11 - The Low Countries

Summary

The dynamics of European market development before 1800 are demonstrated to good effect by the Low Countries. Geography forms the basis of the Low Countries diversity. The relative ease of communication and the ready availability across the Low Countries of an array of commercial institutions for marketing agricultural produce meant that the economic and social effects of land reclamation, new institutions governing access to land, new crops or farming techniques, new forms of demand, or the opening of new markets would be felt from one region to the next. The industrial sector that rose in tandem with the Republic's commercial expansion exerted a growing demand for labor, notably in the processing of imported foodstuffs and raw materials. The Dutch East India Company was sufficiently well organized to seize a leading role in the European competition over the Asian trade and the very modern-looking labor market formed an integral part of its strength.