ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the financial organization of the water board of Rijnland. The Rijnland is a large area in the central part of the province Holland, roughly situated between four big cities: Haarlem, Amsterdam, The Hague and Gouda. The region has one of the oldest water boards in the Netherlands, tracing its history back to around 1200. Unlike the many thousands of water boards that once existed in the Netherlands, this particular one still operates today within almost the same boundaries as in the early modern period. Rijnland's main responsibility was the maintenance of number of hydraulic works situated near its northern boundaries, which were crucial to the water management of whole district. The tax on farmland was levied by apportionment so that the landholders paid in proportion to the land they owned. This ensured that general guiding principle of water management was applied: those who benefited from common water management facilities also shared financial burden of operating these facilities.
