No General Descriptions provided.
| absent | 1648 CE 1699 CE |
| present | 1700 CE 1795 CE |
| present |
| absent | 1648 CE 1672 CE |
| present | 1673 CE 1795 CE |
| Year Range | Dutch Empire (nl_dutch_emp_1) was in: |
|---|
"The question of the Empire’s Dutchness is hard to answer because the term ‘Dutch’ is both too broad and too narrow. In terms of the ruling group of regents, it is more appropriate to talk of a Holland–Zeeland Empire since the other provinces, not to mention the ‘inland colonies’ of Brabant, Limburg and Drenthe, generally invested much less in overseas expansion. ‘Dutch’ in this sense is an anachronism that relies on the notion of a ‘national’ past that was constructed as such only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [...] Certainly, Dutch contemporaries themselves neither regarded it as an empire, nor did they feel any sympathies for the very idea of empire. Had they not succeeded in repelling such an empire in a tremendously bloody uprising lasting a staggering eighty years?" [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 5, 10) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The Hague became the bureaucratic center" [1] "The power resources of Amsterdam were extensive, situated in the province of Holland that was, in turn, superior among the other northern Netherland provinces. However, Amsterdam was not the center of a kingdom, and the city itself actually held little institutional power within the Republic. [...] The Republic became a state in which the bureaucratic center (The Hague) was different from the economic and financial center (Amsterdam). Nor did it coincide with a traditional center (Dordrecht or Utrecht), or with a cultural center (Leiden with the first university)." [2]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 663) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[2]: (t’Hart 1989: 663, 680) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
From independence from the Holy Roman Empire to Napoleonic occupation. "The peace treaty of Westphalia in 1648 established a political border that was to the south of the religious border. To the south Hapsburg reign continued, with the new independent Republic of Seven United Provinces to the north. This situation was to continue throughout the remainder of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, until Napoleon conquered and eventually annexed the country. This ‘French period’, as the Napoleonic occupation is commonly referred to in the Netherlands, left an important imprint on the political institutions of the Netherlands, as we shall discuss momentarily. [...] The ‘French period’ lasted only from 1795 to 1813, but the Napoleonic occupation left the country highly centralized." [1]
[1]: (Andeweg and Irwin 1993: 8-9) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M8ENXX8G/collection.
"The Republic was a loose confederacy with little in the form of national political institutions. As Schama put it, ‘Indeed national unification in the case of the Dutch is a contradiction in terms since they had come into being as a nation expressly to avoid becoming a state’ (Schama, 1989, p. 62). Power rested firmly in the hands of the individual provinces." [1] "The Dutch state of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a federation with little centralization. It was sometimes even threatened with disintegration, its main divisive elements being provincial separatism, rivalry among urban oligarchies, competition among the government colleges of the central bureaucracy in The Hague, and the dualist position of the Stadtholder." [2]
[1]: (Andeweg and Irwin 1993: 9) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M8ENXX8G/collection.
[2]: (t’Hart 1989: 663) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
"To the extent that the Eighty Years War of Independence can be perceived as a religious war, the Catholics were identified with the losing side. Under the Republic they could not publicly practise their religion; they were barred from holding public office, and the two predominantly Catholic provinces, Brabant and Limburg, were ruled by the central government as conquered territory. Gradually the discriminatory legal provisions were abolished, but Catholics remained wary of a Protestant backlash and were slow to organize themselves openly." [1]
[1]: (Andeweg and Irwin 1993: 20) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M8ENXX8G/collection.
Inhabitants. Van Leeuwen and Oeppen estimate for the population of Amsterdam to have fluctuated between about 200,000 and 240,000 between 1680 and 1795 CE. [1]
[1]: (Leeuwen and Oeppen 1993: 87) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/EDEIN9RT/collection.
levels.1. The Hague (seat of central bureaucracy) :"The Hague became the bureaucratic center" [1] :2. Amsterdam (wealthiest city) ::"The power resources of Amsterdam were extensive, situated in the province of Holland that was, in turn, superior among the other northern Netherland provinces. However, Amsterdam was not the center of a kingdom, and the city itself actually held little institutional power within the Republic." [1] "When the interests of the various provinces conflicted, those of Holland and Amsterdam tended to prevail, provided they were in agreement." [2] ::3. Dordrecht and Utrecht :::4. Leiden ::::"The Republic became a state in which the bureaucratic center (The Hague) was different from the economic and financial center (Amsterdam). Nor did it coincide with a traditional center (Dordrecht or Utrecht), or with a cultural center (Leiden with the first university)." [3] ::::5. Other major cities (Rotterdam, Haarlem, Delft, Gouda) :::::"Many of the provincial taxes came from the cities, and particularly from the "traditional" six large cities (Amsterdam, Leiden, Haarlem, Delft, Dordrecht, and Gouda) and from the rising Rotterdam and The Hague." [4] :::::6. Towns (inferred) ::::::7. Villages (inferred) __colonial possessions__ :2. Major colonial centres (e.g. Batavia) ::"The administration of the VOC in Asia was in the hands of the Governor-General in Batavia, who, together with a number of other high-ranking VOC officials, made up the Raad van Indië, also known as the Hoge Regering or High Government. Each of the members of this council had his own portfolio: bookkeeping, the law, military matters and shipping. [...] Apart from being the Company’s political and judicial headquarters, Batavia functioned as the main transshipment and repair workshop for shipping within Asia and for traffic with Europe." [5] ::3. Lesser colonial centres (e.g. Dejima)
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 663) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[2]: (t’Hart 1989: 672) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[3]: (t’Hart 1989: 680) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[4]: (t’Hart 1989: 675) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[5]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 38-39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
levels. "In January 1668 the States-General therefore asked the Council of State to formulate an opinion ’on the subject of [military] rank. [...] The Council of state recommended that the order of rank should be established as follows: 1. general or chief of the army; 2. field-marshal; 3. general of the cavalry and infantry; 4. general of the artillery; 5. lieutenant-generals of the cavalry and infantry; 6. sergeant-majors of he army; 7. commissaries-general of horse; 8. colonels of foot and of horse; 9. lieutenant-colonels of foot and of horse; 10. majors of foot and of horse; 11. rittmasters and captains; 12. captain-lieutenants (i.e. a lieutenant who takes charge of a company in the absence of the commander); 13. lieutenants; and 14. cornets and ensigns. [...] The States-General failed to heed the advice of the Council of State until almost three years later, when on 23 March 1761 the recommendations were adopted almost unamended. A transitional arrangement was struck to lessen the pain somewhat for the majors, rittmasters, lieutenants and cornets of the cavalry." [1] NB Additional level corresponds to soldiers.
[1]: (Nimwengen 2010: 316-317) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/P4FWE8NE/collection.
levels.1. States-General :2. Advisory body to the States-General ::"The stadtholder, who originally deputised for the king, now became merely an elected provincial official. Except for the States-General, in which the representatives of the Provincial States met with one another at periodic intervals, and their advisory body, the State Council (Raad van State), the Republic of the United Netherlands had no central state institutions." [1] ::3. Burgomasters :::"The actual government of the Dutch cities was performed by two, three, or four burgomasters with seven or more aldermen, elected by the "vroedschap," a council whose members were chosen for life by cooptation." [2] :::4. Lesser administrative functionaries, e.g. tax collectors (inferred) __in the colonies__ :2. Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) and West Indies Company (WIC) boards (e.g. Lords XVII) ::"Initially, the VOC had no fewer than seventy-two directors, later reduced to sixty. The Amsterdam chamber had twenty directors, Zeeland had twelve and the other chambers each had seven. From among their number, twice or three times a year each chamber selected a number of representatives for the main board of the Company, the Heren XVII or the Lords XVII. This board met once a year, four consecutive years in Amsterdam and then two consecutive years in Zeeland. Amsterdam sent eight directors to these meetings, Zeeland sent four and the other chambers each sent one. Zeeland and the small chambers were each permitted in turn to send one extra representative. This arrangement shows that the VOC’s status as a centralised company was limited and that it was in principle an association of six local companies." [3] ::3. Governor-Generals "The administration of the VOC in Asia was in the hands of the Governor-General in Batavia, who, together with a number of other high-ranking VOC officials, made up the Raad van Indië, also known as the Hoge Regering or High Government. Each of the members of this council had his own portfolio: bookkeeping, the law, military matters and shipping. [...] [I]n practice, the High Government in Batavia operated autonomously and their actions were not always approved afterwards by the directors back home. [...] What was relevant for the VOC region was also applicable to the administration of the WIC settlements in Africa and the New World. Increasingly, the administration was made up of a director or governor, assisted by a number of senior Company officials. Important matters first had to be submitted to the Company directors, but in practice the director or governor had a lot of freedom to manoeuvre because applying for permission or approval from the Netherlands took several months and in many instances there was no time for this." [4] :::4. Court of Justice ::::"Apart from being home to the Governor-General and Council, Batavia was also the residence of the Court of Justice (Raad van Justitie). Although the president of the Court was also a member of the Council, all other members were appointed by the Lords XVII. The Court of Justice dealt with all civil and criminal cases involving the Company and its servants, including their families and slaves, as well as cases between Company people and free citizens or Asians. [...] The authority of the Court of Justice in Batavia covered the Company’s entire chartered territory. Cases that could not be resolved in the various local Courts of Justice were transferred to the Court of Justice in Batavia." [5] ::::5. Local boards of aldermen :::::"Non-Company issues fell under the responsibility of the local Board of Aldermen (Schepenbank)." [6] :::::6. Indigenous rulers ::::::"Outside its capital, VOC workers were also needed to implement the Company’s plan to stimulate the production of coffee and sugar, which could not be supplied by the free market. The VOC did not cultivate the coffee plantations itself. It was unable to assemble enough free workers to grow coffee plants and was unwilling to buy slaves on a large scale for this purpose. Instead, the VOC managed to interest the Javanese ruling elites in and around Bandung in taking on the coffee bean cultivation." [6] ::::::7. Assistant roles (inferred)
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 10) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[2]: (t’Hart 1989: 665) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[3]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 18-19) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[4]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 38, 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[5]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 38-39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[6]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"An order promulgated by William III on 25 April 1701 specified that ’the captains ... [shall] be obliged to keep their companies complete and a soldier who comes to die or desert, the captain shall be obliged immediately to enlist another competent soldier in his place.’ It can therefore be stated without exaggeration that the Republic’s standing army was born under the captain-generalship of William III. The transformation of the Dutch army into a standing army of professional soldiers was also evident from the men’s clothing." [1]
[1]: (Nimwengen 2010: 353-354) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/P4FWE8NE/collection.
"An order promulgated by William III on 25 April 1701 specified that ’the captains ... [shall] be obliged to keep their companies complete and a soldier who comes to die or desert, the captain shall be obliged immediately to enlist another competent soldier in his place.’ It can therefore be stated without exaggeration that the Republic’s standing army was born under the captain-generalship of William III. The transformation of the Dutch army into a standing army of professional soldiers was also evident from the men’s clothing." [1]
[1]: (Nimwengen 2010: 353-354) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/P4FWE8NE/collection.
"The government measures introduced in July 1673 meant that the company commanders were no longer forced to commit fraud in order to be able to maintain their units, as had been the case at the time of Maurits and Frederik Hendrik. The captains and rittmasters were transformed from suppliers and leaders of mercenaries into professional officers employed by the state." [1]
[1]: (Nimwengen 2010: 342) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/P4FWE8NE/collection.
"The government measures introduced in July 1673 meant that the company commanders were no longer forced to commit fraud in order to be able to maintain their units, as had been the case at the time of Maurits and Frederik Hendrik. The captains and rittmasters were transformed from suppliers and leaders of mercenaries into professional officers employed by the state." [1]
[1]: (Nimwengen 2010: 342) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/P4FWE8NE/collection.
E.g. mints. "The third factor was the competition between the numerous mint houses in the Low Countries, which were buying silver in the market at a premium." [1]
[1]: (Wolters 2008: 40) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UT69DCSD/collection.
"The need for integration and cohesion was felt even within a trade organisation like the VOC, as is apparent from the official survey that the lawyer of the Company Pieter van Dam started writing in 1693 on behalf of the administrators, who were keen to have an orderly overview." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 84) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
Multiple codes present, as well as combinations of some of them. "[I]n 1740 country councils (landraden) came into operation, comprising European and indigenous judges whose job was to settle disputes about land ownership. The customary law of Jaffna (Tesavalamai) had already been recorded in 1707, and in the 1760s, on the orders of Governor Falck, a start was made on recording Sinhalese landsrecht or customary law. Something similar could be seen happening simultaneously in Java (Cirebon), albeit on a much smaller scale. Although the judicial authorities could thus rely on specific customary law, they could also, as in other parts of the Dutch empire both at home and abroad, apply so-called Roman-Dutch law, a mixture of Roman law and the law of the Province of Holland." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 293) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"[I]n 1740 country councils (landraden) came into operation, comprising European and indigenous judges whose job was to settle disputes about land ownership. The customary law of Jaffna (Tesavalamai) had already been recorded in 1707, and in the 1760s, on the orders of Governor Falck, a start was made on recording Sinhalese landsrecht or customary law. Something similar could be seen happening simultaneously in Java (Cirebon), albeit on a much smaller scale. Although the judicial authorities could thus rely on specific customary law, they could also, as in other parts of the Dutch empire both at home and abroad, apply so-called Roman-Dutch law, a mixture of Roman law and the law of the Province of Holland." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 293) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Apart from provincial revenue, cities had their own revenue from excise (particularly beer and wine) and from duties levied on their markets, ferries, bridges, roads, and streets." [1]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 672) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
"The arrival of the Dutch represented an absolute revolution for the local [Taiwanese] population. Besides several new crops such as sugar and indigo, the Dutch also introduced oxen to the island, using the animals mainly for transport and land clearance. The construction of irrigation works was stimulated by exemptions from taxation, and deer hunting was optimised by the sale of exclusive trading rights to the Taiwanese villages. All these interventions had considerable ecological consequences: in 1638, for example, no fewer than 151,400 deer were killed! Nonetheless, these effects should also not be exaggerated, because this was still a relatively small area in the south-west of the island." [1] Also in 18th-century Sri Lanka: "The construction of irrigation and drainage works and canals improved the infrastructure, made cinnamon production more self-sufficient, and gave a strong impetus to the cultivation of rice and other crops such as areca, pepper, coffee and cardamom." [2]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 363) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[2]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 294) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The transportation of grain to Amsterdam, its storage there and its further distribution to final markets at home and abroad, was a large industry in its own right. In the first half of the seventeenth century the ships sailing back and forth from the Baltic employed some 4,000 seamen. In the harbor of Amsterdam another army of workers specialized in the handling of the grain.Footnote3 Hundreds of grain lightermen, organized in their guild (korenlichtermansgilde), transferred grain from the ships to barges. On the quays, the even more numerous members of the grain porters’ guild (korendragersgilde) carried the grain sacks to the storage lofts and the markets. A guild of grain weighers and measurers (korenmeters en zetters) ascertained weight and volume, while an unorganized army of grain turners (verschietsters), primarily women, monitored the grain storage lofts, turning the sacks periodically to prevent overheating and spoilage. All of this grain was bought and sold at a specialized grain exchange (Korenbeurs) by sworn brokers." [1]
[1]: (De Vries 2019: 148-149) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/P9E78WVF/collection.
Though a drinking water supply system existed in Amsterdam, it did not consist of a permanent structure. "In 1651 ten Amsterdam beer brewers united to secure a constant supply of brewing water. The first joint activity was the purchase of an icebreaker that could secure the passage of different water vessels during winter. These water ships didn’t take water only upstream of the Amstel, but also from the river Gein near Abcoude, a distance of 15 km southeast of the city. Because of quality, soon water was taken from the Vecht near Nigtevecht, about 20 km from the city. [...] Barge canals were constructed to connect the city with both rivers. [...] Every morning multiple water vessels departed from the city to the different water inlet sites and returned to the city by night. The brewers sold the water from the water vessels to the inhabitants of Amsterdam and to the sea captains of the port of Amsterdam. In 1695 a new icebreaker was purchased, this time financed by the brewers guild, which included all Amsterdam brewers. [...] The price of water increased to 15 (guilder) cents per bucket, because of the costly operation of the icebreaker. For poor people this price was too high. These people had to melt ice from the canals, which resulted in many sick people. In hard winters it was no longer possible to cover the costs of the operation because of the low sales and the high operation costs. Therefore, the brewers decided to cease water transport during periods requiring the use of the icebreaker. However, the city council signed a municipal order in 1745 and again in 1769 that required the water supply to continue during winter. [...] To break through the deadlock about the use of the icebreaker, the municipality of Amsterdam took over the icebreaker and a number of water vessels in 1786. They formed the Versch-Water Societeit to oversee the water supply from the Vecht. This society granted concessions to water merchants for transportation and trading within the city. The brewers were only allowed to transport water for their own consumption. They had to pay a sum per water vessel to cover the costs of the icebreaker." [1] NB Because Amsterdam was the de facto capital of this polity, we are inferring that if it did not feature a structural drinking water supply system, neither did other centres.
[1]: (Van Dijk, Verberk, and De Moel 2006: 50-52) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/RKMJB7RS/collection.
Irrigation systems, marketsm food storage sites. "The arrival of the Dutch represented an absolute revolution for the local [Taiwanese] population. Besides several new crops such as sugar and indigo, the Dutch also introduced oxen to the island, using the animals mainly for transport and land clearance. The construction of irrigation works was stimulated by exemptions from taxation, and deer hunting was optimised by the sale of exclusive trading rights to the Taiwanese villages. All these interventions had considerable ecological consequences: in 1638, for example, no fewer than 151,400 deer were killed! Nonetheless, these effects should also not be exaggerated, because this was still a relatively small area in the south-west of the island." [1] "Apart from provincial revenue, cities had their own revenue from excise (particularly beer and wine) and from duties levied on their markets, ferries, bridges, roads, and streets." [2] "The transportation of grain to Amsterdam, its storage there and its further distribution to final markets at home and abroad, was a large industry in its own right. In the first half of the seventeenth century the ships sailing back and forth from the Baltic employed some 4,000 seamen. In the harbor of Amsterdam another army of workers specialized in the handling of the grain.Footnote3 Hundreds of grain lightermen, organized in their guild (korenlichtermansgilde), transferred grain from the ships to barges. On the quays, the even more numerous members of the grain porters’ guild (korendragersgilde) carried the grain sacks to the storage lofts and the markets. A guild of grain weighers and measurers (korenmeters en zetters) ascertained weight and volume, while an unorganized army of grain turners (verschietsters), primarily women, monitored the grain storage lofts, turning the sacks periodically to prevent overheating and spoilage. All of this grain was bought and sold at a specialized grain exchange (Korenbeurs) by sworn brokers." [3]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 363) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
[2]: (t’Hart 1989: 672) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[3]: (De Vries 2019: 148-149) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/P9E78WVF/collection.
"One result of this was the establishment of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus in 1590. Following the example of Italy and partly inspired by the ideas of their friend Lipsius, the physician Rembertus Dodonaeus and the botanist Carolus Clusius developed the Leiden Hortus to become a true, living encyclopaedia of natural science, where the whole of God’s creation could be assembled, classified, named and studied in an atmosphere of tranquil scholarship. Other Dutch botanical gardens were set up in Franeker (1589), Amsterdam (1638), Utrecht (1639), Groningen (1642), Breda (1646) and Harderwijk (1649)." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 73) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
Theatres. "The emerging interest in exotic cultures also trickled down into the Amsterdam theatre, which showed a surprising interest in the current affairs of oriental empires. This was mainly applied to spectacular, grandscale ‘revolutions’ (omwentelingen) – a concept that contemporaries immediately associated with conquest in Asia and not yet with regime change in the West. Hence, we find the tragedies of Vondel, Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappye (1667), and Joannes Antonides van der Goes, Trazil, of overrompelt Sina (1685), about the Manchu conquest of China and later that of Frans van Steenwyk, Thamas Koelikan of de verovering van het Mogolsche Ryk (1745), about the Iranian conquest of northern India." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 82) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Apart from provincial revenue, cities had their own revenue from excise (particularly beer and wine) and from duties levied on their markets, ferries, bridges, roads, and streets." [1] "According to Pelsaert, Mughal control did not extend beyond the roads and the plains. This was more than enough for the VOC: particularly during the seventeenth century, maintaining a relatively well-functioning road network guaranteed good relations with the all-important sales and production areas in the interior." [2]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 672) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
[2]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 327-328) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Amsterdam was probably the harbour with the most transatlantic trade, and the percentage of ships from the West Indies, South America and Africa rose from 3 per cent in 1742 to 3.7 per cent in 1778, only to drop again to 2.7 per cent in 1782. As a comparison, the percentage of ships coming from the North Sea harbours of Bremen, Hamburg and Altona rose in these same years from 37.6 to 56.1." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 29-30) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
Canals used for transport were and are typical of Dutch cities. "Persistent sentiments of fear and insecurity will have been an added impetus for the inhabitants of Batavia to create a protected and safe environment in the city. As the name suggests, what was in essence a Dutch city was constructed there, albeit very gradually and with some reliance on improvisation: a grid of streets and canals, probably inspired by the ideas of Simon Stevin, of blocks of stone houses with tiled roofs, all enclosed by city walls and fortifications. Indeed, not only in terms of design and architecture but also in terms of its institutions, Batavia seemed a typical Dutch town, with a Board of Aldermen housed in the town hall and a civic militia." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 265) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Apart from provincial revenue, cities had their own revenue from excise (particularly beer and wine) and from duties levied on their markets, ferries, bridges, roads, and streets." [1]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 672) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
Dutch-managed gold mines in western Sumatra. "Besides pepper, the west coast gained in importance from 1670 to 1737 due to the gold mining in Sillida, where Saxon and Bohemian engineers working for the VOC themselves managed the gold mines and where the harsh conditions resulted in a high loss of life among the miners. Initially many of these workers were Europeans, but during the eighteenth century they were mainly slaves from Madagascar." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 283) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
Dutch-managed gold mines in western Sumatra. "Besides pepper, the west coast gained in importance from 1670 to 1737 due to the gold mining in Sillida, where Saxon and Bohemian engineers working for the VOC themselves managed the gold mines and where the harsh conditions resulted in a high loss of life among the miners. Initially many of these workers were Europeans, but during the eighteenth century they were mainly slaves from Madagascar." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 283) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The country’s relative press freedom attracted authors and engravers from all parts of Europe. Besides Latin, which was the main language for scholarly works, more and more works were printed in the regional languages, in the first instance in Dutch, but also in French and other European languages – even in Hebrew and Arabic." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 80) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The country’s relative press freedom attracted authors and engravers from all parts of Europe. Besides Latin, which was the main language for scholarly works, more and more works were printed in the regional languages, in the first instance in Dutch, but also in French and other European languages – even in Hebrew and Arabic." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 80) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The country’s relative press freedom attracted authors and engravers from all parts of Europe. Besides Latin, which was the main language for scholarly works, more and more works were printed in the regional languages, in the first instance in Dutch, but also in French and other European languages – even in Hebrew and Arabic." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 80) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"It was not only through shipping but also thanks to the development of the microscope and the telescope that completely new worlds were discovered. The Republic, and in particular Amsterdam, was at the centre of the relatively free art of book printing, and as such was the international showcase for all these new discoveries." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 12) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Theological treatments". "Dutch cosmopolitanism manifested itself not only in global news reports, but also in the enormous number of travel accounts, atlases, theological treatments and other scholarly works that were printed in the Republic from then onwards." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 80) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"At the same time, though, the actual contact with the non-European outside world led to the publication of the first exploratory, often very practical guidelines, such as the Itinerario by Jan Huygen van Linschoten and the Toortse der Zee-vaert by Dierick Ruiters. The desire to conduct trade based on a better understanding of the facts led to a need among the first VOC rulers for more business-oriented, practical information about the geographical, cultural, political and economic circumstances of specific regions. This sparked a series of more or less standardised, bureaucratic country descriptions and market studies that often remained within the trading organisation, but partly, directly or via all kinds of detours, reached the press and the public at large, such as the beschryvingen of Pieter de Marees about Guinea, François Caron about Japan or Joris Schouten about Siam." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 81) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Ibn Yaqzan had a major influence on later Western authors, such as Daniel Defoe in his famous Robinson Crusoe story (1719), or, in the Netherlands, Hendrik Smeeks in his Beschryvinge van het magtig Koninkryk Krinke Kesmes (Description of the powerful kingdom of Kinke Kesmes, 1708). In the latter work, this doctor from Zwolle describes a utopian island where all the world’s religions exist side by side. In the ensuing chaos, the residents decide to put an end to all religions and to turn to philosophy." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 88) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"At the same time, a first generation of botanists and medical specialists, such as Georg Marcgraf and Willem Piso in Brazil, Jacobus Bontius in Java, Georgius Everhardus Rumphius on Ambon and Hendrik van Reede tot Drakenstein in Malabar, created detailed inventories of the non-European flora and fauna." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 81-82) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"These early-seventeenth-century explorations and inventories were followed at the end of the century by diverse attempts by intellectuals in the Republic to collect and classify the enormous amount of new information by means of more systematic comparison, with the Bible and classical traditions as well as with some better-known experience of the neighbouring world. This is the period of the first Dutch ‘world historians’ such as Arnoldus Montanus and Olfert Dapper, who, in broad historical studies, showed a genuine curiosity for non-European cultures, although their publisher, by inserting fantastical but unrealistic illustrations, was primarily interested in promoting the sale of these works." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 82) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
Cowrie shells used in West Africa. "In the long term, the slave trade began to dominate trade relations with Africa. Until 1730 the slave trade was officially in the hands of the WIC. [...] To be successful in the slave trade, it was essential to have the right goods for the exchange cargo. Without a good mix of textiles, rifles, gunpowder, iron bars, alcohol, utensils and sometimes cowrie shells – which came from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean – there would have been no hope of becoming an attractive trading partner for the African slave traders." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 228) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"The country inherited the monetary system from the Burgundy–Habsburg administration in the Low Countries. The national parliament attempted to regulate the money circulation by supervising the minting of coins, by deciding which foreign coins were admitted in the country and by setting the rate at which the coins would circulate." [1]
[1]: (Wolters 2008: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UT69DCSD/collection.
Implied by the following quote. "The country inherited the monetary system from the Burgundy–Habsburg administration in the Low Countries. The national parliament attempted to regulate the money circulation by supervising the minting of coins, by deciding which foreign coins were admitted in the country and by setting the rate at which the coins would circulate." [1]
[1]: (Wolters 2008: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UT69DCSD/collection.
Iron bars used in West Africa. "In the long term, the slave trade began to dominate trade relations with Africa. Until 1730 the slave trade was officially in the hands of the WIC. [...] To be successful in the slave trade, it was essential to have the right goods for the exchange cargo. Without a good mix of textiles, rifles, gunpowder, iron bars, alcohol, utensils and sometimes cowrie shells – which came from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean – there would have been no hope of becoming an attractive trading partner for the African slave traders." [1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 228) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection.
"Though Amsterdam could not profit from the spin-off wealth of the high bureaucracy, its financial power was based on the fact that the merchants of the southern Netherlands came there to establish commercial houses and financial institutions. Amsterdam housed the most important Chamber of the semi-state East India Company, whose dividends averaged 37.5 percent in 1605-1612. A Chamber of Assurance was founded here in 1598, a new bourse in 1608, and a Bank of Exchange in 1609, followed by a Bank of Loans (Bank van Leening) in 1614. These institutions cooperated closely and reinforced each other, the city magistrates controlling them and thus providing a link of information and support. Also, private banking emerged. [...] The other cities had their financial institutions, though not as extensive as Amsterdam. Most had their own Bank van Leening, their own bankers, and of course the receiver of taxes who functioned at times as a banker." [1]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 677-678) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
"Though Amsterdam could not profit from the spin-off wealth of the high bureaucracy, its financial power was based on the fact that the merchants of the southern Netherlands came there to establish commercial houses and financial institutions. Amsterdam housed the most important Chamber of the semi-state East India Company, whose dividends averaged 37.5 percent in 1605-1612. A Chamber of Assurance was founded here in 1598, a new bourse in 1608, and a Bank of Exchange in 1609, followed by a Bank of Loans (Bank van Leening) in 1614. These institutions cooperated closely and reinforced each other, the city magistrates controlling them and thus providing a link of information and support. Also, private banking emerged. [...] The other cities had their financial institutions, though not as extensive as Amsterdam. Most had their own Bank van Leening, their own bankers, and of course the receiver of taxes who functioned at times as a banker." [1]
[1]: (t’Hart 1989: 677-678) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/B9DVQGBS/collection.
"These towns all maintained their own local sets of weights and measures. The Amsterdam grain last was the national, indeed the international volume measure for wholesale transactions in wheat and rye, but every city subdivided the last into its own sub-measures: the zak (sack), the mud, the schepel (akin to the bushel), etc. Similarly, every town maintained its own standard of weight. The Amsterdam pond was adopted by many places, especially around the Zuider Zee, but a lighter pond, apparently derived from the Cologne weight system, was also common. [...] Finally, cities varied in the specific types of bread they allowed in their jurisdictions. For all these reasons, the regulatory regime of each city was a little world of its own: its own types of bread, its own weights, its own grain measures. A necessary and often frustrating aspect of this study, has been reducing all these differences to the metric system, which was not fully adopted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1821." [1]
[1]: (De Vries 2019:85) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/P9E78WVF/collection.
"These towns all maintained their own local sets of weights and measures. The Amsterdam grain last was the national, indeed the international volume measure for wholesale transactions in wheat and rye, but every city subdivided the last into its own sub-measures: the zak (sack), the mud, the schepel (akin to the bushel), etc. Similarly, every town maintained its own standard of weight. The Amsterdam pond was adopted by many places, especially around the Zuider Zee, but a lighter pond, apparently derived from the Cologne weight system, was also common. [...] Finally, cities varied in the specific types of bread they allowed in their jurisdictions. For all these reasons, the regulatory regime of each city was a little world of its own: its own types of bread, its own weights, its own grain measures. A necessary and often frustrating aspect of this study, has been reducing all these differences to the metric system, which was not fully adopted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1821." [1]
[1]: (De Vries 2019:85) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/P9E78WVF/collection.