From These Two
Circumstances, Their Cities, And Especially Amsterdam, Became The Great
Mart Of Europe:
Its merchants had commercial transactions to an immense
amount with all parts of the world.
In consequence of the vastness and
extent of their commerce, they found great payments in specie very
inconvenient. Hence arose the bank of Amsterdam. It is foreign to our
purpose, either to describe the nature of this bank, or to give a history
of it; but its establishment, at once a proof, and the result of the
immense commerce of Amsterdam, and the cause of that commerce becoming
still more flourishing, and moreover, as the principal of those
establishments, which have changed the character of the commerce of Europe,
could not be passed over without notice. It was formed in the year 1609.
In this year, the Dutch had extended their trade to the west coast of
Africa so much, that they had about 100 ships employed in the gold coast
trade. About the same time, they formed a colony in North America, in that
province now called New York. In 1611, having formed a truce with Spain,
they resolved to venture into the Mediterranean, and endeavour to partake
in the lucrative trade with the Levant: for this purpose, they sent an
ambassador to Constantinople, where he concluded a favourable treaty of
commerce. But by far the most extensive and lucrative commerce which the
Dutch possessed in Europe, was in the Baltic: there they had gradually
supplanted the Hanseatic League, and by the middle of the seventeenth
century, nearly all the commodities of the countries lying on, or
communicating with this sea, were supplied to the rest of Europe by the
Dutch.
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