Early Modern Dutch corporate finance had two notable features, a remarkable ease of raising large amounts of capital and a flexible legal framework. Having pioneered new corporate forms with two intercontinental trading companies, Dutch business adopted such forms on a wider scale only during...

Trust offices (in Dutch: administratiekantoren) that repackage securities have been a central institution in Dutch finance since the late eighteenth century. Their basic form and functioning have remained largely the same, but over time, the repackaging has come to serve a variety of very...

The Dutch economy has relied on trade for centuries. During the seventeenth century the Netherlands experienced a Golden Age built largely on commercial enterprise, and trade continues to be the golden link in the supply chain from producers to consumers. Yet we know very little about the...