holic
states of the south, prospered in trade and industry as they shook
themselves free from the stifling rule of Spain. By a twelve-year
truce, finally ratified in 1609, they became "free states over
which Spain makes no pretensions," though their independence was
not fully recognized until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The
war, while it ruined Antwerp, increased the prosperity of Holland
and Zealand, which for at least twenty years before the truce were
busily extending their trade to every part of the world.

_Growth of Dutch Commerce_

The story of this expansion of commerce is a striking record. The
grain and timber of the Baltic, the wines of France and Spain,
the salt of the Cape Verde Islands, the costly wares of the east,
came to the ports of the Meuse and Zuyder Zee. In 1590 the first
Dutch traders entered the Mediterranean, securing, eight years
later, the permission of the Sultan to engage in Constantinople
trade. In 1594 their ships reached the Gold Coast, and a year later
four vessels visited Madagascar, Goa, Java, and the Moluccas or
Spice Islands. A rich Zealand merchant had a factory at Archangel
and a regular trade into the White Sea. Seeking a reward of 25,000
florins offered by the States for the discovery of a northeast
passage, Jacob van Heimskirck sailed into the Arctic and wintered
in Nova Zembla; Henry Hudson, in quest of a route northwestward,
explored the river and the bay that bear his name and died in the
Polar Seas.

Statistics, while not very trustworthy and not enlightening unless
compared with those for other nations, may give some idea of the
preponderance of Dutch shipping. At the time of the truce she is
said to have had 16,300 ships, about 10,000 of which were small
vessels in the coasting trade. Of the larger, 3000 were in the
Baltic trade, 2000 in the Spanish, 600 sailed to Italy, and the
remainder to the Mediterranean, South America, the Far East, and
Archangel. The significance of these figures may be made clearer by
citing Colbert's estimate that at a later period (1664) there were
20,000 ships in general European carrying trade, 16,000 of which
were Dutch. Throughout the 17th century Dutch commerce continued to
prosper, and did not reach its zenith until early in the century
following.

In the closing years of the 16th century several private companies
were founded in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Zealand to engage in eastern
trade. These were combined in 1602 into the Un