was very much reduced. Between the years 1651 and
1672, when Holland was overrun by the French, their commerce seems to have
reached the greatest extent, which it attained in the seventeenth century;
and perhaps, at no subsequent period, did it flourish so much. De Witt
estimates the increase of their commerce and navigation from the peace with
Spain in 1648 to the year 1669, to be fully one-half. He adds, that during
the war with Holland, Spain lost the greater part of her naval power: that
since the peace with Spain, the Dutch had obtained most of the trade to
that country, which had been previously carried on by the Easterlings and
the English;--that all the coasts of Spain were chiefly navigated by Dutch
shipping: that Spain had even been forced to hire Dutch ships to sail to
her American possessions; and that so great was the exportation of goods
from Holland to Spain, that all the merchandize brought from the Spanish
West Indies, was not sufficient to make returns for them.

The same author informs us, that in the province of Holland alone, in 1669,
the herring and cod fisheries employed above one thousand busses, from
twenty-four to thirty lasts each; and above 170 smaller ones: that the
whale fishery was increased from one to ten; that the cod and herring, when
caught, were transported by the Hollanders in their own vessels throughout
the world; thus obtaining, by means of the sea alone, through their own
industry, above 300,000 lasts of salt fish.

As the Dutch commerce was decidedly and undoubtedly more extensive than
that of all the rest of Europe, about the middle of the seventeenth
century, it may be proper, before we conclude our notice of it at this
time, to consider briefly the causes which cherished it into such full
growth and vigour. These causes are explained in a very judicious and
satisfactory manner by Sir William Temple, in his observations on the
Netherlands. He remarks, that though the territory of the Dutch was very
small, and though they laboured under many natural disadvantages, yet their
commerce was immense; and it was generally esteemed that they had more
shipping belonging to them than there did to all the rest of Europe.

They had no native commodities towards the building or equipping their
ships; their flax, hemp, pitch, wood, and iron, coming all from abroad, as
wool does for clothing their men, and corn for feeding them. The only
productions or manufactures of their own, which they