Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740 [Paperback]

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.

Not only offers a wide-ranging synthesis but also stimulates further inquiries and debates. For both reasons it constitutes a superior achievement. --Journal of Modern History

A persuasive corrective to earlier interpretations. --American Historical Review

This is a very useful and judiciously written book, in which the author, a recognized authority on early Dutch history, places his own findings within the context of ongoing debate on Dutch commercial activity. He has refined and modified conclusions drawn previously by Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein about the role of the Dutch in the overall seventeenth- and eighteenth-century world economy, and has made a genuinely important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the economic history of the Early Modern world. --The International History Review

Jonathan Israel has written a masterful book and has provided us with the best summary of seventeenth-century Dutch trade to date. The book is full of illustratyions and tables on particular branches of the trade. --Hispanic American Historical Review

This volume is essential reading for specialists and for anyone who wants an up-to-date analysis of the essential place of the Netherands in the development of world capitalism in the early modern period. --Journal of World History