Pieter De La Court
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Pieter de la Court (1618 – May 28, 1685) was a
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and businessman, he is the origin of the successful De la Court family. He pioneered modern thinking about the economic importance of free
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
and was an uncompromising advocate of the republican form of government.


Biography

Pieter de la Court was born in
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
, the son of Pieter de la Court the Elder and Jeanne des Planques. His parents were
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
immigrants from
Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
, who settled in Leiden around 1613 in order to be able to practise their faith and to profit from the rapid expansion of Leiden as the world centre of cloth manufacturing. Pieter de la Court the Elder was a successful cloth merchant before he arrived in Leiden. His wife also came from a family of wealthy cloth manufacturers. They had established themselves as members of the local economic elite by the time Pieter was born. The couple had three other children; Jacob (born 1617), Johanna (born 1620) and Johan (1622–1660). Johan is generally seen as the author of at least two of the books that have later been ascribed to Pieter. De la Court studied at
Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
and completed his education with a
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
through Europe in 1641 - 1643. He went to London,
Saumur Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...
(France), Geneva and
Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
. The diary he kept during his journey has been preserved and was published in 1928. After returning to Leiden, De la Court entered his father's profession and set up a cloth trading firm with his brother Johan. By 1650 the firm of the two brothers had evolved into one of the leading cloth operations in the city. In spite of his immigrant background De la Court was able to penetrate the social elite of
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
. He became a close friend of Johan Eleman, who was a member of Leiden's governing council and a relative of
Johan de Witt Johan de Witt (; 24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672), ''lord of Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp en IJsselvere'', was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, the Fi ...
(1625-72), the de facto leader of the
Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
between 1653 and 1672. In 1657 De la Court married Eleman's sister in law, Elisabeth Tollenaer, who died only one year later in childbirth. In 1660 De la Court's younger brother and business partner Johan died. Pieter was married again in 1661, this time to Catharina van der Voort, the sister of two wealthy Amsterdam merchants and, again, a relative of Johan de Witt. It was in this turbulent period of De la Court's life that he published almost all of his books about the
political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
of Holland and the larger Dutch Republic. In the preface to the ''Interest van Holland'', the most renowned of these books, he explicitly ascribed this publishing frenzy to the need to distract his mind from the tragedy that had hit him. The centerpiece of this body of work was the ''Interest of Holland'', published in 1662. It contained a critical analysis of the economic success of the Dutch Republic and demonstrated how this success had been brought about by the combined effects of free competition and free (i.e. republican) government. It became a bestseller overnight. In Holland the ''Interest van Holland'' gained notoriety and infamy as a republican manifesto. Abroad the ''Interest'' was widely translated and read as an explanatory guide to the miraculous economic success of the Dutch. De la Court's second wife Catharina van der Voort had two children, Magdalena (1662) and Pieter (1664), later named Pieter de la Court van der Voort. In 1665 the family moved from Leiden to
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, by then the undisputed centre of world trade. There De la Court expanded the scope of his business activities by participating in the ventures of his two brothers in law. De la Court became the leader of a consortium of Amsterdam merchants who sought to break the monopoly of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
on all trade with the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. The group filed petitions which claimed that the monopoly was limited to the trade route around the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. In 1668 they actually sent an exploratory vessel to the Arctic to find a shipping route around Siberia. The endeavour failed but shows De la Court was an advocate of free trade in theory and practice. De la Court's publishing activity had made him a well known protagonist of the republican "party" in contemporary Dutch politics. This group, consisting primarily of the wealthy businessmen in the cities of Holland and led by Johan de Witt, effectively ran the Dutch Republic from 1650 until 1672. They strongly opposed the political powers and ambitions of the
House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherlands ...
which usually held the office of
Stadholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
, a pseudo-royal position that somehow survived in the otherwise republican institutions of the Dutch Republic, except during this
First Stadtholderless Period The First Stadtholderless Period or Era (1650–72; nl, Eerste Stadhouderloze Tijdperk) is the period in the history of the Dutch Republic in which the office of Stadtholder was vacant in five of the seven Dutch provinces (the provinces of Fries ...
. De la Court was probably never close to Johan de Witt, but it has been established that De Witt was actively involved in the writing of De la Court's most outspoken and most widely read text, the ''Interest van Holland''. When the Orangist faction regained control of the country in 1672, Johan de Witt was lynched by an Orangist mob and Pieter de la Court fled to Antwerp where he stayed with his brother in law Guglielmo van der Voort. He returned to Amsterdam in 1673 where he lived as a merchant until his death in 1685. The last book that was published by De la Court appeared in 1669. A final work, the ''Sinryke Fabulen'', was published posthumously in 1685.


Works

De la Court's works were published anonymously, but contemporaries immediately identified Pieter de la Court as the author of most of them. It is now generally believed that some of these books were actually written by his brother, Johan, and that at least one other title was the work of his business friend Johan Uytenhage de Mist. It has been established as a fact that Johan de Witt and a number of other government officials contributed to the ''Interest van Holland''. De la Court's ''oeuvre'' can be divided into three groups of titles.


Political economy

The ''Interest van Holland'' was published in 1662 and immediately became a bestseller in Holland and later also elsewhere. The book contained an analysis of the miraculous economic success of Holland, the leading province of the Dutch Republic, and then set out to establish the economic and political principles on which that success was based. De la Court identified free competition and the republican form of government as the leading factors contributing to the wealth and power of his home country. The book was written in an outspoken and polemic style and went through eight editions in 1662. A revised luxury edition appeared in 1669. It was translated into German in 1665, English in 1702 and French in 1709. A new English translation appeared as late as 1746.


Political theory

In 1660 De la Court published the ''Consideratien van Staet'' (Considerations of State), followed in 1662 by the ''Politike Discoursen''. Both titles seek to establish a theoretical basis for the superiority of the republican form of government. Although the texts share the ''Interests republican penchant, they have an altogether different nature. The tone is subdued and the style philosophical with extensive references to other political theorists. Both texts are now thought to have been written by De la Court's brother Johan.


Political pamphlets

The third and most extensive part of De la Court's work is the series of republican and anti-monarchist pamphlets he published in 1662 and 1663. The most well-known are the ''Historie der gravelike regering in Holland'' (History of the counts of Holland) and ''De stadthouderlijcke regeeringe in Hollandt ende West-Vrieslandt'' (History of the stadholders of Holland and West-Friesland). Both books contain vivid albeit rather one-sided descriptions of the damage that had been done to the country by monarchical leaders since the Middle Ages.


Influence

The ''Interest van Holland'' is one of the preeminent textbooks of economic and political freedom in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book was an immediate bestseller in the Dutch Republic and went through eleven editions between 1662 and 1671. The Dutch version was read in political circles throughout Europe and translations appeared in German (1665 and 1671), French (1709) and English (1702, 1743 and 1746). The book had a significant influence on political and economic thinking but its primary importance lay in the impact it had on office holders and political reality. The ''Interest van Holland'' was not a philosophical disquisition, but a recipe book for political and economic success.


Dutch Republic 1662 - 1795

Within the Dutch Republic the ''Interest van Holland'' became the ''de facto'' government manifesto of the republican oligarchy led by Johan de Witt until 1672. The ''Interest van Holland'' viciously attacked the pseudo-royal stadtholders. De Witt abolished the office in 1669. The ''Interest'' was wary of war and geographical expansion. The States of Holland neglected the army and sought to evade conflicts with their bigger neighbours. Instead the money was spent on a naval buildup, another ''Interest'' recommendation. At sea the military would not primarily be a cost, but a useful tool in protecting and promoting the commercial interests of the Republic and its rulers. Finally the ''Interest'' was vehemently opposed to monopoly, most notably the Dutch East and West India Companies and the guilds, the closed associations of craftsmen that controlled most manufacturing activity. The two trading companies, huge sovereign entities way beyond the control of the provincial and city governments of Holland, were immune to these attacks and survived all the way to the end of the Dutch Republic. But De la Court did play a role in the demise of the
guilds A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
that were increasingly seen as obstacles to economic innovation and growth. The regime of De Witt ended in 1672. The ''Interest van Holland'' remained a leading source of republican inspiration until the dissolution of the
Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
in 1795.


Europe and United States 1662 - 1789

The ''Interest van Holland'' was widely read in Europe for a number of reasons. When the book appeared it stirred the curiosity of political rulers throughout the continent because it was seen as a look into the backrooms of the Dutch political and economic machinery. Later the text was espoused by supporters of free trade and republicanism throughout Europe, for whom it remained a source of inspiration until the end of the eighteenth century. It is hard to overestimate the profound influence of the ''Interest van Holland'' on the European and American political elites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as can be seen from numerous examples. The book was read and used by politicians as diverse as
Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...
,
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
and
Turgot Turgot may refer to: * Turgot of Durham ( – 1115), Prior of Durham and Bishop of St Andrews * Michel-Étienne Turgot (1690–1751), mayor of Paris * Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727–1781), French economist and statesman * Louis Félix Étienn ...
. It was quoted and discussed by free trade pamphleteers in Britain and
Physiocrats Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultur ...
in France. It can be assumed that the book was also one of the sources of inspiration also for
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
's ''Wealth of Nations''.


Literature

The text of the last English edition of the ''Interest'' can be downloaded from the website of the
Liberty Fund Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American private educational foundation headquartered in Carmel, founded by Pierre F. Goodrich. Through publishing, conferences, and educational resources, the operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an un ...

Pieter de la Court, ''The True Interest and Political Maxims, of the Republic of Holland (1662)''
The leading source on De la Court's life and works is Ivo W. Wildenberg, ''Johan & Pieter de la Court'' (Amsterdam & Maarssen, 1986).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Court, Pieter de la 1618 births 1685 deaths 17th-century Dutch businesspeople 17th-century Dutch economists 17th-century Dutch political philosophers Dutch Golden Age writers 17th-century Dutch historians Dutch republicans Enlightenment philosophers Preclassical economists Scientists from Amsterdam Writers from Amsterdam Writers from Leiden