In The Year
1640 The Portuguese Shook Off The Spanish Yoke, And From This Event May Be
Dated The Decline Of The Dutch Power In Brazil:
In 1654 they were entirely
expelled from this country.
In the year 1651, they colonized the Cape of Good Hope; and in the same
year, began the obstinate and bloody maritime, war between Holland and
England. This arose principally from the navigation act, which was passed
in England in 1650: its object and effect was to curtail the commerce
between England and Holland, which consisted principally of foreign
merchandize imported into, and English merchandize exported from, England
in Dutch vessels. In this war, the Dutch lost 700 merchant ships in the
years 1652 and 1653. In 1654, peace was made. The object of the navigation
act, at least so far as regarded the Dutch acting as the carriers of the
English trade, seems to have been completely answered, for in 1674, after a
great frost, when the ports were open, there sailed out of the harbour of
Rotterdam above 300 sail of English, Scotch, and Irish ships at one time.
The example of the English being followed by the nations of the north, the
Dutch carrying trade was very much reduced. Between the years 1651 and
1672, when Holland was overrun by the French, their commerce seems to have
reached the greatest extent, which it attained in the seventeenth century;
and perhaps, at no subsequent period, did it flourish so much. De Witt
estimates the increase of their commerce and navigation from the peace with
Spain in 1648 to the year 1669, to be fully one-half. He adds, that during
the war with Holland, Spain lost the greater part of her naval power: that
since the peace with Spain, the Dutch had obtained most of the trade to
that country, which had been previously carried on by the Easterlings and
the English; - that all the coasts of Spain were chiefly navigated by Dutch
shipping: that Spain had even been forced to hire Dutch ships to sail to
her American possessions; and that so great was the exportation of goods
from Holland to Spain, that all the merchandize brought from the Spanish
West Indies, was not sufficient to make returns for them.
The same author informs us, that in the province of Holland alone, in 1669,
the herring and cod fisheries employed above one thousand busses, from
twenty-four to thirty lasts each; and above 170 smaller ones: that the
whale fishery was increased from one to ten; that the cod and herring, when
caught, were transported by the Hollanders in their own vessels throughout
the world; thus obtaining, by means of the sea alone, through their own
industry, above 300,000 lasts of salt fish.
As the Dutch commerce was decidedly and undoubtedly more extensive than
that of all the rest of Europe, about the middle of the seventeenth
century, it may be proper, before we conclude our notice of it at this
time, to consider briefly the causes which cherished it into such full
growth and vigour.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 316 of 524
Words from 164541 to 165055
of 273188
