2.1 Trade and industry in the Dutch Republic

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Memo havo 2 TTO

CH2. The age of regents and rulers

The Golden Age

sec. 2.1 Trade and industry in the Dutch Republic

Golden Age

Learning objectives

• You can explain how the economy of Holland changed in the Late Middle Ages.
  
• You can name causes for the growth of trade in Holland (1450-1540)
  
• You can describe the economy of the Dutch Republic.
  
• You can explain how Amsterdam became the most important trading city in the Netherlands.
  
• You can explain how the economy of the Dutch Republic became part of the world economy and the roles that the VOC and WIC had in it.
• You can make links between triangular trade, slave trade and slavery on plantations.
  
• You know the terms and dates of this section.
  

Baltic trade

Around 1450 Dutch Hanseatic towns

like Deventer, Kampen and Zwolle 

traded with Baltic region . Baltic routes

• Bought wood and grain
• Sold salt and herring
  

End of fifteenth century Hanse trade 

went into decline. Towns in Holland, 

like Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Amsterdam took over Baltic trade.

Marshy grounds of Holland were unsuitable for growing grain.

Amsterdam becomes the most important trading city

• During the fifteenth and sixteenth 

century Antwerp was the centre of world trade.

• Change > Transfer of trade from Antwerp to 

Amsterdam (main port of the Netherlands.

Causes:

1. Fall of Antwerp 
2. New inventions (fluyt = fluitschip, 

       new type of windmills)

Causes of the growing trade in Holland 1450-1540

Causes

1. Changes in agriculture

Commercial agriculture = Cultivation of agricultural products, such as hemp and flax, for trade purposes. 

2. Growing Baltic trade. Import of grain and wood.

Moedernegotie = most important trade

Staple market

Around 1540 Amsterdam became a 

staple market for wood and grain.

Products were stored in warehouses

first and sold when prices had 

increased.

Amsterdam becomes the most important trading city

• During the fifteenth and sixteenth 

century Antwerp was the centre of world trade.

• Change > Transfer of trade from Antwerp to 

Amsterdam (main port of the Netherlands.

Causes:

1. Fall of Antwerp 
2. New inventions (fluyt = fluitschip, 

       new type of windmills)

Transfer of trade from Antwerp to Amsterdam

1585 Fall of Antwerp 

• Spanish troops conquered Antwerp.
• Protestant merchants and craftspeople 

fled to Holland and Zeeland.

• Blockade of the river Scheldt
• Transfer of trade from Antwerp to Amsterdam.
• Amsterdam world's most important 

commercial centre.

Consequences of the Fall of Antwerp

Favourable consequences for the Republic:

• Flemish merchants transferred trade to Amsterdam and other cities.
  
• Flemish craftsmen brought industry to Amsterdam and other cities. Woven fabrics (cloth) and diamonds industry benefited economy.
• Staple market trade changed from a market exchange (resources) to a market for luxury products.
  
• Greater demand for labourers. Population growth > growing and expanding cities. For example the Amsterdams canal ring.

Everything revolves around trade

Commercial capitalism = form of economy in which merchants try to make as much profit as possible.

Merchants let workers / industry process raw materials from distant countries and then sold them for profit.

Profit (capital) was reinvested in new ships, products or exploring new trade routes.

What isn't a cause for the growing trade in Amsterdam (1450-1540)?

1. Baltic trade
2. Commercial agriculture
3. French protestant refugees

What doesn't match Baltic trade?

1. pepper and coffee
2. grain and wood
3. moedernegotie
4. Poland

After 1585 Antwerp became the world's most important commercial centre.

1. true
2. false

How do call the place where purchased products were first stored in warehouses and only sold when prices were high enough?

1. Staple market
2. Free market

Before 1585, there was a lot of trade in luxury products in Amsterdam.

1. True
2. False

What doesn't match Amsterdam after 1585?

1. Baltic trade
2. free market
3. merchant capitalism
4. staple market

A world economy

Sixteenth century

Voyages of discovery by Spain and Portugal.

• Spice trade
• Spread of Christianity (Roman Catholicism)
• Expanding political power

A world economy

Trade in new products:

• Sugar, cocoa, coffee and tobacco (America)
  
• Pepper, nutmeg, foil and cloves (Asia)
  

Economy that covered all parts of the world > rise of a global economy

VOC

Around 1600 the demand for spices grew. Merchants from Holland and Zeeland wanted to benefit from the spice trade.

1595 First Compagnie that succesfully trades in Asia ('voorcompagnie'). 

VOC

1602 VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) set up.

Companies decided to collaborate.

• Avoid competition among themselves
• Better protection against the Portuguese.

1. Many people in Holland and Zeeland invested money in the company and shared in its profits. The VOC was one of the first multinationals.
2. Special privileges

VOC

The VOC was given special privileges by the States-General.

• Trade monopoly in the East Indies on spices, tea, silk, etc.
• Construct forts
• Fight wars
  
• Sign treaties

Batavia was the most important trading post.

The VOC would use violence to enforce the trade monopoly and to get the best price for products. The VOC was very succesful.

WIC

WIC (West-Indische Compagnie) founded in 1621

• Trade monopoly on slave trade and luxury products like tobacco, sugar, cocoa and coffee in America and Africa.
• Trading posts in West Africa and colonies with plantations in America (Surinam en de Dutch Antilles)
• Privateering (piracy)
• Triangular trade

The WIC was less succesful than the VOC. 

What was the reason why Dutch merchants wanted to join the spice trade around 1600?

1. More people wanted to buy spices.
2. Spices became cheaper.

What doesn't match the VOC?

1. Set up in 1621
2. Spices, silk and tea
3. Trade monopoly
4. East Indies (Asia)

What doesn't match the WIC?

1. Set up in 1621
2. Slaves, sugar and tobacco
3. Trade monopoly
4. East Indies (Asia)

What are the two main characteristics of the VOC and WIC?

1. Ordinary people can share in its profits by buying shares
2. Privateering
3. Special privileges
4. Trade in Asia

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Slavery

Slavery = system in which people own, buy and sell other people as property.

In Africa, the Arab world and large parts of the world outside Europe, slave trade was part of the economy.

0

Slavery

17th century Europeans establish trading posts and plantations in America.

• Indians died from plantation work and disease.
  
• European traders brought slaves from West Africa to work on  plantations.

Slavery

African slave trade was part of triangular trade.

Trade between West-Africa, America and Europe. 

• In West Africa, Europeans bought slaves in return
  

     for example guns, alcohol and copper objects. 

• WIC sold the slaves in America to plantation owners. In Surinam and the Antilles many plantations were owned by people from the Republic. The slaves were not paid for the hard work on the plantations.
  
• The ships then sailed back to Europe, loaded with sugar and tobacco.

Slavery

Europeans made money from :

• Trade in African slaves
• Sale of products produced by slaves (free labor)
  

Slavery

Europeans had no problem with the slave trade:

• According to them, Africans belonged to a different, inferior human species. Europe was ahead of Africa in terms of technology.
  
• According to them, African culture was less than their own, for example because Africans were not Christian.

Only Europeans were involved in slavery.

1. True
2. False

Europeans in the 17th century had no problems with slave trade. Which answer doesn't belong here.

1. Europeans would go out and hunt for African slaves themselves.
2. Europeans looked down on African culture.
3. Europeans looked down African religion.
4. Europeans thought Africans were a inferior human race.

Get to work

What? See whiteboard.

How? Alone 

Help? Ask neighbour. Can't figure it out? Ask teacher. 

Time? Until the end of the lesson. 

Done? Learn terms and dates. Ask teacher.