Commercial Republicanism
in the Dutch Golden Age
My first monograph, based on the PhD dissertation I defended in 2010, discusses the development and significance of 17th-century Dutch commercial republicanism, focusing on the political thought of the brothers Johan & Pieter de la Court. It was published by Brill at the very start of 2012.
“Weststeijn has written an excellent book which deserves praise for its meticulous research, its remarkable familiarity with Dutch and European philosophical culture and the depth of the textual analyses it propounds. It is refreshing to remember that Spinoza was not the only Dutch philosopher to loom large in the late Golden Age.”
The book was reviewed in a range of academic journals, including Renaissance Quarterly, BMGN/Low Countries Historical Review, European Review of History, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, The English Historical Review and Revue historique.
Hard copies are crazily expensive, but the book is available in open access here, as well as in google books.
The Dutch seventeenth century, a ‘Golden Age’ ridden by intense ideological conflict, pioneered global trade, participatory politics and religious toleration. Its history is epitomized by the life and works of the brothers Johan (1622-1660) and Pieter de la Court (1618-1685), two successful textile entrepreneurs and radical republican theorists during the apex of Dutch primacy in world trade.
This book explores the many facets of the brothers’ political thought, focusing on their ground-breaking argument that commerce forms the mainstay of republican politics. With a contextual analysis that highlights the interaction between thinking and acting, between intellectual and cultural history, the book reveals the international significance of this commercial republicanism and it proposes a novel, rhetorical approach to seventeenth-century Dutch political culture.