Fortis Bank Netherlands

Simon Schama referred to the Dutch as “An island of plenty in a sea of want” during the 17th Century and for good reason. While peasants in France, England, Spain and the rest of Western Europe lived in squalid conditions with barely enough food to eat, everyone in the Netherlands, from the nobility to the lowliest worker lived in comfortable (for the time) conditions and always had enough food. In fact, the Netherlands had the highest standard of living in Europe, perhaps even the world, during their Golden Age.

The Dutch Golden Age Starts With Trade

Throughout the 16th Century and into the early 17th Century Commercial Revolution, the Netherlands built up a solid trading empire. They wrested control of trading routes in the North Sea and Baltic from the German Hanseatic League and continually fought the English for domination of southern trade routes.