This study offers an overview of the development and structure of the remarkable public finances of the Dutch Republic. Comparisons with the Venetian Republic, Britain and the Ottoman Empire underline the importance of 'urbanization trajectories' in understanding differences in fiscal performance.

Wantje Fritschy (Ph.D. Leiden 1988) is retired senior lecturer in Economic and Social History and professor in the History of Early Modern Public Finance at VU University Amsterdam; she has led a large research project on public finance in the Dutch Republic at the Huygens Institute of Netherlands History (Huygens ING) in The Hague.