Foreign government borrowing in Amsterdam became significant long after Dutch governments had begun to tap the savings of the Dutch public. Indeed the methods used by Dutch governments to raise credit preceded the appearance of capital markets capable of providing a link to investors. Subsequently, as the Amsterdam market shifted from commercial to government finance, most government borrowing remained independent of the market apparatus. Public institutions drew on the same pool of savings that foreign governments utilized either through intermediaries in Amsterdam or in direct Dutch investments in loans opened at home. But they raised credit through parallel organizations managed by revenue officials, who sometimes called on brokers for assistance but for whom the chief importance of the market was presumably its function as a source of information about capital availability and interest rates. Despite that measure of independence from the Amsterdam market, credit exploitation by the Dutch Republic was not basically dissimilar to the practices of other states, although Dutch practices anticipated usages adopted elsewhere.

Fragmentation of authority and sharp rivalry between seaward and landward provinces are evident in the Dutch system of taxation, in the distribution of assessment among various corporations carrying fiscal responsibilities that transcended their borders, and in the management of public finance. The strongest segment of the whole was not the Generality, which for all practical purposes was merely the fiscal subordinate of the provinces, nor all the provinces together.