ABSTRACT
The seventeenth century was Holland's golden age; and during it the Dutch showed, at least until 1648, that war could benefit a country's economy; and after 1648 that economic strength could provide a small country with the resources to hold its own against what in political and military terms might seem to be overwhelming odds. In Holland there was little land available for purchase and it was correspondingly expensive. More than in other countries, therefore, those who made money sought opportunities for investment in commerce, or in municipal loans. The inhabitants of Holland and Zeeland, the flat reclaimed lands threaded by waterways, dotted with expanses of lake, under the wide skies that their painters have made so familiar, lived at sea level. In Holland heavy provincial taxes, a serious effect of the French wars, and the paucity of great estates militated against land improvement.
