historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 9. The working of politics. The Disquisitiones politicae
expand ‘and, as a while before, to add a new town to the old one’ in order to
receive the poor Walloon refugees who ‘in recent years’ had flocked to Leiden
and had sought admittance to the town. 59 One of the arguments put forward
by proponents of a new expansion was that ‘experience showed’ that the
expansion of ‘a few years ago’ ‘had gone very well’. ‘So why should they hestitate
to follow a just and useful example?’ 60 Those who were against a new
expansion argued, amongst others, that ‘not all ancestral examples, although
they are recommended by their outcome, impose the necesity of approving
them. Some of them are such, that they at once both have exhausted themselves
and introduced a change of posterity’. 61 The opponents of a new expansion
won the day; Leiden was not expanded and ‘by so doing they found that
they enjoy’d great Peace and Tranquility for the present among them, and
greater Security for their Posterity’. 62
Past examples, then, do not always merit imitation, all the more since past
results do not guarantee future success. 63 As the citizens of Trier had replied to
their bishop, who had argued in favour of Frenchmen holding administrative
offices in their town on the ground that the French had until thus far always
behaved correctly, what would guarantee that the French would continue to
59 Boxhorn, Disquisitiones politicae, XXXVII, p. 168. ‘Superioribus annis ex Gallo-Belgicis Provinciis
injuriis bellorum, & hostium incursionibus continuo vexatis, plurimi tenuioris nulliusque (ut sic dixerim)
fortunae in Bataviam se contulere, ac Lugdunum Batavorum, ob lanificia quae exercentur illic, quibusque
illi domi assueverant, imprimis admitti cupivere. Sed Urbs utut maxima, tantae tamen multitudinis recipiendae
nimis angusta videbatur. Deliberatum itaque in Urbano Senatu est; An non pomoeria civitatis
latius extendere, &, ut paulo ante, novam urbem veteri adstruere, conveniens & pro Repub. esset.’ After
1574 Leiden had witnessed an enormous revival, especially thanks to the large stream of immigrants
from the Southern Netherlands. In 1611 it was therefore decided to expand the town. Although the number
of immigrants smooth down after 1622, in 1642 there were again talks of expanding the town. The
main supporters of expansion were the cloth fabricants who needed housing for their workers and room
to expand their industry. The town council, however, feared that expansion would have a too big attrac-
tion on ‘common people’ (gemeen ( volck volck),
who would do the economy more harm than good. It was also
worried that expanding the town would concentrate too much power in the hands of the textile industry
and that expansion would lead to a crash on the housing market. However, in 1644 the town council
decided in favour of a small expansion. Van Maanen, “Stadsbeeld en ruimtelijke ordening”, pp. 25-27,
with quote on p. 26, and Noordam, “Demografische ontwikkelingen”, pp. 49-53. The information above
suggests that the historical example in this case study can be dated somewhere between 1642 and 1644,
before the decision of the Leiden town council to once again expand the town.
60 Ibidem, p. 169. ‘Ea etiam de causa ante annos aliquot auctam nuper Civitatem, optime id cessisse
experientiam testari; cur igitur aequum & utile exemplum imitari dubitarent?’
61 Ibidem, p. 173. ‘Non omnia Majorum Exempla, quamvis usu suo probata imponere probationis
necessitatem. Quaedam ex illis talia esse, quae simul & se exhauserint & posterorum mutationem.’
62 Boxhorn, Arcana Imperii Detecta, XLVI, p. 233.
63 This is not only confined to the Disquisitiones politicae. In Boxhorn’s history of siege of Breda we
find the story that one day Frederik Hendrik had decided to storm the walls, instead of sticking to the
hard and tedious work of undermining the town walls, because ‘experience had shown that the courage
and preserverance of the enemy sooner give way than his fortifications’. However, ‘the result did not
comply to [his] wish’. The enemy had been prepaired, and, after suffering heavy losses, the besiegers
were forced to retreat. Boxhorn, Historia obsidionis Bredae, p. 116. ‘Nonnunquam quoque experientia
cognitum, animos saepe hostium & constantiam prius quam opera expugnari … Sed eventus voto haud
respondit.’
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