The Dutch got rich on Baltic grain more than Asian spice
From the Dutch Republic's 1588 birth to the disaster year 1672, the Netherlands punched far above its size in shipping, finance, and culture. The spice trade made headlines, but the real fortune came from hauling Baltic grain and timber, and the era's very name is now contested.
In 1568 the provinces that later formed the Union of Utrecht rose against Philip II of Spain, starting the Eighty Years' War. England's war with Spain from 1585 halted the Spanish advance, but Antwerp, then perhaps the world's leading port, fell after a siege in August 1585, fixing the split between north and south. The Twelve Years' Truce paused the fighting without ending it, and only the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought formal independence.
Antwerp's surrender gave Protestants four years to leave, and between 1585 and 1630 far more moved north than Catholics moved south. Many settled in Amsterdam, turning a modest harbour into a world trading hub; Sephardi Jews from Iberia, French Protestants and the Pilgrim Fathers also found refuge there. Cheap energy from windmills and canal-borne peat helped, and the wind-driven sawmill let shipyards build an enormous fleet. Economists Findlay and O'Rourke credit Calvinist thrift with Europe's lowest interest rates and highest literacy.
The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, was among the first multinationals, and trading its shares created the Amsterdam Stock Exchange; the Bank of Amsterdam followed in 1609. Spices were so profitable that Dutch still says peperduur, pricey as pepper. Yet the bulk of the wealth came from the Baltic mother trade in grain and wood, stockpiled in Amsterdam so Holland never went hungry and could profit when rivals' harvests failed. For much of the period the Dutch carried well over half of Europe's shipping tonnage.
Success bred envy and brutality. Commercial rivalry drove the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and in 1621 Jan Pieterszoon Coen had nearly the entire population of the Banda Islands killed. Because of such slavery and colonial violence, the Amsterdam Museum and others have dropped the Golden Age label.
Source: Dutch Golden Age
