ABSTRACT
The industrious populations of the territory which was to become the Dutch Republic were not democratic. It is true that at one time, in these communities that were so largely urban, the common people exercised considerable influence upon local government. The movement began in Flanders and Brabant, and spread to Holland and Zeeland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the fourteenth century the guilds acquired much power in the towns. In practice, the recognition of the sovereignty of the provincial States meant the domination of the whole republic by the upper middle class. The States of Holland were dominated by the urban regents. In Zeeland too the towns had all the votes but one. The most important federal organ of the Republic was an assembly called the States General. It was not sovereign, but acted on behalf of the seven sovereign provinces, and, towards the outside world, represented the collective sovereignty of the Republic.
