Holland’s Financial Problems (1713–1733) and the Wars against Louis XIV

Abstract

THE naive image of the Periwig Period once projected in Dutch historiography has recently undergone a gradual and subtle metamorphosis. We have learnt that it is better to speak of a time of stagnation and one which, moreover, can be traced back to the second half of the seventeenth century, conventionally eulogized in the past as the Golden Age. So far the revision has been chiefly concerned with the economic and demographic aspects. Although such scholars as Charles Wilson and A.M. van der Woude have made interesting observations on the part played by public finance in the process of stagnation, it still awaits proper investigation. As an old-fashioned political historian I can hardly be expected within the scope of this lecture to make good this lacuna. However, precisely because of my experience as a political historian, I am convinced that a thorough study of Dutch public finance in this period can be very enlightening. While conducting my research into the background of the foreign policy of the Republic after 1713 I was impressed by the extent to which the financial predicament of the province of Holland appeared to determine that policy. Inparticular, the preference for neutrality needs to be seen against the background of the acute financial difficulties of the Republic’s leading province. In the historiography these neutralist tendencies have been variously judged: where some historians have criticized the inertia of Dutch foreign policy, others have described itmorepositively as ‘pro-Dutch’. For myself I would avoid both terms, since they imply a freedom of choice, which, in reality, the United Provinces no longer possessed. The great financial difficulties in large measure dictated a policy of non-alignment. Since these difficulties were the result of the Republic having been at war with France almost uninterruptedly between 1672 and 1713, my research can claim some kinship with the theme of this conference. Nevertheless I realize that I can do only partial justice to War and Society’, for I wish to concentrate attention on the financial repercussions of the wars against Louis XIV.

This paper is based on source material drawn in the first place from the Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague (the archives of the Grand Pensionaries Heinsius, Van Hoornbeeck and Slingelandt, the Greffier Fagel and the Financie van Holland). From the municipal record offices of Amsterdam and Alkmaar we have consulted the correspondence between the deputies to the States in The Hague and the burgomasters and from the record offices of Haarlem, Leiden, Gouda and Gorinchem the minutes of the meetings of the provincial estates. I also consulted certain collections for Delft and Dordrecht. The following foreign archives also yielded useful information: the Public Record Office and the British Library, the Archives des Affaires Etrangères of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Correspondance de Hollande) and the Bibliothèque Nationale (collection Helvétius) in Paris. For more complete references see my forthcoming doctoral thesis entitled De Republiek en de vrede van Europa. De buitenlandse politiek van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden en haar achtergronden na de vrede van Utrecht, voornamelijk gedurende de jaren 1720–1733.