NETHERLANDS (STATISTICS.) 



185 



the last years of the Austrian government. The 

 opening of the Scheldt, stipulated in the treaty of 

 peace of 1795, and the exertions of the French 

 government to promote the commerce of Belgium 

 at the expense of that of Holland, were of 

 little avail, on account of the continued wur 

 with Britain. The treaties of Paris and Vienna, 

 in 1814 and 1815, placed the commercial rights of 

 the Northern and Southern Netherlands on an equal 

 footing. At the present day, the Dutch are the 

 agents of Great Britain for a great part of Germany 

 and Switzerland, in the commerce on the Rhine. 

 They also supply England (mainly by way of Rotter- 

 dam) with butter, cheese, flax, grain, and madder, 

 when their importation is permitted. In the trade 

 with France, chiefly through Antwerp, the balance 

 has been, on an average, about 12,000,000 guilders 

 against the Netherlands ; but the trade with Spain, 

 Portugal, Italy, and the Levant, is in their favour. 

 The trade with the United States of North America 

 is passive on the part of the Netherlands. The gin 

 and other commodities exported to these states 

 cannot balance the tobacco, hides, &c., imported 

 from America. The Dutch trade to the East and 

 West India colonies has undergone great changes, 

 partly by the loss of Berbice, Demerara, and Esse- 

 quibo (though, as far as concerns the trade with 

 these, colonies, the British government has given 

 the Dutch equal rights with its own citizens), partly 

 by the decline of the East India company, and by 

 the freedom of trade to the East Indies, bestowed on 

 all the subjects of the kingdom (with the exception 

 of the Moluccas and of the trade to Japan, reserved 

 to the government of the Dutch East Indies). The 

 liberal administration of Java has occasioned a great 

 increase in the quantity of its products, of which 

 North America is the chief recipient. The former 

 lucrative contraband trade with Spanish America, by 

 way of Cumgao, has been annihilated by the inde- 

 pendence of that country ; but, on the other hand, 

 new resources are opened to Dutch trade in Brazil, 

 the Havana, and Hayti. The inland trade of the 

 Netherlands, by the interchange of various produc- 

 tions between the northern and southern provinces, 

 has been highly important. After Amsterdam, the 

 principal commercial places are Antwerp, Rotter- 

 dam, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, and Middle- 

 burg ; the most important ports, Antwerp, Ostend, 

 Briel, Delftshaven, Dortrecht, Enkhuisen, Medem- 

 blick, and Ziericksee. There are commercial tribu- 

 nals at Amsterdam, Groningen, Middleburg, Rotter- 

 dam, and Schiedam. April I, 1804, besides the old 

 bank of Amsterdam, a bank of the United Provinces 

 of the Netherlands, was established for twenty-five 

 years. The capital consisted of 5,000,000 guilders, 

 divided into 5000 shares. Its principal business was 

 the discounting of commercial paper. In 1815, a 

 commercial company was chartered at Amsterdam 

 for twenty-five years, with the exclusive right of 

 prosecuting the tea trade to China. The finances of 

 the United Netherlands during the thirty-two years' 

 peace of 174880 were in so prosperous a condition 

 that the public stocks, bearing interest of two and a 

 half per cent, were at an advance of ten per cent, 

 above the nominal value. The war with England, 

 the internal troubles of 1786, the war with France 

 and its pernicious consequences, produced an annual 

 deficit of full 8,000,000 guilders, besides a new debt 

 of 22,000,000, which, after the conquest of Holland, 

 was increased to a fearful extent ; and the interesl 

 on the national debt, from 1795 to 1804. increasec 

 from 18 to 34, and, subsequently, to 42,000,000; so 

 that, in 1795 1805, it was necessary, in order to 

 cover the yearly deficit, to raise forty-one per cent 

 on the capital, and fifty-three per cent, on the 



ncomes of the owners of real estate. The consoli- 

 dation, in 1798, of the provincial dtbts, which had 

 >een previously separated, had but a slight influence 

 .n improving the condition of the finances. More 

 Beneficial was the system of taxation introduced in 

 1805. by the pensionary Schiinmelpeiiiiink ; but the 

 expenditures of king Louis, who. in 1807 9. bor- 

 rowed 9,000,000 to cover the deficit, in conjunction 

 with the invasion of the British, in 1809, reduced 

 the country to so lamentable a state, that, on its 

 ncorporation with the French empire, in 1810, 

 Napoleon, by a reduction of the national debt to one 

 third, virtually declared it bankrupt. One third oi 

 the debt only was declared to bear interest ; but the 

 other two thirds were deferred (uitgestelde, not 

 bearing interest). The actual (Werkelijke) debt 

 bears an interest of two and a half per tent, from 

 January 1, 1815: 4,000,000 of the latter are to be 

 annually liquidated, and their place supplied by as 

 many of the first. The debt of the former republic 

 of Holland amounted to 573,153,530 guilders; the 

 deferred debt to 1,719,4(30,591 ; the whole to 

 2,292,614,121 guilders. The Austrian debt, incurred 

 by Belgium, by an agreement of October 11, 1815, 

 was fixed at 34,466,679 guilders. In consequence of 

 such a heavy debt, it was necessary, before the incor- 

 poration of Belgium, in the first years of the regal 

 sovereignty (1814), when trade had hardly begun to 

 revive, to impose a tax of 63,000,000 on a popula- 

 tion of 1,800,000 men, some of whom were in abject 

 poverty, and on a country of whose surface five six- 

 teenths is covered with water, three sixteenths is 

 composed of heaths, sands, wastes, and marshes, and 

 consequently one half only is productive of any profit. 

 If, after the incorporation of Belgium, we rate the 

 direct and indirect taxes at 56,200,000 guilders, it 

 follows that each individual in the kingdom of the 

 Netherlands paid eleven guilders, four stivers ; 

 according to others, the tax for the year 1819 

 amounted to sixteen guilders a head. By the 

 budget of 1818, the expenses of the kingdom, which 

 were afterwards, however, diminished, amounted to 

 74,000 ,000 guilders. Of this sum, 2,600,000 guilders 

 were appropriated for the royal household, 1,170,000 

 for the high colleges, 320,000 for the department of 

 secretary of state, 853,000 for the department of 

 foreign affairs, 3,700,000 for the judiciary depart- 

 ment, 2,000,000 for the home department, 325 000 for 

 the department of Protestant worship, and 1.875,000 

 for that of the Catholic, 1,200,000 for the department 

 of education, the arts and sciences, 25,000,000 for 

 the ministry of finances, 5.500,000 for the ministry 

 of the marine, 22,000,000 for the ministry of war, 

 4,700,000 for hydraulic works (/Vaterstaaf). and 

 1,657,000 for contingencies. The revenue was 

 derived from direct taxes on land, polls, furniture, 

 doors, windows, and patents; and indirect, on salt, 

 soap, wine, domestic and foreign liquors, beer, 

 vinegar, peat, coal, domestic grain, and from the 

 fees for weighing and measuring ; and, moreover, 

 from register's stamp and mortgage fees, from the 

 taxes on inheritances, and on wrought gold and 

 silver. The land tax was levied according to an 

 assessment made in 1805. The navy, which, in 

 1652 72, consisted of 06 150 vessels of war of all 

 kinds, was reduced, in 1776, to twenty-five ships of 

 the line, twenty three frigates, and twenty smaller 

 vessels. In the war of 1781 with England, the 

 number was somewhat increased, so that, in 

 1792, the navy again consisted of sixty-six ships of 

 the line and frigates, and forty-six smaller vessels. 

 But, by the resignation of a great number of the 

 most able navy officers, in 1795, by the immense 

 losses in Saldana bay and at Kamperduin, and by 

 the surrender of the fleet to the British, in Septen>- 



