Why Holland Had a Financial Revolution, but Flanders and Brabant Did not

Abstract

This chapter explains the evolution of Holland’s exceptional state finances by way of a comparison with the contrasting path-dependent developments in sixteenth-century Flanders and Brabant. It starts by describing the various starting positions within the respective provincial estates, in which the towns, the nobility and sometimes also the clergy enjoyed representation. Significantly, efficient coalition-making in the South was hampered by inter-urban rivalry. The following section shows how urban communities in Holland managed to extend control over financial matters in the sixteenth century, resulting in much higher per capita taxation than in any other province in the Low Countries. By that time, a smooth system of contracting public loans was already in place. As a result, Holland entered the Revolt in a far better financial state than the other provinces, with a centralized provincial financial administration that could rise above the bickering of the individual constituent members of the province.