The signing of the Treaty of Münster in 1648, which ended the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch and the Spanish and granted the Netherlands its independence, unleashed the full potential of Dutch trading capacity, which before then had been restrained by the threat of Spanish seizure and blockade. Holland’s new commercial power came as a rude shock to England. With the Spanish threat gone, the English were even less of a match for Holland’s merchants. Suddenly, the Dutch were everywhere in the Baltic, in Spain, and on the Mediterranean, loading onto their flute ships timber, salt, wines, and
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