The Dutch Republic (the United Provinces), 1581-1795
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"In two or three generations, the Republic had risen from a ramshackle and beleaguered confederacy of towns and provinces into a global empire of apparently unlimited prosperity and power".
- Simon Schama, p. 223- 224, The Embarrassment of Riches (1999)
"Scarce any Subject occurs more in the learned discourse of ingenious man than that of the marvelous progress of this little state … which has grown to a height infinitely transcending all the ancient Republicks of Greece but not much inferior in some respects even to the greatest Monarchies of these latter Ages"
- William Aglionby, English doctor and Fellow of the Royal Society, in the preface to his book on the history of the Netherlands (1669).
Aglionby gave a number of reasons for the situation he described: the political structure, success in trade, an excellent infra-structure based on numerous waterways, canals and the sea, religious freedom, prosperity and, last but not least, the capacity and desire of the citizens to work hard.
- Simon Schama, p. 223- 224, The Embarrassment of Riches (1999)
"Scarce any Subject occurs more in the learned discourse of ingenious man than that of the marvelous progress of this little state … which has grown to a height infinitely transcending all the ancient Republicks of Greece but not much inferior in some respects even to the greatest Monarchies of these latter Ages"
- William Aglionby, English doctor and Fellow of the Royal Society, in the preface to his book on the history of the Netherlands (1669).
Aglionby gave a number of reasons for the situation he described: the political structure, success in trade, an excellent infra-structure based on numerous waterways, canals and the sea, religious freedom, prosperity and, last but not least, the capacity and desire of the citizens to work hard.