Before proceeding to narrate the events which arose from the arrival of the
English in the East Indies, and the effects produced on the Dutch power and
commerce there, by their arrival, it will be proper to take a short notice
of the commerce of the Dutch to the other parts of the world. As their
territories in Europe were small and extremely populous, they were in a
great measure dependent on foreign nations for the means of subsistence: in
exchange for these, they had few products of their manufactures to give.
The sources of their wealth, therefore, as well as of the means of their
existence, were derived from the exchange of their India commodities, and
from their acting as the great carriers of Europe. From these two
circumstances, their cities, and especially Amsterdam, became the great
mart of Europe: its merchants had commercial transactions to an immense
amount with all parts of the world. In consequence of the vastness and
extent of their commerce, they found great payments in specie very
inconvenient. Hence arose the bank of Amsterdam. It is foreign to our
purpose, either to describe the nature of this bank, or to give a history
of it; but its establishment, at once a proof, and the result of the
immense commerce of Amsterdam, and the cause of that commerce becoming
still more flourishing, and moreover, as the principal of those
establishments, which have changed the character of the commerce of Europe,
could not be passed over without notice.
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