Dutch Republic Success

Account for the success of the new Dutch Republic, confining your answer to the period between 1584 and 1672.

It is difficult to say precisely when the Dutch Republic became an independent state, but the astonishingly fast rise of success of this new state was obvious in many ways. The tradition is to say that the Republic became independent with the signing of the Union of Utrecht in 1579, but the Dutch Republic independence can perhaps also be traced to the rejection by Henri III of France and Elizabeth of England in 1585, when the Dutch Republic offered sovereignty over the rebel provinces. As the Dutch Republic had been under great military pressure from the Spanish, and appeared on the edge of defeat, the death of Philip II of Spain

Because of its location closes to the sea ‘Holland became a financial center of international importance’. There was created an extensive overseas commercial network with the Dutch Republic and the countries around the Nordic Sea and the Atlantic, but the Dutch Republic was looking further away, and several Dutch trading companies were created in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. These trading companies became their principal instruments in the overseas commercial network. The East Indies Company (1603), the Greenland Company (1613), the Netherlands Company (1614) and the West Indies Company (1621) are all examples of Dutch trading companies established in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. The East Indies Company became very profitable for the Dutch Republic during the seventeenth century. In the early years of the running of the East Indies Company the primary goal was to control the spice trade with Europe, and to acquire Portugal’s trading network. The company had great success with combining force and trading skills, and they became the chief supplier of spices to Europe within half a

The merchant fleet was enormous, and had grown to about 2000 seagoing ships. The Dutch shipping could be seen almost everywhere by the middle of the seventeenth century. Comparing to their shipping competitors their new specialized cargo ships, called fluits (flute) could be sailed by smaller crews and they had better cargo-carrying qualities. Together with the fishing fleet, the merchant fleet provided jobs for thousands of seamen directly. It also provided jobs for those who worked in all of the different shore-based activities, with providing the ships with what they needed. What also provided employment for many more was the demand for a large number of shops and boats. This need for ships and boats founded a successful shipbuilding industry, which again stimulated the Dutch timber trade. The Dutch ships were specially designed for carrying timber. One of the strengths of the Dutch Republic was their ability to combine the various industries to archive economic development.
As well as the shipping and trade the Dutch Republic had a thriving manufacturing industry consisting of bringing raw materials and semi-finished goods into the country, and selling the depleted product in markets abroad. This was applicable to everything from wool linen to ships. Much of the industry was successful due to a technological innovation, for example in the design of wind-powered sawmills and methods of