This is the first general account of Dutch hegemony in trade, shipping, and finance between 1585 and 1740. Professor Israel, the leading historian in this field, uses a wide range of sources to explain why, despite its small size and population, the Dutch Republic functioned as the hub of world trade for nearly two centuries.



Despite its small size and population, the Dutch Republic functioned as the hub of world trade, shipping, and finance for nearly two centuries. This is the first detailed account of that hegemony from its sixteenth-century origins to the final collapse of the Dutch trading system in the eighteenth century.