Abstract
On September 1, 1638, Marie de’ Medici, former Queen Regent of France and mother of King Louis XIII, made a triumphal four-day royal visit to Amsterdam. There was great symbolism in this Medici princess’, Queen Regent of France (although exiled by Cardinal Richelieu), visiting the great market city on the Amstel, with its policy of religious tolerance and relative political freedom, its canals full of ships overflowing with goods, its banks and stock exchange humming with the activity of entrepreneurs, mostly governed by rich merchants and university-educated commoner experts. In hindsight, Marie de’ Medici appeared to be visiting the future (a little more than a month before the first Dutch settler installed himself in the Bronx). Amsterdam was a city of wonder, in which the exotic goods of the world could be seen for the first time with European eyes.
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Notes
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© 2013 Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan
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Soll, J. (2013). Accounting and Accountability in Dutch Civic Life. In: Jacob, M.C., Secretan, C. (eds) In Praise of Ordinary People. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380524_6
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