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Profit and Power

A Study of England and the Dutch Wars

  • Book
  • © 1978

Overview

Authors:
  1. Charles Wilson

    1. Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, UK

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Profit and Power

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 1-10

  3. Representative Thought and National Policy

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 11-24

  4. Economic Relations and the Sources of Tension in the First Half of the Century

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 25-47

  5. War in Embryo

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 48-60

  6. The First Dutch War

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 61-77

  7. Prudent Idealism: An Interlude (1654–60)

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 78-89

  8. Foreign Trade and Domestic Politics at the Restoration

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 90-110

  9. The Colonial Prelude and the Approach of the Second Dutch War

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 111-126

  10. A War of Tradesmen

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 127-142

  11. Conclusion

    • Charles Wilson
    Pages 143-158

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 159-169
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Keywords

About this book

Historical explanations need to keep step with the march of research if they are not to degenerate into empty cliches. It has long been a commonplace of 17th century history that the Anglo-Dutch Wars were the product of 'commercial rivalry'. This essay, first published twenty years ago, attempted to analyse and redefine this overworked traditional concept so as to explain more precisely how it led to naval wars between the Dutch and the English. Two idees fixes of contemporary English thought seemed especially significant; one was the persistent consciousness of English inferiority and backwardness in economic affairs when compared with the Dutch; the other, compounding this, was the equally persistent conviction that strategically, England seemed well placed to wreck the Dutch maritime economy and bring the Republic to her knees in a naval war. These obsessive beliefs combined naturally with the specific influences and motives of powerful political and commercial lobbies to stoke the fires of aggression. Failing over several decades to make any visible progress by more or less peaceful policies, they turned, first, to economic warfare by means of propaganda and pseudo-legal claims to maritime sovereignty; finally (in 1652) to all-out eco­ nomic and naval warfare.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, UK

    Charles Wilson

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Profit and Power

  • Book Subtitle: A Study of England and the Dutch Wars

  • Authors: Charles Wilson

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9762-5

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Curtis Brown Academic Ltd. 1978

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-247-2083-5Published: 07 July 1978

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-9762-5Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 170

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: History, general

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