provinces, and while her
great galleons were soundly constructed of timbers so massy they could absorb the continuous
punishment handed out by Tromp’s ships at The Downs, her guns and gunnery remained
backward and ineffective.…”
The Downs, 1639
“…the dark.
op. cit., pp. 64-65.

“The moral effect of defeat was greater than the physical. Oquendo’s was the last great
northern armada ever dispatched from the Spanish empire. Oquendo himself was crushed, and
died soon after returning home with the remnants of his fleet…”
The Downs, 1639
“…ineffective.
op. cit., p. 65.

died soon after returning home with the remnants of his fleet. Early the following year an
amphibious expedition Philip had sent to Brazil at much the same time as the northern armada
suffered a similar fate….”
The Downs, 1639
“…ineffective.
op. cit., p. 65.

suffered a similar fate.• Sailing in stormy weather from Bàhia [province] (Salvador [capital of
Portuguese Brazil]) towards the Dutch at Pernambuco (Recife),..”
The Downs, 1639
“…ineffective.
op. cit., p. 65.

RecifePernambuco
Salvador
capital, 1549-1763
Nieuw Holland
1630-1647
Recife
Dutch, 1630-1647
Recife

northern armada ever dispatched from the Spanish empire.• Oquendo himself was crushed, and
suffered a similar fate. Sailing in stormy weather from Bàhia [province] (Salvador [capital of
Portuguese Brazil]) towards the Dutch at Pernambuco (Recife), it was engaged by a Dutch force
and suffered such damage from shot to masts and rigging that many ships drove helplessly ashore
or broke up on rocks; after four days of sporadic engagements the beaten survivors struggled
back to Bàhia….”
The Downs, 1639
“…ineffective.
op. cit., p. 65.

“These two maritime disasters signaled the end of the great days of imperial Spain. That same
year, 1640, both Portugal and the province of Catalonia broke away from the Habsburg Crown,
Portugal never to be reunited. The swift exchange in the fortunes of the empire whose treasure
had lately dazzled the world and its diminutive rebel provinces is surely the most striking
feature of the seventeenth century and one of the most impressive examples of the potency of
trading wealth….”
The Downs, 1639
“…Bahia.
Ibid.

The simple fishermen, sailors, grain and timber merchants, and brewers of the northern
Netherlands, utilizing capital and expertise transferred from Antwerp and the southern provinces,
exploiting their three-way middleman position between the oceans, the Baltic, and the heart of
Continental Europe, concentrating single-mindedly on shipping, commerce and control of
markets and waging a remorseless war of attrition on the Iberian monopolies overseas, aided at
first by English and Huguenot interlopers, latterly by the restructured territorial power of France,
had played a major role in humbling Spain, certainly by sea. In the process they had become
the leading commercial, industrial and financial power in Europe.
“They were indeed the first true maritime power of the modern era—the first great power
existing by and for trade, and governed accordingly by a merchant oligarchy through consultative
assemblies. That they possessed first-class fighting services was as much a result as a cause
of their market control and industrial supremacy; indeed their ocean-going navy had not been
started until after they had become the leading trading nation, and had been built
primarily to protect trade. It was this force of cruisers, armed merchantmen and Indiamen that
had beaten the more imposing Spanish-Portuguese galleons off the seas….”
The Downs, 1639
“…jbp].
op. cit., pp. 65-66.

The triumph had not been painless. The depredations of the Spanish warships and privateers,
especially those operating from Dunkirk, had resulted in steeply increased insurance and freight
rates, eroding the competitive edge of Dutch shipping. Combined with the loss of Spanish
commerce and commodities…had allowed neutrals like the English into many of their southern
European markets. Above all, the cost of maintaining sufficient cruisers to protect merchant
convoys and fishing fleets, of building barrier forts to defend the homeland,….”
The Downs, 1639
“…seas.
op. cit., p. 66.

convoys and fishing fleets, of building barrier forts to defend the homeland,• and of raising,
arming and paying troops to garrison them….”
The Downs, 1639
“…seas.
op. cit., p. 66.

convoys and fishing fleets, of building barrier forts to defend the homeland,• and of raising,
arming and paying troops to garrison them • and the outposts of the overseas empire,•
particularly in Brazil, had mounted alarmingly.
“Taxes—especially excise duties on consumables—had been increased to levels far higher
than the notorious impositions which had contributed to the revolt against Habsburg rule in the
first place, yet the greater part of the extraordinary expenditure had been financed through public
loans.…the scale of national indebtedness can be gauged from Holland, financial powerhouse of
the confederacy, whose debt rose during the course of the war to some 150 million
guilders….This was the price for the attainment of supreme maritime power: a permanent block
of debt which could never be repudiated, since it was held by the citizens….”
The Downs, 1639
“…seas.
op. cit., p. 66.

The rebel provinces had become…dependent on taxation to service the public debt,
bound to maintain military strength to preserve the position they had won in a Europe of
competing powers, and thus locked into an ascending spiral of arms expenditure, loans and taxes.
Already they were taxed more heavily than any other people in Europe; by the end of the century
they would pay almost three times more per head than their French or English contemporaries.
“The system was fully able to bear it. In the E the VOC had won domination; in the W the
WIC had seized the Portuguese sugar regions in Brazil. The trade of the Baltic and northern
Europe remained in Dutch hands, and the capital and industrial base of Holland had expanded
hugely from the development of the ‘rich trades’ in Eastern wares, sugar, tobacco, delftware, and
fine linens, silks and cottons; the textile production of Leiden alone was worth almost half of the
total overseas trade of England….”
The Downs, 1639
“…citizens.
op. cit., pp. 66-67.

“In 1647 the rebels negotiated peace and resumed commerce with Spain; in the following
year they gained formal recognition in the Treaty of Munster [part of the better-known Peace of
Westphalia, 1648] as an independent republic—the United Provinces.”
The Downs, 1639
“…England.
op. cit., p. 67.

“In 1647 the rebels negotiated peace and resumed commerce with Spain; in the following
year they gained formal recognition in the Treaty of Munster [part of the better-known Peace of
Westphalia, 1648] as an independent republic—the United Provinces.• The most significant
clause of the treaty stipulated the closure of the river Schelde to maritime traffic, ensuring that
Antwerp could not re-emerge to challenge Amsterdam. With insurance and freight rates down to
pre-war levels, vast capital stocks and a stable banking system providing incomparably low rates
of interest on borrowing, the United Provinces ousted the English and others who had intruded
into its Spanish, Mediterranean and Levant trades and took over much of the transatlantic
commerce of Spanish America and the Caribbean, so achieving a dominant trading position
around the world.”
The Downs, 1639
“…England.
op. cit., p. 67.

The Rise of Amsterdam
Dam Square with the New Town Hall Under Construction(1656)
Johannes Lingelbach

LIBERTAS
“The prosperity of the United Provinces in the mid seventeenth century was evident to all
visitors.
“They marveled as much at the freedoms its citizens took as their birthright….
op. cit., p. 68.

visitors.
“The English ambassador…expressed his admiration for the liberty ’the Dutch valued so
much’—in particular, ’the strange freedom that all men took in boats and inns and all other
common places, of talking openly whatever they thought upon all public affairs….
“[He] was equally struck by the religious freedoms. Calvinism was the official Protestant
denomination •…
op. cit., p. 68.

LIBERTAS
visitors.
“The English ambassador…expressed his admiration for the liberty ’the Dutch valued so
much’—in particular, ’the strange freedom that all men took in boats and inns and all other
common places, of talking openly whatever they thought upon all public affairs….
“[He] was equally struck by the religious freedoms. Calvinism was the official Protestant
denomination •…yet a large Catholic minority and innumerable dissenting sects practiced their
own rites…and published their own sacred texts.
[the English Separatists we call the Mayflower Pilgrims first fled to Amsterdam and Leiden,
1605-1617 to escape the persecution ordered by King James I—jbp]
“Even Jews lived freely among the populace without being confined to ghettos….
“…in an age of extreme religious intolerance [this] so impressed the fourth Earl of Shaftesbury he
recommended that England follow suit in order likewise to attract and retain skilled workers….”
op. cit., p. 68.

Women’s Status
“Of all the freedoms indulged by Dutch society, none surprised foreign visitors more than those
assumed by women.
“Respectable women walked out and about unaccompanied;…. op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

Women’s Status
assumed by women.
“Respectable women walked out and about unaccompanied;• young women went
unchaperoned….
op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

Women’s Status
assumed by women.
unchaperoned….
“They did not enjoy equal status with men—they were not permitted to hold public office, and
were generally excluded from the orgies of eating and drinking held to mark state or guild
occasions…. op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

Women’s Status
assumed by women.
unchaperoned….
occasions….
“A few also made their mark as individuals in cultivated society and the arts, as professional
painters, printmakers, glass-engravers, designers, salon wits and writers;.…
op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

Women’s Status
assumed by women.
unchaperoned….
occasions….
1655—“the first woman appeared on the Amsterdam stage, several years before such a thing
happened in London or elsewhere. Prostitutes, equally marginalized elsewhere, were also less
downtrodden
op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

Women’s Status
assumed by women.
unchaperoned….
occasions….
1655—“the first woman appeared on the Amsterdam stage, several years before such a thing
happened in London or elsewhere.
“This relative emancipation extended through most levels of Dutch society; the female expression
of an independent, anti-hierarchical spirit bred over centuries of struggle against the floods and
latterly against Spain….
op. cit., pp. 69, 71.

“…Hugo Grotius, the humanist scholar and jurist…established the theoretical link…with
historical examples that liberty, order, virtue and prosperity were best preserved under a
consultative government reserved to those with wealth, education and leisure to devote
themselves to public affairs—a description in fact of the close merchant oligarchies known as
regents, who ruled the towns and cities and the republic itself….”
op. cit., p. 72.

“…Hugo Grotius, the humanist scholar and jurist…established the theoretical link…with
historical examples that liberty, order, virtue and prosperity were best preserved under a
consultative government reserved to those with wealth, education and leisure to devote
themselves to public affairs—a description in fact of the close merchant oligarchies known as
regents, who ruled the towns and cities and the republic itself.•
Liberty was a very practical ideal for the regents; as Grotius’ son, Pieter de Groot, expressed
it, ‘What constitutes the wealth of the republic? The opulence of its trade. And what is the source
of that trade? Good government. For nothing is more attractive for the whole world than
freedom of conscience and security of possessions.’ It was impossible to guarantee either under
a monarchy, he went on. This was the point, and it was demonstrated even in the internal politics
of the republic, where the stadtholder represented the monarchial principle and the ‘Orangist’
party behind him provided a real counterweight to the power of the regents. The struggle
between these forces was in truth a battle for the soul of the republic….”
op. cit., p. 72.

“The regents had taken the crucial step in limiting the stadtholder’s power early in the struggle
against Spain…[the regents] had succeeded in transferring strategic and military decision-making
…to the States General [their organ]. Thereafter, throughout the life of the republic, the higher
direction of the war remained under civilian control. William II of Orange,• who became
stadtholder in 1647 at a time of extreme tension between his adherents and the States
General….”
op. cit., p. 73.
“…republic….”

stadtholder in 1647 at a time of extreme tension between his adherents and the States General,
op. cit., p. 73.

stadtholder in 1647 at a time of extreme tension between his adherents and the States General,
then negotiating an end to the eighty years war with Spain, the ‘Antichrist’, made a determined
effort to restore his position. Gathering the army, zealots of the Reformed Church and a faction
of Orangist regents under his banner, he attempted a coup against Amsterdam, citadel of
merchant power. The plan miscarried and William died shortly afterwards, but the pamphlets of
of the time show show how central to the merchant philosophy were the concepts of freedom and
security of property: ‘If my goods are stolen, my hands tied, my freedom taken from me, what
matters it to me if he who does this is a Spaniard, a barbarian or a fellow countryman…Freedom
is a noble and delicate thing which must not be touched by anyone.’ ….”
op. cit., p. 73.

“One of those deeply affected by the abortive coup, since his father was imprisoned by William, was
Johan de Witt,.…”
“…anyone….”
op. cit., pp. 73-74.

“One of those deeply affected by the abortive coup, since his father was imprisoned by William, was
Johan de Witt,• soon to be elected Grand Pensionary of Holland, the leading minister who represented
the States of Holland in the States General. For de Witt, as for Grotius, the key to True Freedom was
the consultation and compromise that resulted from sharing authority among those fitted by
background, education and training to exercise it. Only thus could abuse of power be limited.
“Such in essence was the system evolved since the revolt against Spain. There was no written
constitution. The founding document, the Union of Utrecht (1579), defined little more than a
defensive alliance between seven provinces assuming the status of sovereign states, and retaining
rights to raise their own taxes, appoint their own stadtholder and have say in the choice of overall
captain-general of the alliance.….
“The balance of power between Orangists and regents—in effect between the stadtholder and
Amsterdam—shifted continually. It was at its most unequal after William II’s death in 1650. He left
an infant as heir, and the States of Holland, thoroughly alarmed and vengeful since the attempted
coup, took advantage of the situation to suspend the stadtholderate and take over all its remaining
functions.…”
“…anyone….”
op. cit., pp. 73-74.

Their intention was to separate the post permanently from the captain- and admiral-
generalcy of the state, and for a period of over twenty years after mid-century they succeeded in
achieving a close approximation to the merchant ideal of government by and for those engaged
in trade and finance.
“Such a part-traditional, part-contingent form of government was completely at odds with the
spirit of rational, centralized administration informing the absolutist monarchies of the rest of
Europe; what has been termed the republic’s ‘institutional incoherence’ was quite as exceptional
as its freedoms. The republic’s navy, with its five different admiralties, was characterized by a
similar…dispersion of control, as were the two great chartered companies wielding sovereign
power overseas, the VOC and the WIC, with their regional chambers.…”
“…functions.
op. cit., pp. 74-75.

Their intention was to separate the post permanently from the captain- and admiral-
generalcy of the state, and for a period of over twenty years after mid-century they succeeded in
achieving a close approximation to the merchant ideal of government by and for those engaged
in trade and finance.
“Such a part-traditional, part-contingent form of government was completely at odds with the
spirit of rational, centralized administration informing the absolutist monarchies of the rest of
Europe; what has been termed the republic’s ‘institutional incoherence’ was quite as exceptional
as its freedoms. The republic’s navy, with its five different admiralties, was characterized by a
similar…dispersion of control, as were the two great chartered companies wielding sovereign
power overseas, the VOC and the WIC, with their regional chambers.• However, the…directors
of these joint-stock companies were regents, consequently the interests of overseas trade and
empire were bound in closely with the realities of home politics. The army was the great
difficulty for the States Party. Regular troops were needed to garrison the ring of superb modern
fortresses built to defend the borders,…”
“…functions.
op. cit., pp. 74-75.

yet history and most recently William II’s attempted coup provided grim evidence of
the danger armies posed for a republican government. After the peace with Spain, the States
General reduced the strength of the army drastically, only partly for economic reasons, putting
their faith in civilian volunteer militias.…•
“…borders,
op. cit., p. 75.
Rembrandt “The Night Watch” 1642

yet history and most recently William II’s attempted coup provided grim evidence of
the danger armies posed for a republican government. After the peace with Spain, the States
General reduced the strength of the army drastically, only partly for economic reasons, putting
their faith in civilian volunteer militias.…•
“At bottom, regent power, and with it True Freedom, rested on prosperity; prosperity rested
on control of markets. The Dutch were the ultimate middlemen: rings of merchants bought up
whole crops or commodities when prices were low….The products were freighted in Dutch ships
to Dutch ports, stored and held in order to keep prices up, then sold on a seller’s market,,,and
shipped out again in Dutch hulls. In this way not only the Baltic but western France had been
made tributary to Amsterdam….They controlled the import into France of Eastern spices, fine
cloth, Baltic grain, Stockholm tar and other shipbuilding materials, and Caribbean sugar and
tobacco….
“The secret of their ability to corner markets was better credit and far lower rates of
interest than other countries could provide. The crucial institution was the Exchange Bank of
Amsterdam, founded in 1609, the first year of the brief truce with Spain.…”
“…borders,
op. cit., p. 75.

It is interesting that over half the major depositors were émigrés to the republic from
the Spanish Netherlands.…It was in the words of one envious Englishman, ‘the great sinews of
trade, the credit thereof making paper got in trade equal with ready money, yea better in parts of
the world than money.’ [In 1694 the Bank of England was opened (the second oldest central bank
in the world) during the reign of William of Orange, the Third, consort to his cousin Mary Stuart
—jbp]
“The metal deposits securing the Bank’s bills were housed in the vaults of the city hall.
Nearby was the bourse built in 1608 as a forum for regular trading in stocks and
commodities….Between noon and two o’clock each weekday, timed by a clock on a tower rising
high above one end….
“…Spain.
op. cit., pp. 75-76.

—jbp]
high above one end,….
“…Spain.
op. cit., pp. 75-76.

—jbp]
high above one end,• the bourse became a raucous pit in which patterns of buying and selling
between brokers, factors [agents] and speculators determined the prices of stocks, of the staples
of world trade, and even of commodity futures….The Exchange Bank was the solid anchor of
Dutch commerce, the bourse its extravagant antithesis whose transactions primed and regulated
capital flows, and in so doing set the price indices for all other European trading centers. It was
indeed the hub of world commerce….a cosmopolitan community which knew no bounds of race
or creed….
“…Spain.
op. cit., pp. 75-76.

Amsterdam—Financial Heart of the
United Provinces—Then & Now
Amsterdam
Amstel river
in dark blue
Netherlands—contemporary land forms
BELGII FOEDERATI—Map of 1681

Amsterdam
Amstel river
in dark blue
Netherlands—contemporary land forms

“Not half a mile away, warehouses stored with the products traded or gambled on the bourse
lined the wharves of the river Ij, the northeastern boundary of the city, and fronted the canals
intersecting the city itself. Amsterdam, as befitted the nerve center of a state snatched from the
waters, was built on a flood plain, the central island formed by a dam on the river Amstel where
it joined the Ij, the quays and buildings beyond radiating to the city walls and the outer moat
lapping the redoubts and towers, built on piles driven into estuarial mud and sand.•
“…creed.
op. cit., p. 76.
Amsterdam Coat of Arms
motto: valiant, steadfast,
compassionate

Amsterdam in 1649. The old city in maroon. The planned new additions are faintly marked in to the S and E—
Wikipedia
N
NEW DELINEATION OF AMSTELODAM, MOST CELEBRATED EMPORIUM OF HOLLAND

Amsterdam in 1662. The old city in maroon. The Amstel entering from the SE, the Ij, once a river, now a bay to the
N. The new city under construction, now protected with moat and bastioned wall—Wikipedia
N
A MOST ACCURATE DELINEATION OF THE OLD AND NEW CITY OF AMSTELODAM

N
A MOST ACCURATE DELINEATION OF THE OLD AND NEW CITY OF AMSTELODAM

Johannes Lingelbach. Dam Square with the New Town Hall under Construction. 1656. Oil on canvas. 122.5 × 206 cm..
Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum. [also shown, the Niewe Kerk and the Weigh House]—Wikipedia

“The majority of workshops were small, but several industries were large scale and employed
wind power. Foreign visitors were astonished at the number of windmills in and about the city
and by the variety of their uses: finishing and dressing cloth and leather, throwing silk, printing
ribbons, extracting oil, preparing gunpowder, rolling copper plates, milling paper,and, above all,
sawing wood. The shipbuilding center, Zaandam, just N of the city…was thronged with
windmills and has been described as Europe’s first industrial zone….”
“…sand….
op. cit., p. 77.

Statue of Peter the Great
working in Zaandam, 1697
mayor of Zaandam

“The majority of workshops were small, but several industries were large scale and employed
wind power. Foreign visitors were astonished at the number of windmills in and about the city
and by the variety of their uses: finishing and dressing cloth and leather, throwing silk, printing
ribbons, extracting oil, preparing gunpowder, rolling copper plates, milling paper,and, above all,
sawing wood. The shipbuilding center, Zaandam, just N of the city…was thronged with
windmills and has been described as Europe’s first industrial zone.• Thus the demands of world
trade and the use of wind power, long harnessed to drain and reclaim waterlogged land, together
with the unmatched economy of water transport, had produced a revolution in industrial
production. In turn, this had led to a virtuous circle in the capture of wider markets.
“The effects were striking in every field. The most immediate impression was of wealth. The
once plain frontages of the canal houses now boasted step- or bell-gables, their windows or other
architectural features white stone trim. In the most fashionable quarter of the Herrengracht, the
innermost of the main canals which encircled the center about the Dam, façades were
extravagantly decorated….”
“…sand….
op. cit., p. 77.

Life in theDutch Golden Age
Family Portrait (detail)
Gilles van Tilborch

“…signs of prosperity and ease were not confined to the loftier strata, but extended throughout
the population. The diet of all classes was rich and varied; Dutch control of Baltic grain and
North Sea fishing grounds, the plenitude of market gardens serving the cities, and the efficiency
and ubiquity of water transport meant that even the poorest ate well and seldom if ever suffered
the desperate famines that afflicted peasants and workers in most of Europe after poor
harvests….The Dutch of all classes were notorious for prodigious feats of eating and
drinking….”
“…decorated….
op. cit., p. 78.

“…signs of prosperity and ease were not confined to the loftier strata, but extended throughout
the population. The diet of all classes was rich and varied; Dutch control of Baltic grain and
North Sea fishing grounds, the plenitude of market gardens serving the cities, and the efficiency
and ubiquity of water transport meant that even the poorest ate well and seldom if ever suffered
the desperate famines that afflicted peasants and workers in most of Europe after poor
harvests….The Dutch of all classes were notorious for prodigious feats of eating and drinking.•
“As with food, so with dress and accommodation: the differences between economic classes
lay rather in quality than in content, each level emulating the one above so far as its purse
allowed. Concern for cleanliness ran right through society….Not only were most Dutch homes
maintained spotlessly, but the doorsteps and paving before the house were washed daily….
“For Dutch moralists the family was symbolic of the republic, the intimate community of the
household a building block and microcosm of the neighborhood, the city and the state. While the
United Provinces was far from a political democracy, it was in this sense socially democratic; is
values were imposed, as already noted, not downwards from an aristocracy but outwards from
the family and the tradition of self reliance….”
“…decorated….
op. cit., p. 78.

Here the role of women was paramount. As the undoubted arbiters of domestic
life, they were by extension guardians of the purity of the state….The home run by a chaste wife
and helpmate provided a cleansed sanctuary where men could transmute their guilt as serving
Mammon into love and pride in the family which depended upon them.•
“…self-reliance.
op. cit., pp. 78-79.

“At a practical level, social democracy was promoted by the advanced market economy which
permitted the many to desire and purchase what in other countries was available only to the
few.Besides enjoying higher material standards than elsewhere, Dutch urban society had
created the first mass market in intellectual and artistic properties. Literacy was widespread.
….”
op. cit., pp. 78-79.

“At a practical level, social democracy was promoted by the advanced market economy which
permitted the many to desire and purchase what in other countries was available only to the
few.Besides enjoying higher material standards than elsewhere, Dutch urban society had
created the first mass market in intellectual and artistic properties. Literacy was widespread.
• A French professor visiting Holland…was astonished to find even servant girls reading. This
has been attributed to the importance attributed to Bible and catechism reading as the Reformed
Church fought against Catholicism.• For whatever reasons, the United Provinces had developed a
literary-based culture quite unique in Europe, and Amsterdam publishers catered for the market
with cheap editions of patriotic histories, theological works and, especially, journals of
exploration and disaster at sea appealing to a popular craving for wonders and vicarious
adventure. Similarly, engravings and oil paintings from the cheaper end of the art spectrum
adorned the walls of the humblest homes ….”
op. cit., pp. 78-79.

“Taken all in all, it appears the Dutch burgers of the seventeenth century had produced a
prototype of late-twentieth-century Western civilization, without its license [pleasure-seeking
vulgarity]. There was the same familiarity of manners and outspokenness on all subjects, the
disregard for hereditary rank (combined with awe at great wealth), wide dissemination of
information (and craving for sensation), the opportunities provided by literacy for intelligent or
merely diligent men to climb the professional and even the social ladder, significant roles for
women, although greatly restricted by their duties within the household, enjoyment of family life,
and indulgence towards children and dogs, as affirmed in countless paintings….
“…homes.
op. cit., p. 79.
Similarities

and indulgence towards children and dogs, as affirmed in countless paintings….• As striking
were love of flowers, concern for cleanliness, an abundance of material and intellectual goods,
conspicuous consumption at every level up to the sumptuary splendor of the wealthiest regent
family homes….”
“…homes.
op. cit., p. 79.

and indulgence towards children and dogs, as affirmed in countless paintings….• As striking
were love of flowers, concern for cleanliness, an abundance of material and intellectual goods,
conspicuous consumption at every level up to the sumptuary splendor of the wealthiest regent
family homes • and villas in the countryside, and, at the other extreme, generous provision in
charitable institutions for the poor, the elderly and the sick.• Above all, the market reigned
supreme, forging discipline, inducing desires….”
“…homes.
op. cit., p. 79.
Similarities

“There were, of course, differences from the late twentieth century. Most obviously, the people
could not vote for whom they wished to represent them; political power was in the hands of the
self-perpetuating regent patriciates. Yet the form of government…embodied the more important
features of twentieth-century democracies—argument, dissent and the rule of law—and
undoubtedly had more effect on the type of society than the people’s lack of a political vote. In
fact the republican government was a source of great satisfaction to the Dutch…; they viewed
themselves as an island of rational, freedom- and peace-loving statesmanship surrounded by
vainglorious monarchs wont to sacrifice the real interests of their subjects to wars conducted for
territorial or dynastic gain or mere vanity. Beyond this they created a patriotic myth in which
they were the people chosen by God to reveal His design for the world. For their part, the
monarchs looked down on the ministers of the United Provinces as mean-spirited tradesmen
concerned solely with commercial profit and loss.
“…desires.
op. cit., pp. 79-80.
Differences

“The more important characteristic distinguishing seventeenth-century urban Dutch from late-
twentieth-century Western society was the strict moral order imposed…by fear of God….As the
monarchies and their own churchmen and intellectuals feared, however, the seeds of a relative
order of values had been sown in tolerance of free expression and dissent forms of worship….•
“In all other respects, the Dutch in the seventeenth century can be seen as harbingers of the
modern West; they led the world in intellectual inquiry, the sciences and every significant
technology. For shipbuilding, navigating instruments, charts, atlases, globes and the
illustrated manuals of sailing directions known as Rutters, Amsterdam and the other ports of
Holland were supreme….”
“…loss.
op. cit., p. 80.
Differences

“Perhaps the most
dramatic rutter…
Portrait of Jan Huygen van Linschoten, from
the princeps edition of his Itinerario. Jan
Huyghens meticulously copied the top-
secret charts page-by-page. Even more
crucially, [he] provided nautical data like
currents, deeps, islands and sandbanks,
which was absolutely vital for safe
navigation, along with coastal depictions to
guide the way. The publication of the
navigational routes enabled the passage to
the East Indies to be opened to trading by
the English and the Dutch. As a
consequence, The British East India
Company and the Dutch East India
Company broke the 16th-century monopoly
enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the
East Indies.—Wikipedia

“The more important characteristic distinguishing seventeenth-century urban Dutch from late-
twentieth-century Western society was the strict moral order imposed…by fear of God….As the
monarchies and their own churchmen and intellectuals feared, however, the seeds of a relative
order of values had been sown in tolerance of free expression and dissent forms of worship….•
“In all other respects, the Dutch in the seventeenth century can be seen as harbingers of the
modern West; they led the world in intellectual inquiry, the sciences and every significant
technology. For shipbuilding, navigating instruments, charts, atlases, globes and the
illustrated manuals of sailing directions known as Rutters,• Amsterdam and the other ports
of Holland were supreme. Similarly, on land the United Provinces was in the forefront of
military engineering, ordnance, small arms and ammunition production and the payment
of troops. It was the same in all the advanced crafts and industries, from clockmaking, lens
cutting and polishing, scientific instrument-making, typecasting, printing and publishing,
diamond-cutting—one of the earlier imports from Antwerp [and its Spanish Jews—jbp]—to
dredging, draining, crop rotation, soil replacement, horticulture, and indeed invention of every
kind….”
op. cit., p. 80.
Differences

“…kind. Foreigners were struck as much by the novelties and innovations as by the sense of
abundance and freedom in Dutch cities. In 1669 the world’s first public street lighting would be
introduced in Amsterdam—some 2,000 glass and metal lamps, burning vegetable oil, fixed on
high walls and posts along the thoroughfares.
“Perhaps the most spectacular result of merchant wealth, as before in Renaissance Italy, was
the generation of great art….Human emotion, character and experience were delineated as never
before by painters of genius working in several Dutch cities. The close bonds of affection
between a married couple as portrayed by Frans Hals of Haarlem,…”
op. cit., p. 81.

between a married couple as portrayed by Frans Hals of Haarlem,• the rapacity of a puckered
whoremistress captured by Dirck van Baburen of Utrecht,…”
op. cit., p. 81.

whoremistress captured by Dirck van Baburen of Utrecht,• more complex feelings of sadness and
defeat delineated by the most profound artist of the early Utrecht school, Hendrick Terbruggen,
…”
op. cit., p. 81.

whoremistress captured by Dirck van Baburen of Utrecht,• more complex feelings of sadness and
defeat delineated by the most profound artist of the early Utrecht school, Hendrick Terbruggen,•
were facets of a shift in artistic viewpoint as fundamental as the religious and political
transformation of the country: heroic myth, spirituality and divine authority were replaced by the
daily round and carnal reality. At the summit of this revolution stood Rembrandt van Rijn of
Leiden and Amsterdam, surely one of the most penetrating interpreters of psychological truth on
canvas of any age, and Jan Vermeer of Delft, whose explorations of the effects of light on
substance transcends the limits of paint and time.…”
op. cit., p. 81.

“The United Provinces was not, of course, Utopia. Calvin viewed mankind as fallen and
irretrievably lost, and in this at least the republic was no exception. In part the street lighting for
Amsterdam—adopted soon afterwards in other Dutch cities—was in order to reduce night-time
crime and the number of drunks falling into the canals and drowning. It was true that wages were
much higher in the republic than elsewhere—often double those in the southern Netherlands—
yet the migrant workers drawn to the cities and the girls and older women hired from charitable
institutions, particularly for work in the textile industries, were subject to all the abuses
associated with an unregulated mass market in labor; long hours in harsh, of the squalid,
conditions, only to be thrown on the streets in periods of recession. And while the old-age, sick
and poor relief were on a generous scale, each town competing in virtue, these benefits were used
as a form of social control and were confined to natives of the town and long-term residents of
good behavior: ‘undeserving’ persons, the natives of other towns and foreigners fell outside the
net and were expelled, and were flogged or branded if they found their way back.…”
op. cit., pp. 81-82.
No Paradise
“…time.

“The sailors on whom the whole system ultimately rested were a particularly brutalized class
—although no more so than those of other nations. Many were foreigners, chiefly from the
German states, who had come to the republic seeking work. Falling into the hands of ‘crimps’ ,
called Zielverkoopers (soul-sellers), who promised board and lodging to be paid for later by
deductions from wages after the men had found a berth aboard ship, they were confined in
insanitary cellars and provided a minimum diet until the next Indies fleet required men. There
were over 300 such crimping houses in Amsterdam alone. Aboard, savage punishments,
undermanning, short rations and death from disease were too often the realities beneath the
civilized abstractions of the republic’s liberal thinkers.…”
op. cit., p. 82.
No Paradise
“…back.

“The areas in which Dutch practice departed most flagrantly from libertarian ideals were slave
trading and trade monopolies. Interestingly, trafficking in slaves had been renounced as immoral
in the early years of the republic. …after the formation of the WIC in 1621 some shareholders
proposed that the company [trade in slaves]. But the directors, after conferring with theologians,
decided that trading in human beings was not morally justified….It was the expansion of the
company’s Brazilian sugar plantations, the consequent need for a more regular supply of laborers
[to replace deaths] that enticed it to enter the trade at its source. In 1637 it seized the ancient
Portuguese slaving fort at Elmina, and in the following years most of the other Portuguese forts
and barracoons along the West African coast, taking over the commercial relationships forged
with the local chiefs and slave merchants who controlled the supply. By the early 1640s the WIC
was master of the transatlantic traffic….”
op. cit., pp. 82-83.
No Paradise
“…thinkers.

“It was no doubt inevitable that the trading arm of a merchant state driven by profit should
compromise its moral and religious principles in this way: black African slaves were the essential
power source for the plantation economies of the Caribbean and Central and South America,
indeed for the entire Atlantic trading system which the company sought to dominate.• However,
the actions of the VOC in the East suggest that exploitation of weaker populations was not
simply a reluctant response to perceived necessity; but was as fundamental to Dutch trade as to
the earlier Portuguese and Spanish conquests. The Dutch in the Indonesian spice islands
worked their plantations with native slave labor which they treated with as much brutality
as their New World counterparts. By the 1620s they had either exterminated or deported the
entire indigenous population of the Banda Islands to serve as slaves or soldiers;• in 1651 a native
rising provoked them into a series of punitive expeditions which resulted in the forcible transfer
of some 12,000 persons from their native islands….”
op. cit., p. 83.
No Paradise
“…traffic.

after 1890!
Fort Nassau in 1646

Note the Dutch flags on the accurate portrayals of Dutch East Indiamen. The fort at the end of
the long dock. Further romanticism with the active volcano. Typical of the color prints sold to
decorate homes made wealthy by the nutmeg monopoly begun so ruthlessly by Jan Coen • in
1621.—jbp
“Banda Neira in 1624.” in “Banda Islands,” Wikipedia

“The United Provinces of the mid-seventeenth century was a great power; leading exploration
and invention and the funding of new industries in every quarter. The citizens were justifiably
proud of their success and the exceptional freedoms they enjoyed and the form of republican
government that guaranteed them. Beyond this, however, they were consumed by a sense of
moral superiority which in retrospect appears without foundation. At bottom their wealth
was built upon the subjugation of materially weaker peoples and the exploitation of every
defenseless species encountered in every quarter of the globe. They were merely human: as
Montaigne wrote, ‘Presumption is our [human] natural and original disease.’ Just as the
civilization they had built was the herald of modern Western society, so too was their humanist
presumption. They left many touching prints and paintings showing the fondness of urban
housewives and families for their pets; the anguish of countless other animals offered as living
sacrifices on the tables of medical science, instruction and cruel curiosity is less visible and
seldom noticed in works on art or the history of European civilization.”
op. cit., pp. 85-86.
No Paradise
“…islands.

The medieval icon for the wheel of fortune visualizes
the truism that what goes up must come down. The
United Provinces had confounded those who thought
Spain’s turn at the Siglo de Oro must last forever. Now
the Goulden Eeuw (Nederland) (Dutch Golden Age) has
reached its apogee. It will receive its first challenge from
its erstwhile ally England. Their mission to bring down
Spain, now accomplished, is supplanted by commercial
rivalry. A series of three Anglo-Dutch wars will lead to
the amazing outcome of a marriage alliance which will
place the third William of Orange on the English throne
as joint monarch with a Stuart princess.
But that’s another story…
jbp
The Wheel of Fortune

Sea power session 2-dutch golden age

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