﻿NETHERLANDS. 



NETHERLANDa 



mUr lake, railed the Biei-Boich, waa luildoul; formed to the aouth- 

 cMt of Durt, by the sea bnnUng through • dam aud OTcrwhelmiog 

 72 vilUge^i, with 100,000 inhabitaDta. [BiESBoscn.] 



The principal river U the Koihe, vrbicb, ooniing from Germany, 

 enters the Nrtherianda at Lobith, where it U 2300 feet broad ; but in 

 tnTersing thi* country it i* dirided into three arms, and before it 

 reaches the lea even loses its Tenerable nonic. Soon after crosaing 

 the frontier it divides iuto two braaohes, the larger and left arm 

 forming the Waal. The right or northern arm flows to Amhoim, 

 where it again divides into two branchrs ; one, called the Tsiiel, flows 

 northward to the ZuyJcr-Zee ; the other runs to Wijk, where it 

 again divides into two streams, the larger, called the Leek, joining 

 the Waal above Rotterdam, and the smaller, now reduced to on 

 ioaignificant river, passing by Utrecht to Loyden and the sea. Till the 

 bfguning of the 19th century, tliis branch was lost in the sand, the 

 mouth being completely choked up since a.d. 840 ; works were com- 

 menced by Louis Uonaparto to reopen this mouth of tho river near 

 Katwyck, and the operation was happily completed in 1807. The other 

 principal rivers are — the Maos, or Mkusk, which comes from Belgium 

 and joins the Waal at the fort of St-Andries ; and the Scbeloe, which, 

 likewise coming from Belgium, enters Holland below Antwerp, and 

 divide* into two arms, the East and the West Schelde; the West 

 Scbelde falls into the ocean at Flushing, and the East Sclielde between 

 the Zealand Islands of Schouwen and North liereland. Uf the canals 

 the most important is the North or Uclder CaaaL [Holland, 

 Ifoiik.] The greatest lake, that of Haarlem, has been rrcently 

 drained by the action of steam-engines, and its area converted iuto 

 ixilden. [Hxarleil] 



The railway system of tho Netherlands comprises a line running 

 frum Rotterdam through the Hague, Leyden, and Haai-lcm to 

 Amsterdam ; a second line joining Amsterdam to Utrecht, and con- 

 tinued eastward to Amhem near the Prussian frontier ; and a line 

 connecting Rottenlam with Antwerp, thus uniting the great Dutch 

 commercial cities with the general railway system of Europe. Electro- 

 telegraphic wires are laid along all these lines. 



A'atmrai Productioni. — Tho horses are a large strong brood, well 

 adapted for draught aiid fur heavy cavalry, but like all horses bred 

 in a damp soft soil, they have tender feet The honicd-cnttle are 

 mostly remarkable for their size and beauty, and amount to about a 

 million. Vast nnmbeni of lean cattle from Denmark and Germany 

 are fattened in the rich pastures of North Holland. There are about 

 700,000 sheep. The swine are of the Qermau breed, and are most 

 numerous in the provinces next to Germany. The only kind of game 

 is the hare, and even that U rare ; wild-rabbits however are very 

 numerous among the sand-hilU. Domestic poultry is ploutifuh There 

 are wild geese and ducks, snipes, woodcocks, aud plovers. This is 

 tho paradise of storks, it being considered a great offence to kill one. 

 Accordingly they build their nests on the house-tops, and walk about 

 nnmolested and unconcerned. Fish is abundant on the coasts and in 

 the rivers ; the cod fishery on the Doggerbank and the Greenland 

 whale fishery are very productive. But the herring fishery ou the 

 coast of the Shetland Islands, formerly a chief source of the wealth of 

 the Dutch, has greatly declined. In 1601 there were 1500 vosseb 

 employed in the herring fishery ; in the years from 1795 to 1807 and 

 1808 there were only 30 veaaels; but the number hns since greatly 

 increased. In 1842 the Dutch fisheries employed 1603 vtasels, worked 

 by 8350 men. The average annual produce Uien amounted to 40,000 

 tons of aalt-herrings ; 10,000,000 herrings for smoking or drying ; and 

 10,000 tona of salt-fish. The gross value of the produce was esti- 

 mated at 4,000,000 florins, or 333,8S3<., a sum, which, taking into 

 aooount the capital employed in the ships, &o. amounting to 354,410{., 

 and to the yearly expenditure of about 314,416^, leaves but a small 

 manin for profit The Dutch carry on a lai;go trade in eola with 

 liODaon ; the eels are kept alire in wells on board Uie sohuyts (as the 

 Teasels are called). The vessels generally remain at Rrith, and the 

 flah are lent up by lighters in eel-boxes. 



SaBdent cum for homo consumption is not rairad ; hemp and flax 

 ■recrown in great abundance. 



There are no minerals, except a little bog-iroo in Overyssel and 

 Ovtlderlaod : there are brick^earth and pottera'-clay in most of the 

 proriooHL FuUem'-earth (but mixed with too much sand) is got 

 IB pretty oonslderable quantities about Tilbura; and immense quan- 

 tity of turf are dug in Holland aud Friealand : some sea-salt, but in 

 ■mall quantities, U mode on the ooasU of Holland and Fricshind. 



JVorffc— The history of tho commerce of tho Notherlamls, properly 

 begin* with Kruges in Fhmdem, u tho 14th century. From Bruges 

 the tnda was for the most part transferred at the end of the 15th 

 eratiU7 to Antwerp, which became the greatest emporium in the 

 worUL Bui the ravages of the war with Spain and the capture of the 

 city after the mamorabU siaga in 1586 drove the wealthiest inbabit- 

 anU to the northani provinoas, especiaUy to Amsterdam. The new 

 republic of the ' Seven United Provinces,' founded on principles of 

 dvil and religious hbcrty, became a sure asylum for the oppressed, 

 while rsUgious djaseotiooa and persecuUons prevailed in many other 

 parU of Europe. Poor as the country then was in natural resource^ 

 It waa neeeasarr to find for the rapidly increasing population employ- 

 nsBt bayood the sea*. The republicans, who wen at fint driven by 

 iMetMi^ to beeome bold conahrs a^iost the Spanish aquodrons, soon 



beoame excellent and intrepid seamen, and enterprising iudefatigablo 

 merohanta. The commerce of Antwerp, Cadiz, and Lisbon fell into 

 their hands, and thu^ in the miildlc of tho 1 7th century, the United 

 Provinces became the first commercial state and the greatest maritime 

 power in tho world, and the trade of Amsterdam acquired an unparal- 

 leled dt'^reo of prosperity. The East India Company, founded in 

 1602, with a capital of only 6,500,000 florina, conquered kingdoms 

 and islands in Asia. With 200 ships it traded with China aud Japan; it 

 alone furnished Europe with the costly productions of the Spice Islands; 

 the gold, the pearls, and the dinmonda uf tho Eaat paasod only through 

 its hands. The prosperity of Amsterdam remained olmoat unimpaiml 

 till towards the latter end of the ISth century, when tho trench 

 revolution in 1705 gave it a fatal blow, and its rival, Loudon, liccanio 

 the commercial capital of the world. Reduced to the condition of a 

 vassal and afterwards of a province of France, and consequently 

 engaged in a constant war with England, Holland lost its ships, its 

 colonies, its commerce, and its public credit After recovering its 

 independence on the expulsion of the French in 1813, the commeroo 

 of Holland revived in a remarkable manner, but is still below ita 

 former magnitude. During the union of the northern and southern 

 provinces, under the name of tho kiu);dom of tho Netherlands, both 

 Holland and Belgium flourished. Holland indeed lost the colonies of 

 Berbicc, Demerora, and Essequibo, with the Cape of Good Hope and 

 Ceylon. The very profitable contraband trade formerly carried on 

 with Spanish America has also been destroyed, since those colouiee 

 declared themselves independent The trade with India has under- 

 gone a great change, not only by the loss of the Cape and Ceylun, but 

 by the fall of the East India company and the throwing ojMin of tho 

 East India trade to all the subjects of the Netherlands, excepting that 

 to the Moluccas and to J.ipau. Ou tho other hand the improved 

 administration of Java has led to a vast increase of the productions of 

 that fine colony, and new and profitable channels have been opened 

 to Dutch commerce in Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti. Tho revolt of the 

 southern provinces in 1 830 woe a great check to tlie progress of com- 

 merce ; yet it continued to improve even during that period, aud has 

 again become very flourishing. In recent times, especially since 1840, 

 the city of Rotterdam has obtained a preponderating sharo in the 

 shipping and foreign commerce of the Netherlands ; before that date 

 Amsterdam was the leading commercial city as it still is in all banking 

 and exchange transactions. 



Commerce. — The Dutch import from and export to all tho great 

 producing countries of the world. The total value of the importa, 

 according to official returns in 1S51 and 1852 respectively, was 

 303,993,224 and 322,719,559 Dutch florins. The total value of the 

 exports in the same yeora amounted to 242,744,806 and 272,484,635 

 florins respectively. The following table shows the countries moat 

 weightily concerned in Dutch commerce, tlio numbers expressing the 

 official value (in florins) of the imports from, aud the exports to, each 

 country in 1852 : — 



Coonlries. 



ImportK. 



Exports. 



36,.^o;,060 



24,363,333 



u.sio.gsj 



10,311,121 



g3,4SS.i<S 



01,022,444 



;S,SIG,3S7 



18,833,391 



9,S3S,-7S 



8,393,474 



'«,5<3,O50 



737,324 



1,6)S,60S 



8,731,987 



18,367,788 



3,183,174 



240,048 



3,291,097 



4,872,898 



1,407,113 



&3,ja3,64S 



111,743,369 



2,72S,m 



3,639,274 



2,212,018 



1,276,097 



2,503,234 



4,371 



3,214,801 



7,380,473 



3,100,244 



2,314,791 



5,936,917 



216,769 



1,433,973 



3,673,012 



1,943,063 



217,913 



Uelgium . . , 



France 



Great Britain 



Java .... 



United SUtes 



Norwsjr 



Austria . . . . 



Bnstia 



Sardinia 



Surinam 



German Zollverein 



Turkey and Greece 



Denmark 



China 



Hamburg . . . 



Hanover and Oldenburg 



Canaries 



Naples 



Cuba 



The exports consist of colonial produce from the East and West 

 Indies, coffee, sugar, apices, tea, silks, and other articles from China 

 and Jnpnn ; the productions of the home country, butter, cheese, flax, 

 hemp, and corn ; tobacco, madder, flower-roota, cattle, and horses; 

 the produce of their fisheries, especially herrings, and of their distil- 

 leries and manufactoriea. The chief articles of importation are corn, 

 salt, wine, timber in very large quantities, partly from Norway and 

 partly from Germany, wheuce it is floated down the Rhino ; stone, 

 such as blocks of granite from Norway for the dykeii, and freestone 

 for building ; marble ; and various manufactun<d goods : besides 

 colonial produce of every kind from Asia, Afiicn, and the West 

 Indira. 



Manvfactvint. — The principal manufactures aro linen, woollens, 

 silks, leather, refined sugar, tobacco-pipes, gin or hollands (distilled 

 in vast quantities at Schiedam and Delft), cotton manufactures, jewel- 

 lery, and numerous other articles, which will be found enumerated in 

 the articles on the chief towns and on the provinces. 



Scligion. — The established religion is Calvinism; but other religions 



