The Dutch Republic as a Town

Abstract

Although French history during the ancien regime conveys the image of a vast and empty countryside, Dutch history of the time evokes an image of a crowded and geographically restricted city. Practically all contemporaries considered this limited scale a great advantage. In the 1785 Constitutional Restoration, the manual containing the blueprints for a new political future designed by Dutch revolutionaries, great value is attached to this small-scale and orderly character of Dutch urban society: (thus) all Citizens know and esteem each other; because their Sovereign Principals are able to perceive the evil coming to pass and the good needing to be done in their own proper persons; and because their commands are carried out under their very eyes.1 The concept of Holland as a town is not just another metaphor. Around 1800, when the country was past the peak of its early modern urbanization, 37% of its inhabitants still lived in moderate-sized towns. In the province of Holland, the most populous of the Dutch Republic, this reached 60%. France could not compare, with only 12%, and even England