"The Stock Of This Trade," He
Observes, "Besides What It Turns To In France, Spain, Italy, The Straits,
And Germany,
Makes them so great masters in the trade of the northern parts
of Europe, as Muscovy, Poland, Pomerania, and all
The Baltic, where the
spices, that are an Indian drug and European luxury, command all the
commodities of those countries which are so necessary to life, as their
corn; and to navigation, as hemp, pitch, masts, planks, and iron."
The next question that Sir William Temple discusses is, what are the causes
which made the trade of Holland enrich it? for, as he remarks, "it is no
constant rule that trade makes riches. The only and certain scale of riches
arising from trade in a nation is, the proportion of what is exported for
the consumption of others, to what is imported for their own. The true
ground of this proportion lies in the general industry and parsimony of a
people, or in the contrary of both." But the Dutch being industrious, and
consequently producing much, - and parsimonious, and consequently consuming
little, have much left for exportation. Hence, never any country traded so
much and consumed so little. "They buy infinitely, but it is to sell again.
They are the great masters of the Indian spices, and of the Persian silks,
but wear plain woollen, and feed upon their own fish and roots. Nay, they
sell the finest of their own cloth to France, and buy coarse out of England
for their own wear. They send abroad the best of their own butter into all
parts, and buy the cheapest out of Ireland or the north of England for
their own use. In short, they furnish infinite luxury which they never
practise, and traffic in pleasures which they never taste." "The whole body
of the civil magistrates, the merchants, the rich traders, citizens, seamen
and boors in general, never change the fashion of their cloaths; so that
men leave off their cloaths only because they are worn out, and not because
they are out of fashion. Their great consumption is French wine and brandy;
but what they spend in wine they save in corn, to make other drinks, which
is brought from foreign parts. Thus it happens, that much going constantly
out, either in commodity or in the labour of seafaring men, and little
coming in to be consumed at home, the rest returns in coin, and fills the
country to that degree, that more silver is seen in Holland, among the
common hands and purses, than brass either in Spain or in France; though
one be so rich in the best native commodities, and the other drain all the
treasures of the West Indies." (Sir W. Temple's Observations on the
Netherlands, Chapter VI.)
Having thus sketched the progress and nature of Dutch commerce, during that
period when it was at its greatest height, and brought our account of it
down to the commencement of the eighteenth century, we shall next proceed
to consider the English commerce from the time of the discovery of the Cape
and America, till the beginning of the same century.
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