The Rise of Commercial Empires: England and The Netherlands in the Age of Mercantilism, 1650–1770 by David Ormrod (review)

80 relative evils are necessary to the greater absolute good; in which the passions are a valuable part of our moral constitution; in which self-love and social are the same; and, finally, in which virtue alone is happiness below and—Turnbull emphasizes as Pope does not—above as well. Adam Potkay The College of William & Mary DAVID ORMROD. The Rise of Commercial Empires: England and The Netherlands in the Age of Mercantilism, 1650– 1770. New York: Cambridge, 2003. Pp. xvii ⫹ 400. $75. The Dutch and the English had much in common during the early modern period . So much was this the case that some historians have argued that the Glorious Revolution of 1689 was a conquest of England by the Dutch, who installed their own man as the new ruler. King William III, was, in fact, Willem Hendrick, Prince of Orange, Stadhouder of Holland and Zeeland, head of the invading army. In his train came Dutch advisers, fresh from Amsterdam, who helped transformed the finances and economy of the new nation. William’s purpose was to enlist the English in the Dutch struggle with Louis XIV. In a renewed debate about which one can claim to be ‘‘the first modern economy ,’’ Jan de Vries and Adrianus M. van der Woude have argued that the trophy should be awarded to the Dutch (Nederland 1500–1815: De eerste ronde van moderne economische groei[[1995]; translated as The First Modern Economy : Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 [1997]). In their view, the Golden Age of the Netherlands far outshines in extent and effects the later developments in the British economy, such as the ‘‘industrial revolution.’’ Their powerful if not fully persuasive argument underscores the great changes in the modern Dutch economy , many of which ended up being translated across the North Sea to England . Joining the contest, Mr. Ormrod sides with Great Britain for two reasons—one political, the other economic. In the seventeenth century, England was becoming a modern nation-state based in large part on a realization of mercantilist doctrines with all of their attendant fiscal implications . The Netherlands remained a federation of states with a less powerful central government. For Mr. Ormrod, this means that Great Britain was the more modern and successful of the two. Similarly, Great Britain’s broad range of natural resources diminished its dependence on imports for such things, critically , as energy-producing resources, specifically coal. Trade was good, but trade and domestic supplies of natural resources were even better. As London replaced Amsterdam as Europe’s—indeed the world’s—leading entrepôt, Great Britain outran the Netherlands in the race to be the stronger nation. Fiscally, commercially , and ultimately industrially, Great Britain bested the Netherlands, setting the stage for its victory over France at the end of the long eighteenth century. Mr. Ormrod’s book explains in detail how the two nations fared over six-score years. In this exercise of stunning scholarship , he has incorporated almost everything of value produced during the last half-century, in both English and in Dutch. He makes it easy to agree that the decade following 1689 is when England began to supplant the Dutch, who thereafter declined. That same decade also 81 marked the beginning of the Second Hundred Years’War between Britain and France, the war that Great Britain ultimately won in 1815, largely based on its national finances that were a key outcome of the Glorious Revolution. Crucial to that transformation, in 1694 William III’s government established the Bank of England, patterned on the Bank of Amsterdam, one of many innovations he and his followers brought from across the North Sea. John J. McCusker Trinity University JODY GREENE. The Trouble with Ownership : Literary Property and Authorial Liability in England, 1660–1730. Philadelphia : Pennsylvania, 2001. Pp. 272. $49.95. In 1695 the Licensing Act expired, marking the end of pre-publication censorship in England and throwing the book trade into confusion because members of the Stationers’ Company were no longer able to restrain others from printing their ‘‘copies.’’ After years of futile lobbying for the revival of licensing, the Statute of Anne was enacted in 1710. It sought to restore stability...