Equally unnecessary and unwise was the breach between Spain and the Dutch. The Netherlands were Spanish territory, and the Dutch were Spain's best customers. Their ships were in the habit of going to Lisbon for their cargoes of eastern goods, but the fanatical Philip II undertook to force the Roman Catholic religion upon them, and at his persecutions they revolted. He then closed the port of Lisbon against their ships, and their alternative was to either give up their eastern trade or go to India for the goods themselves. They were too enterprising to do the former, and hence was begun the commerce of the Dutch in India, while at the same time they joined their forces with England in the effort to destroy the Spanish fleet.

The commercial history of Holland rivals in interest that of Venice, and those indefatigable people achieved a commercial importance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which entitles them to a prominent place in history. Their lands are below the level of the sea, on the northwest coast of Europe, and were reclaimed from the sea by building immense dykes. Year after year and generation after generation this sturdy and indomitable people fought back the sea, and the soil being but a sediment of mud, under their careful cultivation, became a fertile garden. They were a nation of agriculturists, manufacturers and merchants. Abstemious and self-denying to a degree, they handled the products of the East as merchants, but denied themselves the use of luxuries. At the time of Philip II they had already become one of the richest and most prosperous provinces in Europe. Their thrift was unsurpassed. Their cities of Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were the commercial centers of northern Europe. These cities had been the seat of considerable manufacturing during the middle ages. Woolen and linen goods were the chief products. The first optical instruments and the pendulum clock came from Holland. The art of printing and book-binding had been carried to a high state of perfection. Dutch ships had, centuries before, traded at the ports along the shores of the Baltic Sea and distributed the products received from Venetian merchants. Gradually the Dutch had built up extensive fisheries, until at one time the herring fisheries of Holland gave employment to 60,000 men. In 1614 a company was organized for the special purpose of engaging in whale fishing. At the beginning of the seventeenth century (1600) the carrying trade of Europe was practically all in the hands of the Dutch. They also possessed a monopoly of the ship building industry, and nearly every country of Europe had its ships built in Holland. Agriculture and cattle raising flourished extensively at this time, and together with its manufacturing industries placed the country in a most prosperous condition.

Having broken off with Spain, the Dutch immediately turned their attention toward the commerce of the East. A number of merchants combined to fit out ships for the long voyage, and the venture proving highly successful, the great Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602, with a charter from the government. This company was the pattern of all future Dutch, French and English companies, and had authority to take possession of newly discovered land, make war or peace with the natives or other inhabitants, erect forts, establish garrisons, and appoint administrative and judicial officers. Fierce and bloody conflicts with the Portuguese in India and the far East ensued, but with the help of the natives the Dutch drove them from Malacca in 1651 and from Ceylon in 1658. Java, Bantam, Amboina, Ternate and the Banda Islands were opened up to Dutch commerce, and even a slight footing in Japan was secured. In 1660 the Dutch conquered Celebes, one of the last possessions of the unfortunate and misgoverning Portuguese. With this extensive commerce flowing directly into Holland, the Dutch grew in wealth at a wonderful pace. Amsterdam became the Venice of the North and the great banking exchange for Europe.

Having thus established a rich and successful empire in the East, whose gains provided the means for further expansion, the Dutch began to turn their attention to the Western hemisphere. They fitted out several exploring expeditions, and one of these, in charge of Hendrik Hudson, an agent of the Dutch East India Company, bent on finding a western passage to India, sailed into New York harbor in 1609 and discovered the river which bears his name. Five years later the Dutch built a fort on Manhattan Island, which they purchased from the Indians for a sum equivalent to $24 in our currency, and named the settlement New Amsterdam. In 1612 the Dutch took possession of a number of the West India Islands and established a colony in Guiana, South America. Their western commerce was increasing, and anticipating that it might equal or surpass their trade with the East, they formed the "West India Company, which, however, proved anything but successful financially.

The colonial policy of the Dutch was of the oppressive and monopolistic character, similar in many respects to that of Portugal and Spain, and the prosperity of their colonies was not permanent. England came forward about the middle of the seventeenth century as a rival to the Dutch in foreign commerce, and passed a series of statutes in 1651 and 1660, called the Navigation Acts, aimed at Dutch commerce. These brought on a short but severe war with England, which resulted disastrously for Holland. During this conflict the English forcibly took possession of New Amsterdam and converted it into an English colony, changing the name to New York. With the progress of England and France the commercial power of Holland 'declined. The Norwegians competed with them in the fisheries, the Germans in the trade of central and southern Europe, and Holland became, and has since remained, secondary in point of commercial importance.