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

Chapter 3. Biography
to some 47.000 in 1625, a figure that would grow to around 49.000 in 1650. 30 To
house all these newcomers and to make room for new industrial development,
Leiden had to expand twice, in 1611 and 1644. 31 The expansions gave a great
impulse to construction and related industries and helped to make Leiden one
of the biggest textile manufacturing centres of Europe. 32
The main reason behind the rapid growth of Leiden’s population was a
massive influx of immigrants. The majority of these immigrants came from
the Southern Netherlands. Some, like Boxhorn and his family, had left their
homes out of religious considerations. Others sought new prospects and economic
prosperity. Leiden offered opportunities to both groups, and by allowing
immigrants to profess their own faith (and in some cases even to start their
own congregation) and by exempting newcomers from paying certain taxes
the town magistracy actively tried and succeeded in luring many immigrants
to enter Leiden’s gates and to facilitate the town’s economic growth with their
labour, capital, and skill. 33
Just at the time that the flow of immigrants from the Southern Netherlands
started to decrease the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) caused
a new stream of immigrants to seek refuge in the Dutch Republic. 34 Harm
Wansink and Howard Hotson have shown that the University of Leiden was a
main beneficiary of this new stream of immigrants. The Thirty Years’ War had
a devastating effect on German universities, Protestant and Catholic alike,
as Imperial, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, and French armies swept across the
Empire besieging and capturing university towns such as Heidelberg in the
Palatinate and Ingolstadt in Bavaria. The devastation and disruption caused
by these armies forced many students from Central and Eastern Europe to
study elsewhere. Many Protestant students, such as Conring, set course for
the Dutch Republic. 35 It was mainly thanks to these students that the annual
matriculation at Leiden University rose from 249 students between 1601 and
1625 to 443 students between 1626 and 1650. During the latter period, the Uni-
30 Dirk Jaap Noordam, “Demografische ontwikkelingen”, in Simon Groenveld (ed.), Leiden: de
geschiedenis van een Hollandse stad, Vol. 2 (Stichting Geschiedschrijving Leiden; Leiden, 2003), pp. 43-45.
31 R.C.J. van Maanen, “Stadsbeeld en ruimtelijke ordening”, in Groenveld (ed.), Leiden, Vol. 2, pp.
25-27.
32 De Vries and Van der Woude, The First Modern Economy, pp. 279-90, and Milja van Tielhof,
“Een open economie, in voor- en tegenspoed: de economische ontwikkeling van Holland”, in Thimo
de Nijs and Eelco Beukers (eds.), Geschiedenis van Holland, Vol. 2 (Uitgeverij Verloren; Hilversum, 2002),
pp. 151-53.
33 Noordam, “Demografische ontwikkelingen”, p. 53, and Boudien de Vries, Jan Lucassen, Piet
Lourens and Harm Nijboer, “Het economische leven: spectaculair succes en diep verval”, in Groenveld
(ed.), Leiden, Vol. 2, pp. 88-95.
34 Israel, The Dutch Republic, p. 330.
35 See chapter 2, footnote 31.
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