Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740 by Jonathan I. Israel (Professor of Dutch History and Institutions, Professor of Dutch History and Institutions, University of London)
Despite its small size and population, the Dutch Republic functioned as the hub of world trade, shipping, and finance for nearly two centuries. This is the first detailed account of that hegemony from its sixteenth-century origins to the final collapse of the Dutch trading system in the eighteenth century.