The sea always makes waves in the calmest place, and history, like the sea, always creates miracles in the most unexpected places. The story of the Dutch miracle began with silver herring. Due to the change of ocean currents, a large number of herring will return to the northern coast of the Netherlands every summer, and the Dutch can catch more than 6.5438+million kilograms of herring every year. Herring is very important to the Dutch economy, and many people live by making money. /kloc-In the 4th century, the population of the Netherlands was less than 1 10,000, about 20 people were engaged in herring fishing, and small herring provided a livelihood for one fifth of the people. However, herring is a natural resource, and the creator has never given the Dutch exclusive rights. Other races near the North Sea organized a fleet to catch herring. In order to compete for fishing grounds, three wars broke out between Dutch and Scots. What makes the Netherlands stand out from the fierce competition?
1358, in a small fishing village in the Netherlands, a fisherman named William Borgersson invented a method to take out fish intestines with only one knife. Throw away the belly of the fish, take out the intestines, cut off the head and put it in salt, and it can be preserved for more than one year (there was no refrigerator at that time), so Dutch herring can sell well all over Europe, especially in England. The Dutch used a knife to turn this self-contained resource that everyone can get their hands on into the exclusive resource of the Netherlands. To this day, the Dutch still retain the traditional form habit formed for centuries: herring is taken out of the internal organs and swallowed directly with its tail without any cooking. Starting from the fishing industry, the Netherlands has produced trade with Northeast Europe, England, South Europe and Africa, and the tradition of fishing has produced the tradition of maritime trade. With the help of herring, the Dutch started their business travel career. Today, herring patterns can still be seen in some ancient buildings in Rotterdam. These inconspicuous patterns seem to remind people that Rotterdam's history as the world's largest port began with a full tank of pickled herring. Once the circulation and exchange of commodities are used as a means of livelihood, the originally unfavorable geographical position begins to show great advantages at first: the Netherlands, located in the northwest of Europe, faces the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea and is backed by the vast European continent, from which two major European waterways enter the sea. In order to drain the Dutch, many canals were built, which constituted the most developed water transport network in Europe at that time. These advantages make it possible for the Netherlands to become a new commodity distribution center in Europe.
/kloc-The geographical discovery at the end of 0/5 brought unprecedented commercial prosperity to European countries, and also provided the Netherlands with a historical opportunity to realize its commercial empire. If Spain and Portugal, the first countries to start ocean exploration, mainly rely on violence to plunder naked wealth, then the Netherlands, which followed closely, naturally chose to accumulate wealth through commercial trade because of the lack of strong kingship and sufficient human resources, and at the same time accumulated competitive skills and commercial systems that could make them strong. As middlemen, agents, processors and distributors, the Dutch load spices, silk and gold from Portugal and Spain and then resell them all over Europe. On the return trip, they transported wheat, Swedish ironware, Finnish wood and their own naval materials to the two earliest maritime hegemonic countries. But Dutch businessmen soon found that in this lucrative trade, Dutch businessmen had to face strong challenges from British businessmen. At that time, England was three times larger than the Netherlands and its population was five times that of the Netherlands. As an island country in the Atlantic Ocean, Britain has a better geographical position. How did the Dutch defeat their powerful competitors?
Just like inventing a way to take out herring intestines with one knife, the Dutch defeated England by designing a cheaper fake ship. British merchant ships carry weapons and use wood hard enough to build ships; Dutch ships have almost no weapons and equipment, so the cost of shipbuilding in the Netherlands is lower, and it is also very cheap to transport goods by Dutch ships, so the Netherlands has become a sea coachman in Europe. Prior to this, European merchant ships built batteries that could be used to set up artillery to prevent pirate attacks. The Dutch took the lead in venturing to build a merchant ship that could only transport goods but not carry guns. The price of this way is that every voyage will become an adventurous gamble of fate, but its advantage is that the cost of shipbuilding is low, and the price is only half that of British ships, so the freight rate of goods is also low. Nevertheless, the Dutch are not satisfied. In order to get as much profit as possible, they added a special design to the ship: their design made the hull very high, the belly very large and the deck very narrow. The advantage of this is that in Scandinavia, the tax on cargo ships depends on the width of the deck. The narrower the deck, the less taxes and the more profits. To a great extent, the Dutch won the world-famous title of "sea coachman" by this kind of boat. However, in order to be invincible in the competition, it is obviously not enough to rely solely on specially designed ships. The key is to watch the people who drive those boats. 1596-1598 A Dutch captain named Barents tried to find a route to Asia from the north. He passed Sanyan (now an island in Russia), but they were trapped by the frozen sea. Sanyan Cliff is located in the Arctic Circle, where Barents Sea and 17 Dutch sailors spent a long winter of 8 months. They dismantled the deck of the ship as fuel to keep the body temperature at MINUS 40 degrees, and they hunted clothes and food that barely survived. Eight people died in such a bad environment, but Dutch businessmen did something unimaginable: they didn't touch the goods entrusted to them by others at all, and these goods contained obligations and drugs that could save their lives. When winter went and spring came, the surviving Dutch businessmen delivered the goods intact to their customers. They stuck to their beliefs at the cost of their lives and created business rules that will be passed down from generation to generation. At that time, this belief also won the world market of maritime trade for the Dutch.
The Dutch maritime museum in Amsterdam holds special events there every Sunday. The purpose is to let children know the history of the Netherlands through personal experience. This activity is repeated year after year, even if only one child participates, it will never stop. Teachers are volunteers from different occupations. They meticulously led the children to relive the life of Dutch sailors more than 400 years ago. Today, the Dutch often repeat this sentence to their young people: The Netherlands is still the Netherlands because our ancestors took care of their own careers. The ancestors of the Dutch not only took care of their own business, in fact, at the end of 16 more than 500 years ago, the Dutch almost monopolized the maritime trade in Europe. In a certain period of time, the Dutch fleet is more than the total merchant ships of England, France and Scotland. They have a fleet of 65,438+0,800 ships, which can transport goods to every corner of Europe.
With the development of maritime trade, cities have gradually flourished in the Netherlands as trading markets, warehouses for storing goods and factories for repairing ships. Gradually, people living in this city have discovered a difficult problem that transcends commercial trade and even economic life. That is: who will manage the city? How should cities be managed?
Like other parts of Europe, Dutch cities are owned by nobles, because cities are always built on the territory of a certain nobleman. The nobility formed a small army, nominally to protect the city, but actually relied on violent means to obtain taxes. This means that in cities, the rich have more power, they can dominate the bargaining, and the nobles rely on the rich to provide them with wealth. The rise of commerce and cities makes people long for economic freedom. More and more affluent people finally made a surprising move. They bought the autonomy of the city from the nobles like buying goods. Since then, citizens have made their own laws, and nobles cannot directly tax them. Citizen autonomy has injected a strong impetus into the development of Dutch cities. By the end of 15, nearly half of the Dutch people lived in cities. Every city in the Netherlands is striving for more trade opportunities. Cities are ruled by wealthy businessmen, who decide the management of cities. In the town hall built in the Netherlands in the15th century, every15th minute, there will be such a historical picture: the nobles handed over the management of the city to the citizens. This moment in Dutch history has become eternal with the help of this special timing tool.
When the Dutch were busy building their own cities, the political map of Europe changed greatly. Some gifted monarchs destroyed castles guarded by knights with gunpowder imported by Mongolian troops during their Western Expedition, and established monarchies like Portugal, Spain, Britain and France. These countries have incomparable advantages over aristocratic territories and independent commercial cities: they can effectively mobilize and organize the strength of the whole nation, and in this way Portugal and Spain took the lead in entering the ranks of world powers. At first, the Dutch seemed disdainful to follow this trend. They are more accustomed to living in independent cities. These cities only care about one thing, which is to increase their wealth as much as possible. Countries ruled by kings like Britain, France and Spain also have many other problems. For example, kings need a lot of money to expand. But in 1543, Dutch people have to face the problem of "country" whether they like it or not. That year, the king of Spain gained the sovereignty of the Netherlands through political marriage. The next thing is even more interesting: when the king of Spain declared that Dutch territory was a sacred and inalienable part of Spain, the Dutch also agreed with this statement; When the Spanish king re-divided the administrative regions of the Netherlands, they accepted it frankly; When the Spanish king sent a new governor for the Netherlands, they also obeyed; But when King Philip II of Spain reached into their wallets, the Dutch resisted. At that time, Spain was at war with France, and King Philip II needed permanent financial security. The Dutch only agreed to provide some funds for a period of time. Dutch War of Independence broke out. At first, the Spanish army easily crushed the scattered resistance of the Dutch. In less than six years, 6.5438+0.5 million Dutch people died. The grim reality makes different Dutch provinces that are fragmented have to unite. 1579, representatives of seven northern Dutch provinces signed an agreement in a hall to form a military alliance. Since then, the war situation has changed in favor of the Dutch, on the one hand, because of the unity of the Dutch; On the other hand, Philip II made enemies all over Europe, and successive years of hegemonic wars exhausted Spain's national strength.
158 1 On July 26th, 2008, representatives of the uprisings from the Dutch provinces solemnly announced the abolition of the Spanish king's rule over the Dutch provinces in The Hague. After sending the king home like an incompetent manager, they have found that they actually own a country, but who should manage and protect this country?
They are in no hurry to say: we don't have a king now, because no one did that at that time; They also dare not call themselves * * * and the system, because that would be very avant-garde. For those businessmen who led the war of independence, what they want most is not political rights, but commercial profits, so they hope to find a strong protector to take care of their own business and the safety of the Netherlands. Then an incredible phenomenon appeared. The Dutch entrusted their country to Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Queen of England readily agreed to be their monarch and sent troops to protect the property of the Dutch people. However, shrewd businessmen soon discovered that the protection fee charged by the Queen of England was even higher than the Spanish king they drove away. Dutch citizens said: No, we don't think so. Maybe it's not a wise move, but we have a ruler who doesn't have much power.
1588, under the leadership of Prince Willem van Oranje, seven provinces united and announced the establishment of the Netherlands, which is unprecedented in human history. Many historians say that it is the first country in the world where wealthy businessmen enjoy political rights. This is very typical in the Netherlands. Political rights are actually in the hands of the rich and the intellectual elite. Different provinces, especially those with coastal cities, are ruled by business elites, and the representatives and rulers of these provinces in the whole national government are produced by these families. Therefore, it can be considered that the Netherlands and state-owned enterprises are a bit like a family.
A new country was born, but its future is still in a fog. If measured by land resources and population, the Netherlands, as a country, hardly has the conditions for survival, not to mention the seven provinces that make up the Republic are still fragmented. Their structure is very loose, and the provinces are absolutely independent. They can only agree on determining taxes, but they can't make any decisions if they disagree in other aspects. Sometimes they can be compared with the current European Union.
This small country with loose structure had to face a serious crisis almost at the beginning of its establishment: before independence, trade with Spain was one of the most important economic sources of the Netherlands, but after independence, the king of Spain blocked all domestic ports and banned Dutch merchant ships from entering Spain, cutting off the economic lifeline. Where is the way out for the new country? With its own business intuition, the Netherlands quickly found its own advantages, because there are a large number of businessmen eager for wealth in this land. If their love of money is turned into a kind of strength, then the Netherlands will have more powerful weapons than the royal power. According to this advantage, the Dutch decided to change from a shrewd middleman to an ocean fighter and find their own routes to the East and America, but where did the large amount of money needed for ocean navigation come from?
1602, under the leadership of * * * and President Oden Barnwell of the Congress Party, the Netherlands and East India Company were established, as if they had created an unprecedented country. Now, they have created an unprecedented economic organization. It can be said that the Netherlands United East India Company is the first joint-stock company. In order to finance them, they issue shares (but not in the modern sense). People came to the office of the company, put the money on the books, and the company promised to pay dividends to the money. This is how the Dutch United East India Company raised funds. They raised 6.5 million euros (equivalent to 3 million euros today, but worth billions at that time), and they used the money to set up a company. By financing the whole society, the Netherlands turned the scattered wealth of society into capital for external expansion, and even the maid of the mayor of Amsterdam at that time became one of the shareholders of the company. Thousands of citizens put their savings into such profitable and risky business activities, on the one hand out of the desire for wealth; More importantly, because the Dutch government is also one of the shareholders of the East India Company-the government converted some privileges (including negotiating and signing treaties and launching wars, even if it has exclusive sovereignty over foreign countries) into 25,000 Dutch guilders, which greatly increased the authority and credibility of the East India Company. When everything was ready, the fleet of the East India Company set sail, and the King of Spain almost treated the overreached challenger with contempt. However, in the short five years after the establishment of the East India Company, 50 merchant ships were sent overseas every year, exceeding the total fleet of Spain and Portugal. During the period of 10 after its establishment, the East India Company did not distribute dividends, because investors concentrated their funds on shipbuilding, building houses and establishing a trading kingdom in Asia during this period. After these, the East India Company distributed interest to shareholders for the first time after 10 years. For ten years in a row, shareholders have not received dividends. Why can such a mode of operation be recognized by shareholders? This is because the Dutch also created a new capital circulation system.
1609, the first stock exchange in the world history was born in Amsterdam. Shareholders of the East India Company can convert their shares into cash at any time. As early as more than 400 years ago, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange had more than 65,438+0,000 stockbrokers. Although I haven't put on a red vest yet, fixed trading seats have appeared. It used to be the most active stock exchange in Europe. Not only the Dutch, but also many foreigners come to engage in stock trading. A large amount of dividend income flows into the Dutch treasury and the pockets of ordinary Dutch people from the yard with an area of less than 1 000 square meters. Only British bonds, the Netherlands can get 25 million Dutch guilders every year, equivalent to 2 million tons of silver. When a large amount of gold and silver flowed into the Netherlands, the economic context of the Netherlands began to congest. This time, the Dutch people's exploration of solving problems directly entered the core field of modern economy-establishing banks.
Amsterdam Bank was founded in 1609, more than 100 years before the Bank of England. It is a city bank, a deposit bank and an exchange bank. It absorbs deposits and issues loans, and a certain amount of money has to go through banks. Therefore, the Bank of Amsterdam plays a vital role in the economic stability of the Netherlands. It invented our modern credit-it is called "virtual currency". In order to protect the bank's credit, the city of Amsterdam passed legislation, stipulating that no one can restrict the bank's trading freedom under any pretext. So there is a strange phenomenon: when the Netherlands and Spain are at war at sea, the silver of the Spanish nobles can still enter and leave the Amsterdam Bank, and the Dutch bank can still lend it to the enemy. The Dutch set up their government, whether national or local, for their commercial interests. No matter how the royal families in Europe fight, the Netherlands always remains neutral, and they pay more attention to economic development. Historians agree that Dutch citizens are the creators of the current commodity economic system. They organically unified banks, stock exchanges, credit and limited liability companies into an interrelated financial and commercial system, which brought explosive wealth growth.
By the middle of17th century, the global commercial hegemony of the Netherlands and the United States had been firmly established. At this time, the Dutch East India Company has 15000 branches, accounting for half of the total world trade, and more than 10000 merchant ships flying the Dutch tricolor flag are cruising on the five oceans of the world. In Central Asia, they occupied Taiwan Province Province of China and monopolized Japanese foreign trade. In Southeast Asia, they turned Indonesia into their own colony; The city of Batavia, the first colonial stronghold they established, constituted the embryonic form of Jakarta today; In Africa, they seized the fortress Cape of Good Hope of the new route from Portugal; In Oceania, they named a country-New Zealand after a province in the Netherlands. In South America, they occupied Brazil; At the mouth of the Hudson River in North America, they built the new city of Amsterdam, and today the name of this city is new york.
So what do the Dutch think of themselves?
In an oil painting of an Amsterdam statue, the goddess puts her hand on the earth, just as the poem sings: "Our world, our earth, this world belongs to us". Marx commented: "Holland in 1648 has reached the peak of commercial prosperity."
It was in 1648 that the citizens of Amsterdam decided to build a new city hall. In order to ensure the quality, they didn't specify the completion date of the project. In fact, it took them eight years and more than 70 tons of gold to build this magnificent building. Only creativity can make people have this ambition to pursue immortality. 1656, the new town hall was built, where citizens reveled for seven days in a row. Vondel, a great Dutch poet like Shakespeare, wrote an ode for the city hall: We Amsterdam people set sail, and profits guide us across the ocean. Out of love for money, we visited all the seaports in the world.
When Vondel wrote this ode, the diplomatic mission of the Dutch East India Company set sail for the Far East. 1656, the Dutch diplomatic mission arrived in Beijing, and the Qing Dynasty, which had just entered the Central Plains for eight years, received them with excitement. But the Dutch encountered a problem that all western missions would encounter at that time, that is, they had to kneel down three times and give nine gifts when they saw the emperor. In fact, until the end of 18, almost no European diplomat was willing to accept this harsh China rule, but the Dutch agreed without hesitation. The emperor shunzhi received the mission and happily sent many gifts to the mission of the richest country in the world. After returning home, a member of the mission named John Niehoff wrote down the reason why they agreed to bow down: We just don't want to sacrifice our so-called dignity for great benefits. What are the big interests of the Dutch? Is to make money by trading.
As a big commodity trading country, the huge wealth that Holland gained in overseas trade in the17th century was not reflected in the luxurious palaces of nobles, but was used by middle-class businessmen to build and decorate their own houses. The rich life picture of the Dutch was truly recorded by a group of outstanding realistic painters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. /kloc-in the middle of the 0/7th century, there were about 8 million to150,000 oil paintings in Amsterdam. Everyone likes oil painting, and there are oil paintings in every class's home. People can buy these works in the free market. In these works, there are almost no kings, ministers and nobles. The ordinary life of ordinary people has become the protagonist of the art palace, and the joys, sorrows and even surging desires of all sentient beings have been portrayed one by one. /kloc-an oil painting by Vermeer, an artist in the 0/7th century, depicts an ordinary Dutch morning, creating a calm and peaceful atmosphere with warm colors and stable living order. The hero is full of energy, and only good nutrition and adequate sleep can shape such a healthy body shape; Such a focused and peaceful expression will only appear on the faces of people who are not afraid of hunger and have been displaced and spend their lives in a rich environment. Until today, the Dutch life has been as rich and comfortable as the cook in the works; The business rules initiated by the Dutch business empire are still affecting the world today.
1In September, 688, a huge fleet set sail from Amsterdam Port. These ships carried William III, the supreme consul of the Netherlands, and 20,000 soldiers. William III's visit is at the invitation of the British Parliament, aiming at protecting the religious freedom and property of British nationals. The development of history is so coincidental. /kloc-At the end of 0/7th century, the development of the Netherlands slowed down, and the Netherlands lost its hegemony over the world. No matter in time or space, William III's departure from Holland to England has become a very symbolic change on the world center stage.