Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands

by Ben Coates

The decline of the Dutch slave trade was mirrored by the decline of the nation’s trading empire in general. For tourists the delights of the Rijksmuseum’s Royal Gallery epitomised the Dutch Golden Age, but by the time Rembrandt was buried in an unmarked grave in Amsterdam in 1669, the country’s status as a global power was already fading. The reasons for the Dutch decline were complex, but included the fact that the monopolies on trade enjoyed by the two great trading companies were actually not always profitable. Large fleets and numerous forts and trading posts were hugely expensive to maintain, and as the VOC and WIC expanded they began to prove Benjamin Franklin’s dictum that great empires, like great cakes, tend to crumble at their edges. As spices such as nutmeg declined in popularity and competition from