Studies in American History 
11 
were shrewd men of business and may have exercised caution 
in individual cases and in particular localities, — with good 
reason. They, because of precautions, seem to have escaped 
some of the unpleasant experiences of the English creditors. 
The Dutch did give credit. Contemporary correspondence 
indicates that reliable Americans could get all the goods they 
wanted from firms in Holland.^^ Firms in Holland also estab- 
lished branch houses or representatives in America.^^ These 
Dutch houses in America extended credit to their American 
patrons. Some went so far as to advertise in the newspapers 
that they would sell on credit. All of them would take in 
return for their commodities American goods which were 
then shipped to Holland. Then the Dutch had an advantage 
in this matter of credit resulting from the fact that they 
traded with those colonies which happened to be most prosper- 
ous and surest pay. The Dutch because of acquaintance 
with the habits and language of the people traded most with 
New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Pennsylvania and 
Maryland suffered as little from the Revolution as any of the 
colonies perhaps and emerged relatively prosperous. The eco- 
nomic life of the people was less disturbed and they had more 
means of paying. Naturally the morals of the thrifty money- 
maker prevailed there. Quakers and Germans might not see 
any harm in selling provisions to British and American quar- 
termasters alternately during the Revolution as long as they 
were making money out of it, but they had greater hesitation 
about repudiating a debt than did some of the poor patriots 
of western Massachusetts in 1786. Contemporaneous writers 
agree as to this characteristic of the people with whom the 
Dutch were in the habit of trading.^® This of course was 
greatly to the advantage of the Dutch. 
Finally on the side of the Dutch among the conditions 
favoring trade with the United States must be mentioned 
their possession of islands in the West Indies, off the coast of 
South America, which furnished an excellent means of evading 
the restrictive legislation of some of the other countries who 
owned islands there. This gave the Americans an oppor- 
tunity of trading with islands which would have otherwise 
S. House to Jefferson (Philadelphia), May 28, 1785, Jefferson’s MSS.; Coxe, A 
View of the United States of America, 12. 
Carey, American Museum or Repository, V, 467. 
36 /bid., II, 112. 
