Introduction

Amsterdam as a centre of trade, and as the heart of the financial world, with its dominant staple market, has been elaborately researched, as has the economic development of the Dutch Republic in general. For the purpose of this research I base my analysis on a number of recent studies which are directly relevant to our central issue. In order to understand the developments during this period – impressive growth and expansion during the first half of the seventeenth century, followed by a period of stagnation after 1650, revival during the second quarter of the eighteenth century and finally decline until the end of the Republic – it is helpful and at times a necessity to consider earlier events and circumstances.

The economic expansion of Amsterdam during the final quarter of the sixteenth and first decades of the seventeenth century has attracted special academic attention and led to many theories as to the scope and nature of this development. For a long time it was believed that the demise of Antwerp and the blockade of the river Scheldt were the direct cause of Amsterdam's rise. Critics of this approach point out that as early as 1500 Dutch shippers dealt with the majority of transports going through the Sont. Rather than blaming Antwerp's fall, they relate Amsterdam's surge to endogenous factors. Amsterdam's trade, as it is argued, was far more active than Antwerp's relatively passive trade had ever been. Recently, Cle Lesger has shown that the nature of Amsterdam's trade was not that different from Antwerp's and that there is indeed no empirical evidence for the supposed contrast between Antwerp's passive and Amsterdam's active trade. Lesger has argued that fundamental changes in the spatial economic structure due to the Revolt and the subsequent rift between the Southern and Northern parts of the Netherlands were in fact the catalyst for Amsterdam's economic expansion. He reasons that in 1584 Amsterdam's harbour function was still limited to that of the northern gateway of the total harbour system of the Netherlands. As a result of the political turmoil and the Revolt, the gateway system of the Netherlands was destabilized and disintegrated and a new, autonomous gateway system developed.