The Netherland's golden era. . - Reviews - book review

Contemporary Review, June, 2002 by Peter Hylarides

Dutch Society 1588-1713. J.L. Price. Longman. [pounds sterling]55.00. 306 pages. ISBN 0-583-26425-1.

The Gouden Eeuw (Golden Century), the period in which the Dutch state rose to the position of a major power in Europe, has been the subject of many publications in Dutch as well as in English. These studies are mainly concerned with political and economic history. However, scarce attention has been paid to the social history of this period, apart from monographs scattered about in professional magazines.

J. L. Price has tried to fill this obvious gap in Dutch historiography. His book is interesting in different ways. It not only provides an account of the society which underpinned this success, but is also a very useful source for tracing the social origins of the Dutch nation as it is today.

Classic accounts of the history of this period place it roughly between 1585 and 1670, but the expansion of scholarship in the last forty years has made a case for a completely different approach. There was not a consistent pattern or tempo of social, economic and cultural change in all the Dutch provinces to justify the myth of a single 'golden century'. The maritime provinces and especially Holland were the driving force of a transformation which had already started in the sixteenth century and continued well into the 1760s.

Mr. Price takes the French invasion in 1672, the so-called rampjaar (year of disaster), as the approximate starting point for the economic downfall of the Republic. The gradual decline at first and the steep fall that followed it did not prevent the Dutch from still playing the role of a major power, but the country finally emerged from the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713/14) in a seriously weakened state, making it effectively a second rank power.

The far-reaching social and economic changes in the Netherlands made it one of the first capitalist and highly urbanized countries in Europe. Together with a high degree of religious tolerance, not to be found anywhere in contemporary Europe, a society developed that was not as polarized by extremes of wealth and poverty as other European states. The Dutch Republic was, according to Mr. Price, one of the most desirable places to live in eighteenth century Europe.

The Dutch nowadays would not tell you whether their country is still as desirable a place in which to live, especially after recent events. This would sound far too nationalist to their liking. Tolerance, however, is one characteristic of which they are very proud. In the eighteenth century, when the Dutch state was still distinctly Calvinist, Catholics were officially not allowed to practise their religion, but the government turned a blind eye as long as their churches were not recognizable as such.

Nowadays, whether one agrees with it or not, small-scale trade in soft drugs is tolerated as long as it happens in outlets that look like coffee shops!