Dutch mercantile trade system

Timeline

1. 1651Westminster, London · United KingdomCromwell's Protectorate government issued the Navigation Acts, stipulating that goods imported into Britain and its colonies must be carried in British ships or ships of the country of origin, explicitly targeting the Dutch role as intermediaries in re-export trade and directly challenging the transit-trade-centered commercial logic of the Dutch mercantile system.
2. 1652–1654North Sea · Northern European watersDuring the First Anglo-Dutch War, the British navy inflicted heavy losses on Dutch merchant ships and escort fleets in multiple naval battles, and Baltic grain imports were interrupted for a time. The Dutch mercantile system continued to operate on the liquidity reserves of the Bank of Amsterdam and the independent Asian revenues of the VOC, demonstrating its high degree of institutional resilience.
3. 1653–1660The Hague · NetherlandsAfter Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt took office, he systematically adjusted the mercantile system: expanding the navy, reforming the naval command structure, expanding trade agreements through diplomacy, while mobilizing private capital to support state finances through the public debt (renten) system, pushing the Dutch mercantile system toward a more mature form of state financial capitalism.
4. 1655–1660Baltic region · Baltic coastAfter the war, the Netherlands regained control of Baltic grain transport routes; each year hundreds of Fluyt ships crossed the Sound Strait carrying rye and wheat to Amsterdam, then re-shipped them to Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean; the transit profits of Baltic trade became one of the key revenue sources supporting the Dutch mercantile system.