This is volume two of a three volume set.This is an excellent study of a great naval and commercial commonwealth, occupying a small portion of Europe, but conquering a wide empire by the private enterprise of trading companies, girdling the world with its innumerable dependencies in Asia, America, Africa, Australia exercising sovereignty in Brazil, Guinea, West Indies, New York, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Hindostan, Java, Sumatra, New Holland must be looked upon with interest by Englishmen, as in a great measure the precusor in their own empire. First published in 1856, John Lothrop Motley spent 10 years researching this book in which he presents the political and religious history of the Netherlands.Motley was the only American author to be included in the Grolier Club's One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature.

To the Dutch Republic, even more than to Florence at an earlier day, is the world indebted for practical instruction in that great science of political equilibrium which must always become more and more important as the various states of th -John Lothrop Motley, from the Preface Motley spent five years in Dresden, Brussels, and the Hague to produce, in 1856, this popular three-volume history hailed by readers of the time and recognized by scholars since as a standard of the field. The lessons for modern society Motley finds in AUTHOR BIO: American diplomat and historian John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877) studied law at Harvard and Gvttingen, in Germany, where he befriended Otto von Bismarck. He traveled extensively in Europe, frequently in the diplomatic service, but he is remembered prima

The Dutch Golden Age, known for its renowned artists and writers, was also remarkable for its immense impact on the spheres of commerce, finance, shipping, and technology. Israel gives the definitive account of the emergence of the United Provinces as a great power, its subsequent decline in the 18th century, and the changing relationship between the northern Netherlands and the south, which was to develop into modern Belgium. 32 color plates.

In War, Capital, and the Dutch State (1588-1795), Pepijn Brandon traces the interaction between state and capital in the organisation of warfare in the Dutch Republic from the Dutch Revolt of the sixteenth century to the Batavian Revolution of 1795. Combining deep theoretical insight with a thorough examination of original source material, ranging from the role of the Dutch East- and West-India Companies to the inner workings of the Amsterdam naval shipyard, and from state policy to the role of private intermediaries in military finance, Brandon provides a sweeping new interpretation of the rise and fall of the Dutch Republic as a hegemonic power within the early modern capitalist world-system. Winner of the 2014 D.J. Veegens prize, awarded by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. Shortlisted for the 2015 World Economic History Congress dissertation prize (early modern period).