Drake’s exploits, the defeat of the Armada, and the EIC’s slight head start aside, the realm of the Tudors and the Stuarts was roiled by religious strife, had only primitive and unstable financial markets, and was eventually to be plunged into a devastating civil war. France and Spain were even further behind, plagued with crown monopolies and chronic bankruptcy. By contrast, the Dutch confederation was one of the few European states free of the curse of absolute monarchy, possessed of vigorous legal and financial institutions, and relatively tolerant of the ambitious and able of all
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