The Dutch Republic, despite its small size and population, functioned as the hub of world trade, shipping, and finance for over a century following the fall of Antwerp in 1585. This is the first general account of Dutch world-trade hegemony in all its aspects from its origins as a depot for "bulk-carrying" in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to its collapse in the eighteenth century.
Industry Reviews
`He succeeds admirably here in illuminating the international aspects of Dutch capitalism during its golden age and in explaining the growth and functioning of Dutch world trade hegemony in terms of world economic development. This volume is an example of economic history at its best and is an innovative major contribution to the field ... essential reading for specialists and for anyone who wants an up-to-date analysis of the essential place of the
Netherlands in the development of world capitalism in the early modern period. It can be recommended to both types of readers in the expectation that they will find it not only illuminating and accessible, but
also a pleasure to read.'
Journal of World History
`substantial and welcome study ... packed with detail, and presented in a lively and readable style, it is a completely successful work ... a work of impressive scholarship ... a must, not only for students of Dutch history, but for anyone interested in the economic history of Europe in this period'
Times Higher Education Supplement
`a formidable work which makes compelling reading ... it will become a standard work'
Times Literary Supplement
'a major work, which, while inevitably it may excite disagreement on some points, will not be superseded'
K.H.D. Haley, University of Sheffield, EHR Apr '90
'The author buttresses his arguments with a wealth of facts and figures drawn from an enormous variety of published and unpublished sources, deployed in a compulsively readable text. There is not a dull page in this book which can be recommended unreservedly.'
C.R. Boxer, The Mariner's Mirror
'Israel's excellent and very solid research ... provides much insight into the complex functioning of the world economy in the seventeenth-century and its variables'
Constanza D'Elia, Journal of European Economic History, Vol 18, No 3 1989
'thorough and imaginative'
James Foreman-Peck, University of Hull, Journal of Low Countries Studies
'the range and erudition of this volume makes it a valuable guide to a study of the conduct of European and world trade and the nature of Dutch primacy in the early modern period'
Walter Minchinton, Business History, Oct 1990
'This is an excellent work in every way ... The best possible use is made of all available sources.'
C.R. Boxer, Proceedings XXV, 2 (1990)
'splendid book ... magnificent piece of scholarship'
Anthony Reid, Australian National University, The Journal of Asian Studies, January 1991
'This is a remarkable book. Without doubt, this book is an impressive and lasting achievement, not in the least because it raises so many new questions rather than providing final answers.'
J. Thomas Lindblad, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 48, June 1990
