Page "Batavian Republic" Paragraph 24

The unitary state was not an end in itself, but a means to higher ends.

The republic had been in dire financial straits even before the revolution of 1795.

The system of public finance that had been the envy of the world in its Golden Age, enabling it to throw far beyond its weight in world politics up to the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, had become a millstone around its neck.

By 1713 the public debt of the province of Holland had reached 310 million guilders ; the debt of the Generality was 68 million ; and the debts of the smaller provinces, and of the cities came on top of this.

The debt service of Holland alone in that year required 14 million guilders, which exceeded its regular tax revenue.

Most of this humongous public debt was held by Dutch private citizens, so in a sense it merely engendered an internal money circuit in the Dutch economy.

However, it was mostly concentrated in the hands of the rentier class, while the debt was serviced by mainly regressive taxes that weighed on the working population.

Most importantly, these were taxes levied by the individual provinces, who serviced their own debt, and paid into the Generality coffers according to a repartition schedule last changed in 1616.

Attempts to reform this structure during the 18th century were mainly fruitless.