Dutch investors

Jan Luiten van Zanden - The Long Road to the Industrial Revolution. The European economy in a global perspective, 1000-1800 (Brill, 2009) 223

The reasons for this gap were obvious to Dutch investors: they distrusted monarchs whose actions were not bound by representative institutions. The Leiden millionaire Pieter de la Court van der Voort, for example, recommended buying English stock, as it was guaranteed by Parliament. He was, however, extremely suspicious of the other monarchies. High interest rates would only fool the ignorant, he claimed, but served as a warning for those in the know, as they were only offered by swindlers. One should be especially careful with those who invoked the bible to prove their reliability, or when dealing with monarchs: ‘Those who trust the signed promises of sovereigns find themselves easily betrayed’, De la Court told his wife and heirs (Prak, 1985, p. 137).