The Scotts of Balwearie - by Carol Clark Johnson - Vredenburgh

THE NETHERLANDS
After the Reformation, Holland was a great Protestant
fortress in Europe with a tradition of tolerance, Calvinistic
rigour and hospitality. The first half of the 17th
century was an era of great commercial prosperity and the
"golden age" of the Netherlands. By 1650 the Dutch were
the foremost commercial and maritime power of Europe and
Amsterdam was the financial center of the continent. The
Dutch were a leading colonial and imperialistic power, establishing
New Amsterdam and other colonies in eastern
America.
Because the Dutch have great respect for other human
beings, they showed tolerance and hospitality to religious
dissenters. Protestants flooded in. The congregation
at Leyden left in 1620 for New England. Other Protestants
continued to come and there was a growing Scottish community.
Merchant vessels plied regularly between Holland,
the European ports and the eastcoast harbors of Scotland.
The Dutch were the most. prosperous prople of Europe, made
wealthy by herring rh;hing, by the East and West Indies
companies,"and their vast mercantile fleet. The hard work
of skilled craftsmen, many of them religious refugees from
other countries, made Holland foremost in every branch of
industry.
During that period, Holland was a center of art and
learning with a great university at Amsterdam. It was the
age of Rembrandt and Vermeer.
The canals and rivers have brought prosperity, but
without the dikes and the pumping stations nearly half of
Holland would be flooded. Water management is a chief
concern. Men who once were fishermen but who now live on
arable land say God created the world but man created
Rolland. The grim fight for economic survivalanda stern
religion made the Dutch basically serious and relatively
humorless, but hard-working, law-abiding,helpful and hospitable.
Every part of the Netherlands is easily accessible
by rivers and canals. Commerce and culture flowed
freely, but paradoxically water separated the island from
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