This ground-breaking collection reveals the networks of interrelation between Early Modern England and the Dutch Republic. As people, ideas and goods moved back and forth across the North Sea – or spread further afield in the vanguard of globalisation and empire – Anglo-Dutch relations shaped all aspects of life, with profound implications still relevant today. A diverse range of expert scholars share new research in their discipline, ranging across technology, trade, politics, religion and the arts. Different aspects of this history of competition, alliance, migration and conflict are taken up by each chapter, providing the reader with detailed case studies as well as the broader background and its historical roots. Anglo-Dutch Connections in the Early Modern World aims to be both accessible and innovative. It will be essential to students and researchers interested in European politics, intellectual history, and shared Anglo-Dutch society, while showcasing current research in multiple facets of the Early Modern World.

A magisterial account of how the cultural and maritime relationships between the British, Dutch and American territories changed the existing world order – and made the Industrial Revolution possible Between 1500 and 1800, the North Sea region overtook the Mediterranean as the most dynamic part of the world. At its core the Anglo-Dutch relationship intertwined close alliance and fierce antagonism to intense creative effect. But a precondition for the Industrial Revolution was also the establishment in British North America of a unique type of colony – for the settlement of people and culture, rather than the extraction of things. England’s republican revolution of 1649–53 was a spectacular attempt to change social, political and moral life in the direction pioneered by the Dutch. In this wide-angled and arresting book Jonathan Scott argues that it was also a turning point in world history. In the revolution’s wake, competition with the Dutch transformed the military-fiscal and naval resources of the state. One result was a navally protected Anglo-American trading monopoly. Within this context, more than a century later, the Industrial Revolution would be triggered by the alchemical power of American shopping

In English Trade and Adventure to Russia in the Early Modern Era, Maria Salomon Arel revisits Anglo-Russian trade in first half of the seventeenth century. Drawing on largely neglected Russian and English sources, she reconstructs the history of the Muscovy Company in a period of expanding opportunities for foreigners in Russia and of tightening links between regional markets across the globe. In her strongly revisionist telling, the Company successfully rebuilt in the aftermath of the devastating Time of Troubles, securing its uniquely privileged position in the Russian market at the hands of a newly installed tsar and Romanov dynasty keen to revive the country’s decimated economy through the stimulus of foreign trade. Meanwhile, on the London end of a trade clearly deemed relevant to commercial and shipping interests increasingly dependent on Russian naval stores and invested in the Russian re-export trades to and from the Mediterranean and Asia, the Company restructured its organization and finances with crucial royal support in furtherance of the ‘public good’ and early Stuart dynastic honor. As Arel documents, by the 1630s-40s, English trade to Russia was flourishing, as seen in the growing number of Muscovy Company men active all along the Moscow-Archangel route, their substantial commercial infrastructure, extensive supply networks among a broad swath of Russian merchants and traders, and prominent role in the exploitation of monopoly trades established to fill the tsar’s coffers with specie. The picture drawn by Arel overturns a traditional narrative on the Russia trade that has relegated the English to the shadows, demonstrating the tenacity and continued development of their enterprise at the intersection of English commercial expansion, Russian economic growth, and advancing globalization processes. Taking the narrative even further, the book opens up new perspectives and research directions by pointing to an incipient link between the Russian and transatlantic markets, while shifting the lens on the Anglo-Dutch relationship in the Russia trade away from the time-worn dichotomy of cutthroat competition to a more nuanced understanding of mutual cooperation and business association between merchants on the ground, even in the face of commercial and territorial competition between nations.

This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access. Dutch Atlantic Connections reevaluates the role of the Dutch in the Atlantic between 1680-1800. It shows how pivotal the Dutch were for the functioning of the Atlantic sytem by highlighting both economic and cultural contributions to the Atlantic world.

This richly illustrated book tells the story of cultural exchange between the people of the Low Countries and England in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and reveals how Anglo-Dutch connections changed the literary landscape on both sides of the North Sea.Ranging from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688, it examines how Dutch-speaking immigrants transformed English culture, and it uncovers the lasting impact of contacts and collaborations between Dutch and English speakers on historical writing, map-making, manuscript production and early printing. The literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations is explored and lavishly illustrated through the unique collection of manuscripts, early prints, maps and other treasures from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book sheds new light on the literature and art of a pivotal period in European history.

This edited volume explores the development of the European book world between 1650 and 1750, concentrating on changes in publishing strategies, practices of censorship, the circulation of second-hand books and the building of libraries. Its essays discuss this critical, but much neglected period of print history through case studies from Spain, Italy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Britain and the Netherlands. Ranging from the posthumous publication of Galileo to the regulation of the book auction market, this volume demonstrates that the century between 1650 and 1750 was a transformative period for the history of the printed book.

The tumultuous relations between Britain and the United Provinces in the seventeenth century provide the backdrop to this book, striking new ground as its transnational framework permits an overview of their intertwined culture, politics, trade, intellectual exchange, and religious debate. How the English and Dutch understood each other is coloured by these factors, and revealed through an imagological method, charting the myriad uses of stereotypes in different genres and contexts. The discussion is anchored in a specific context through the lives and works of John Milton and Andrew Marvell, whose complex connections with Dutch people and society are investigated. As well as turning overdue attention to neglected Dutch writers of the period, the book creates new possibilities for reading Milton and Marvell as not merely English, but European poets.