spending fell. In Leiden, total industry fell from 139,000 pieces in 1671 to 54,000 pieces in 1750. Likewise, the shipbuilding industry’s stock fell from 360 in 1707 to only 5 in 1750. After the turn of the century, self-sustenance became virtually impossible. The tobacco industry made half its profits of the previous decade. A series of natural disasters littered the years following the turn of the century. In 1715, flood defences broke in Zeeland from heavy rainfall; in 1717 Friesland suffered unusually stormy weather; in 1731, timer exports were infected with ‘pile worm’ and an expensive ‘dike tax’ was implemented to support reparations and a series of cattle viruses broke out across the Netherlands across the early eighteenth century. If spare income had been a regular occurrence before, it was by no means a continuity of Dutch society in this period. The termination of overseas trading strangled the art market and in urban areas, the wealthy manufacturers and craftsmen, who had been the backbone of civic society during the Golden Age and its market for art, were either depleted of spare capital, or forced to migrate to neighbouring countries. What ensued became a bad case of structural unemployment as the skills of the labour market no longer matched those of a restructured economy, increasing the polarisation of wealth in urban areas. The art market suffered particularly heavily as its innovation had demanded more specific skills. As food prices rose and the highly skilled workers often migrated to the New World, demand for higher wages caused a tightening of guild restrictions. It soon became simply too risky for the younger generation to enter long apprenticeships in the art market. After 1672, the quality of painting and quantity of fijnschilder declined dramatically, as materials for the kind of refined effects were no longer accessible for Dutch studios. Landscapes, still life and low-life scenes lost the appeal and popularity they once had. The delicate sensitivity of Dutch society and economy to international affairs also contributed to decline. During the Golden Age, Dutch banks held the lowest interest rates in Europe, creating unstable foreign investment. Thus, when their neighbours became increasingly institutionalised (exemplified by the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694), the withdrawal of capital also hindered the Dutch economy. The same vulnerable sensitivity became more acute in 1713, when the Peace of Utrecht between the major European Powers strengthened the dominance of Britain and France, especially in areas such as the North Sea. Previously, the Dutch had relied on this to feed their fisheries industry, a key prop of the Golden Age economy, which also dwindled thereafter. The termination of overseas trading strangled the art market. As a result of strong mercantilist policy since 1648, industrial development had suffered at the hands of a booming overseas commerce, meaning the internalisation of economic potential caused an unprecedented contraction in the productivity of the Dutch economy 26 . Ever since 1647, the Dutch system of trade had evolved, becoming reliant on ‘rich trades’ (a vital source of material for the art market), from places such as Guinea and the Levant, under European control. Although the two countries had improved relations since the previous century, Britain’s protectionist policy from 1720 to 1750, and its focus of expansion in America, meant that supplies of canvas and linen to the Netherlands soon dried up. There are also those who argue that the decline was in fact not quite so severe 27 . As workers looked to more active areas of employment, goods such as tobacco became more rapidly traded within the United Provinces. Between 1675 and 1710, the production of tobacco trebled. Much of this was due to Dutch advantage in technology by comparison to Northern European nations, lasting until around 1740. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, industries involved in the production of sugar, silk, cotton, canvas, paper and linen continued to grow. Although it had to fight a price war against the East India Company, the Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) remained a foremost Asian commercial trading organisation through to the 1720s. In fact, most would now agree that it was only until the second quarter of the eighteenth century, that the ‘rich trades’ of the Dutch economy began to weaken as a disintegrating urban economy lost the Dutch merchants their international leverage that they had previously capitalised on. Between 1700 and 1750, the net trade of the Dutch Republic fell behind 2 to 5 times the level of their European counterparts. Britain and France had dominated the trade of tropical goods that had previously supplied the eccentric dyes and materials to supply the extraordinary proliferation of Dutch art. This alternative perspective is
26 Price, ‘Culture and Society’, Decline pp. 212 27 Israel, ‘The Dutch Republic’, Part III: Society, Economy, pp. 1012
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