Adriaan Kluit's statistics and the future of the Dutch state from a European perspective
2009; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2009.11.002
ISSN1873-541X
AutoresKoen Stapelbroek, Ida H. Stamhuis, P.M.M. Klep,
ResumoAbstract This article discusses the early history of academic statistics in the Netherlands in relation to the reform challenges of the Dutch state. Statistics, before it developed into a predominantly quantitative social science, was adopted around 1800 by Adriaan Kluit as a method for shaping and articulating his political vision. Kluit's politics, the article suggests, echoed the specific outlook on the 'intrinsic power' of the Dutch Republic as a trading state that was developed during William IV's stadholderate in the mid eighteenth century. Through the ideas of later writers and statesmen who had trained as statisticians this same approach to envisaging the Dutch future in international trade and politics was carried over into nineteenth-century Dutch political economy and constitutional reform. Keywords: StatisticsNetherlandsInterstate systemTrade republicsTaxation Notes 1 The main exception being G.A. Boutelje, Bijdrage tot de kennis van A. Kluit's opvattingen over onze oudere vaderlandsche geschiedenis (Groningen, 1920) and recently, though not very relevant for this article, Igor Bilt Landkaartschrijvers en landverdelers. Adriaen Verwer (ca. 1655–1717), Adriaan Kluit (1735–1807) en de Nederlandse taalkunde van de achttiende eeuw (Amsterdam, 2009). The main biographical writings about Kluit are dated, Hajo Brugmans, 'Adriaan Kluit', Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, eds. P.C. Molhuysen and P.J. Blok (Leiden, 1914), vol. 3, pp. 696–8, J.W. te Water, 'Levensberichten van Adriaan Kluit, Johan Luzac, Ahasuërus van den Berg en Pieter van Winter', Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Leiden, 1807), pp. 1–16. Willem Bilderdijk and Matthijs Siegenbeek, 'Adriaan Kluit', Leyden's Ramp (Amsterdam, 1808), pp. 86–122. 2 In discussing the rise of statistics we will draw on Paul M.M. Klep and Ida H. Stamhuis eds., The statistical mind in a pre-statistical era. The Netherlands 1750–1850 (Amsterdam, 2002) and Ida H. Stamhuis, 'Cijfers en Aequaties' en 'Kennis der Staatskrachten'. Statistiek in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam, 1989). 3 Statistics was an 'Orangist science' as was noted in the inaugural address of 1971 by A.Th. van Deursen, 'Geschiedenis en Toekomstverwachting. Het onderwijs in de statistiek aan de universiteiten van de achttiende eeuw', in: Geschiedschrijving in Nederland. Studies over de historiografie van de Nieuwe Tijd, vol. 2, eds. P.A.M Geurts and A.E.M. Janssen (The Hague, 1981), pp. 122–3. This is re-iterated by Ida Nijenhuis, 'Trends and Transitions in Dutch Commercial Republicanism' (unpublished paper), who generously allowed us to use her insightful piece before publication. 4 See Koen Stapelbroek, 'Dutch commercial decline revisited: The future of international trade and the 1750s debate about a limited free port', Annali della Fondazione Feltrinelli 43, (2009), pp. 193–221. 5 This thesis will be further developed out in a monograph in preparation by Koen Stapelbroek that focuses primarily on Dutch political economic reforms in the later eighteenth century. 6 The idea of continuity has the danger of causing confusion, C.H.E. de Wit, De Nederlandse revolutie van de achttiende eeuw 1780–1787: Oligarchie en proletariaat (Oirsbeek, 1974), pp. 276–7 portrayed Kluit (along with Hogendorp, Luzac and others) as a cynical 'conservative' defender of the (oligarchical) regent class against reform. In this article the rudiments of a very different view are put forward. Possibly, the gist of this article goes against the grain of Siep Stuurman, Wacht op onze daden: Het liberalisme en de vernieuwing van de Nederlandse staat (Amsterdam, 1992), p. 15, 85, whose put-down of 'continuity loving historians' was picked up by N.C.F. van Sas, De Metamorfose van Nederland. Van oude orde naar moderniteit, 1750–1900 (Amsterdam, 2004), pp. 489–90. 7 N.G. Pierson, 'Friedrich List en zijn tijd', De Gids 30/3 (1866), pp. 353–88 set straight the record on List as not an anti-Smithian, but as adding a key condition to the requirements for establishing a liberal inter-state trade system. 8 We found neither details of his arrival, nor of his departure in the Album Studiosorum Academiae Rheno-Trajectina (Utrecht, 1886). 9 The correspondence between Wesseling and Kluit – and many other prominent European writers of the time – Helvetius, Martin Hübner, Johann Rudolf Iselin, Georg Ludwig Schmidt – is in the Leiden University Library [henceforth ULL]. Wesseling also wrote obituaries of William IV, regentess Anne and a celebratory poem on the birth of William V. 10 F.K.H. Kossmann, Opkomst en voortgang van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden (Leiden, 1966), pp. 58–141 and Igor van de Bilt, Landkaartschrijvers en landverdelers. 11 Boutelje, Bijdrage tot de kennis van A. Kluit's opvattingen, pp. 23–4. 12 C.J.H. Jansen, 'The Teaching of Statistics in the Eighteenth Century at the Law Faculties of the Republic of the United Provinces', Klep and Stamhuis, The statistical mind, pp. 149–70 (p. 151). 13 ULL, Ms. LTK 944-I. See also van Rees, 'Het collegie van Adriaan Kluit over de statistiek van Nederland', Tijdschrift voor Staathuishoudkunde en statistiek 12 (1855), p. 247, who mentions, mistakenly, the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen itself as the organiser. Kluit would cite the same essay question in his preface to Friedrich von Gentz, Proeve over den tegenwoordigen staat van het bestier der geldmiddelen, en van den nationalen rijkdom van Groot-Britanniën, xiii–xiv. 14 S. Vissering, 'De statistiek aan de Hoogeschool', De Gids 41/4 (1877), p. 247 with reference to the Staatscourant, 16 October 1806. 15 E.V. Vrij, 'Het collegegeschil tussen de hoogleraren A. Kluit en J. Luzac in 1786', Leids Jaarboekje 63 (1971), pp. 121–42. 16 Bilderdijk and Siegenbeek, Leyden's Ramp. 17 Tollius who had remained in 1796 an ardent defender of the house of Orange and its claims to rightfully place Dutch colonial possessions under British protection, see Herman Tollius, Rechtsgeleerd advis in de zaak van den gewezen stadhouder, en over deszelfs schryven aan de gouverneurs van de Oost- en West-Indische bezittingen van den staat (The Hague, 1796). 18 Koen Stapelbroek, 'Economic reform and neutrality in Dutch political pamphlets, 1741–1779', in: Pamphlets and Politics in the Dutch Republic, eds. Femke Deen, David Onnekink and Michel Reinders (Leiden, forthcoming). 19 Adriaan Kluit, Inwijingsrede over 't recht 't welk de Nederlanders gehad hebben, om hunnen wettigen vorst en heer, Philips, koning van Spanje, aftezweren (Leiden, 1779). See S.R.E. Klein, Patriots Republikanisme Politieke cultuur in Nederland (1766–1787) (Amsterdam, 1995), p. 46 (particularly note 84) for contemporary debate about the presumed politics involved in Kluit's appointment. 20 American independence became associated with the Dutch Revolt, a link which Kluit and others fervently denied could be made, but found hard to eradicate. Nascent Dutch patriotism exploited the connection. For instance Antoine-Marie Cerisier, Tableau de l'histoire générale des Provinces-Unies (Utrecht, 1778), vol. 3, pp. iii–vi, covering the earlier decades of he Dutch Revolt opened with a seemingly out of place 'Aux Etats Unis de l'Amérique' expressing support for their own fight against oppression. Thanks to Jonathan Israel for this reference. 21 Adriaan Kluit, Primae lineae collegii diplomatico-historico-politici; sistentes vetus ius publicum belgicum historice enarratum et ex antiquis monumentis et veteris aevi diplomatibusillustratum (Leiden, 1780) and Historia federum Belgii Federati primae lineae in usum auditorum pars prior (Leiden, 1790, 3 vols). 22 Adriaan Kluit, De souvereiniteit der staaten van Holland verdedigd tegen de hedendaagsche leere der volksregering (Groningen, 1785). 23 Originally delivered 9 February 1784. Adriaan Kluit, Academische redevoering, over het misbruik van 't algemeen staatsrecht, of over de nadeelen en onheilen, die uit het misbruik in de beoefeninge voor alle burgermaatschappijen te verwachten zijn (Leiden, 1787). 24 'Iets', meaning 'Something', had become almost a genre in Dutch pamphlet literature, see R. van Vliet, 'Leidse Ietsen. Orangistische en patriotse propagandastrijd in Leiden (1784–1786)', Tijdschrift Holland 38 (2006), pp. 289–304. 25 See Isaac Nakhimovsky, 'Neutral Commerce and the 'Ignominious Fall of the European Commonwealth': Gentz, Hauterive, and the Debate of 1800', in Trade and War: The Neutrality of Commerce in the Inter-State System, ed. Koen Stapelbroek (forthcoming). 26 Gentz, Proeve over den tegenwoordigen staat van het bestier der geldmiddelen, en van den nationalen rijkdom van Groot-Britanniën, xiii. Adam Smith, Naspeuringen over de natuur en oorzaaken van den rijkdom der volkeren, gevolgd naar het Engelsch van den heere Adam Smith door Dirk Hoola van Nooten, met staat en geschiedkundige aantekeningen (Amsterdam, 1796, 2 vols.). See also Hans Blom, 'Note on Dutch Editions', A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith, ed. Keith Tribe (London, 2002), p. 391–2 and Nijenhuis, 'Trends and Transitions'. 27 Joachim Rendorp, Memorien, dienende tot opheldering, van het gebeurde geduurende den laatsten Engelschen oorlog (Amsterdam, 1792). 28 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 1–25. 29 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 25. 30 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 26–7, 44. 31 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 8. 32 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 47, 56–90. 33 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 72–5. Kluit cited the anonymous, L'Introduction de l'Histoire des Troubles des Pais-Bas, an English work that had been translated into French which included a long list of how the French organised a campaign to stir up Dutch public opinion. The English original is History of the internal affairs of the United Provinces from the year 1780, to the commencement of hostilities in June 1787 (London, 1787). 34 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 24. 35 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, p. 28. 36 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 38–53. 37 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 248–348. 38 Below the idea of Dutch 'intrinsique magt' is discussed in more detail. 39 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 319–24. 40 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 324–5, again with reference to the Histoire des Troubles, to the free port of Ostend and the 1790 report for fiscal reform that copied to a large extent the customs system proposed in 1751, particularly in abandoning the age old connection between the Admiralties' tax incomes and naval defence budgets, which was also attacked repeatedly by van de Spiegel by in the same years, who on this point shared the 1750s views of the Zeeland Admiralty. 41 Kluit, Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog, pp. 347–51 and ULL. Ms. BPL 258, f.3 have the same reference to Herman Hendrik van den Heuvel, 'Antwoord op de Vraag Welk is de grond van Hollandsch Koophandel', Verhandelingen uitgegeeven door de Hollandsche Maatschappye der Wetenschappen 16 (1775), pp. 72–3. On ULL Ms. BPL 1844, f.27–8 Kluit cited the silver prize winning essay by Adriaan Rogge to emphasise that his work still derived from the principle that the physical situation of the Dutch Republic was conducive to its international comptoir function. 42 At the same time, economic historians have argued that at this point already agriculture had turned into the real foundation of the national economy, see P.M.M. Klep, 'Over de economische achteruitgang van de Republiek in de Bataafs-Franse Tijd', Van Amsterdam naar Tilburg en toch weer terug. Liber Amicorum Joh. de Vries, eds. J.F.E. Bläsing and H.H. Vleesenbeek (Leiden, 1992), pp. 97–112, 256–8. See also the introduction of this issue. 43 Stapelbroek, 'Dutch commercial decline revisited', pp. 199–208, 211–2, 215. 44 ULL, Ms. BPL 2681, Statistiek der Verenigde Nederlanden, nu Bataafsche Republiek of de staathuishoudkundige huishouding onzer Republiek (1803); ULL Ms. BPL 2789, Untitled; ULL Ms BPL 1844, Staathuishoudkunde van Nederland/Statistiek van Nederland; ULL Ms. BPL 258, Statistiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden of staatkundige huishouding onzerlanden. Kluit's own notes are ULL Ms. LTK 944, Bouwstoffen voor een Nederduitsch collegie over staathuishoudkunde. 45 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.1. 46 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.2. 47 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844 features, by way of an 'introduction' a 24 page history of the Republic and other European states, subsequently a discussion of 'the physical condition of the Dutch Republic' (on 177 pages, leading onto sections on 'population', 'character', 'wealth of the nation in general', 'fishery', 'agriculture and husbandry' and manufacturing'). The second part was entirely devoted to a further discussion of 'trade' (199 pages, 90 of which dealt with the East Indies Company) and 'finance' 142 pages. The final part concerned the land and naval defense (39 pages) and an analysis of the history of the Dutch constitution (of 223 pages). Cf. the section above, to recognise that the same tripartite framework – natural, moral and accidental factors, where the latter was represented by the opening introductory political history of Europe – taken from the 1751 Proposal had been central in Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog. 48 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.2–3. For the different quantitative concepts and data used by Kluit see Ida H. Stamhuis, 'The Differentiation of Statistics and Political Economy: the Teaching of Kluit and Vissering', The Statistical Mind, pp. 178–82. 49 See V. John, Geschichte der Statistik, erster Teil. Von dem Ursprung der Statistik bis auf Quetelet (1835) (Stuttgart, 1884), pp. 52–72, P.F. Lazarsfeld, 'Notes on the history of quantification in sociology, Trends, sources and problems', Isis 3 (1961), p. 106. Confront (about Kluit and Tacitus) Johan Huizinga, 'Natuurbeeld en historiebeeld in de achttiende eeuw', Neophilologus 19 (1934), pp. 81–95. 50 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.71 and f.169 with reference to Iets over den laatsten Engelschen oorlog. See below for Hogendorp's attack from 1802 – the same year Kluit took up teaching statistics – on Gogel's fiscal reforms. 51 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.38. 52 The chapter on 'population' contained a lot of numerical data, in contrast to the chapter on 'character'. The section on manufacturing included figures taken from one of the editions of the Isaac Le Long's widespread Koophandel van Amsterdam. Naar alle gewesten des Weerelds and Jan Wagenaar's multi-volume Amsterdam in Zyne Opkomst, Aanwas, Geschiedenissen. 53 For Kluit's source use compared with H.W. Tydeman's see Ida H. Stamhuis, 'Sources of Information of Dutch University Statisticians after 1800', in Stamhuis and Klep, The Statistical Mind, pp. 193–216. 54 Published between 1769 and 1811 in 9 volumes and 12 separate bindings. Joannes le Francq van Berkhey (1729–1812) a major Orangist pamphleteer, was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1761 and from 1773 was a lecturer in natural history at the university of Leiden, and a prolific writer on a variety of subjects. On Berkhey, see R.P.L. Arpots, Vrank en Vry. Johannes le Francq van Berkheij (1729–1812) (Nijmegen, 1990). 55 Elie Luzac, Hollands rijkdom, behelzende den oorsprong van de koophandel (Leiden, 1780–3, 4 vols.). On Luzac's political economy see, W.R.E. Velema, 'Homo Mercator in Holland. Elie Luzac en het achttiende-eeuwse debat over de koophandel', Bijdragen en mededelingen betreffende de geschiedenis der Nederlanden 100 (1985), pp. 427–44, and his Enlightenment and Conservatism in the Dutch Republic: The Political Thought of Elie Luzac (Assen, 1993), pp. 115–43. 56 Significantly, in the section on Dutch manufacturing, ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.163. 57 The Nederlandsche Jaerboeken were published between 1747 and 1798 in two series (one until 1765, which ended with a set of additional volumes and the new series starting in 1766). 58 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.57–73. 59 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.59. 60 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.60–67. 61 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.116–7. The side of a square Dutch mile was usually 5,555km, but sometimes 5,660 or 6,280km and of a German mile – seeing as Kluit cited a German author – 7,407 or 7,536km. See J.M. Verhoeff, De oude Nederlandse maten en gewichten (Amsterdam, 1982), pp. 116–7. 62 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f. 61–63. The Dutch number varied between 3,000 and 4,800. For comparison, the figures for Sweden and Portugal were 230 and 1,325. 63 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.63–85 (f.85). 64 ULL, Ms. BPL 1844, f.85. 65 See C.J.H. Jansen, 'Het achttiende-eeuwse onderwijs in de statistiek aan de juridische faculteiten van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden', Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 58 (1990), pp. 111–28 and 'The Teaching of Statistics in the Eighteenth Century at the Law Faculties of the Republic of the United Provinces', Van Deursen, 'Geschiedenis en toekomstverwachting', Van Rees, 'Het collegie van Adriaan Kluit', Vissering, 'De statistiek aan de hoogeschool', Stamhuis, 'Cijfers en Aequaties', pp. 137–44, T.J. Boschloo, De productiemaatschappij: liberalisme, economische wetenschap en het vraagstuk der armoede in Nederland (Hilversum, 1989). F.W. Pestel in particular Pestel deserves more attention as a political thinker, but see I.J.H. Worst, 'Constitution, history and natural law: an eighteenth-century political debate in the Dutch Republic', in The Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century: Decline, Enlightenment and Revolution, eds. M.G. Jacob and W.W. Mijnhardt (Ithaca, 1992), pp. 147–69 and 'Staat, constitutie en politieke wil. Over F.W. Pestel en de variëteit van het achttiende-eeuwse orangisme', Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 102 (1987), pp. 498–515. The Tydeman family played an important role in later times evolution of Dutch Orangist historical canonisation in the style of Willem Bilderdijk. E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, 'Between Humanism and Enlightenment: The Dutch Writing of History', in The Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 179–81 and Ida Nijenhuis 'Trends and Transitions', and 'The University of Leyden: Adriaan Kluit's lectures on statistiek or staathuishoudkunde', Transactions of the Seventh International Congress on the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1989), vol. 1, pp. 141–5 see the original German statistics as evolved from prudentia civilis. 66 ULL Ms. BPL 2789, f. 208, quoted by Nijenhuis, 'Trends and Transitions'. 67 An enormous amount of unstudied letters by Kluit to all the key players in Orangist politics are in the ULL. 68 Stamhuis, 'Sources of Information of Dutch University Statisticians after 1800'. 69 H.W. Tydeman was professor of statistics at Leiden from 1812 to 1848. He had attended Kluit's lectures. In 1807 he published a Dutch translation of August Ludwig von Schlözer, Theorie der statistiek of staatskunde (Groningen, 1807). Tydeman was heavily involved in the establishment of the official statistical bureau in 1826. Notes of his statistics lectures are in ULL Ms. BPL 1111 and BPL 1110. Henk W. Plasmeijer and Evert Schoorl, Managing markets and money: issues and institutions in Dutch nineteenth-century economics (Groningen, 2004), p. 2 show a continuity in the political economic views held by Hogendorp, Ackersdijck, Mees and Pierson and underline that the latter two were directors of the Dutch national bank. 70 S. Vissering, 'Verkeerd apropos', De Gids 36/2 (1872), pp. 65–80, defended Thorbecke against Samuel van Houten's opposition politics and published a eulogy on Thorbecke, S. Vissering, 'Thorbecke', De Gids 36/3 (1872), pp. 1–7. Thorbecke taught German-style European diplomacy, political economy and statistics in Gent (J.P. Duyverman, 'Thorbecke doceert economie', Maandblad Economie 33 (1968), pp. 28–38) before coming to Leiden where he taught statistics of Britain (in comparison with France), but kept a distance from Dutch statistics, which was the territory of Tydeman, whom Thorbecke collided with on a personal level, Jan Drentje, Thorbecke: een filosoof in de politiek (Amsterdam, 2004), pp. 294–5. 71 G.K. van Hogendorp. Bijdragen tot de Huishouding van Staat, ed. J.R. Thorbecke (Zaltbommel, 1854–5, 10 vols.). 72 See for instance G.K. Van Hogendorp, Advijs .. over het Ontwerp van een Algemeen Stelsel van Belastingen (The Hague, 1821) and for this view on Hogendorp P.Ch.H. Overmeer, De economische denkbeelden van Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp (1762–1834), (Tilburg, 1982) and Plasmeijer ad Schoorl, Managing markets and money. 73 Jansen, 'The Teaching of Statistics in the Eighteenth Century'. 74 Tollius was Meinard Tydeman's successor in Franeker. 75 See above note 3. 76 'Koninklijk Besluit 2 August 1815', Staatscourant 242 and 243, art. 63 and art. 87, see Stamhuis, 'The Differentiation of Statistics and Political Economy', p. 176. 77 Historians of economic thought have provided important pointers here by showing the foreign influence of Dutch writers. Overmeer, De economische denkbeelden van Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp describes Ackersdijck as a Ricardian, and follower of Smith. Evert Schoorl and Henk W. Plasmeijer, 'Managing markets and money' show the associations between anti-protectionism, Orangist leanings and statistics inspired political economic views and portray Hogendorp as deeply influenced by European political writers like Forbonnais and Necker. In a similar way, Rees, 'Het Collegie van Adriaan Kluit', pp. 251–2, noted for the first time, based on Kluit's mentioning this in his manuscript lectures, that Hogendorp himself had annotated the Dutch translation of Pietro Verri's Meditazioni sulla economia politica of 1771. See also K. Davids, 'From De la Court to Vreede. Regulation and Self-regulation in Dutch Economic Discourse from c.1660 to the Napoleonic Era', Journal of European Economic History 30 (2001), pp. 245–89. However, it has occasionally proven difficult to make sense of how writers at the time themselves may have understood these connections, which seldom allow themselves to be captured in the later developed dichotomy of free trade and mercantilism. 78 See the previous note that also applies to the problem of commenting on the relation between Smith and Dutch writers from the sub-discipline of history of economy thought. The Dutch version of this retrospective tradition goes back at least to Rees, 'Collegie van Adriaan Kluit', pp. 260–1 and the discrepancy signalled between the incomplete liberalism of Kluit and the allegedly more Smithian character of Hogendorp's political economy. Although this reading may be judged as somewhat a-historical and arising from a slightly dogmatic emergent economic science reading of Smith it would be more interesting to try to place its revisionist agenda in its own political context. Boschloo, De productiemaatschappij, pp. 143–5 provides fascinating pointers on Otto von Rees, Geschiedenis der staathuishoudkunde in Nederland tot het einde der achttiende eeuw (Utrecht, 1865–8, 3 vols.) – which developed from a previous study on van Hogendorp – as a corrective of Étienne Laspeyres, Geschichte der Volkswirtschäftlichen Anschauungen der Niederländer und ihrer Literatur zur Zeit der Republik (Leipzig, 1863), whose dismissive judgment of the political economy of the Dutch Republic he rejected. Nonetheless, the ambiguity by Kluit and his intellectual kins (including the Dutch translator of the Wealth of nations Hoola van Nooten) towards Adam Smith's political economy noted by Nijenhuis, 'Trends and Transitions', and 'The University of Leyden', p. 144 and Davids, 'From De la Court to Vreede', pp. 283–6, remains an issue. It seems likely from virtually ignored snippets in the Dutch Smith reception (including the first Dutch review of the Wealth of Nations, of 1777, see J.P. Duyverman, 'Feiten en feitjes betreffend de groei van de economische wetenschap in Nederland', De Economist 126 (1978), p. 4, 27) that Adam Smith, who became an elected member of the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Weetenschappen in 1779, was an influential author in the United Provinces. Why did Kluit and others recommend his work but distance themselves from its policy recommendations? The reason may lie not in the first place in a difference of vision, but of audience. A reform of the trade policies of territorial states along the lines proposed by Smith, who rejected physiocracy as well as Colbertism, went along with how Dutch political economists hoped international commercial rivalry would discipline itself. Yet, if this fed hopes for the future of the Dutch trade republic, this did not at all mean that the Dutch state – a differently functioning kind of state, as the method of statistics helped to show – should adopt the measures prescribed by Smith for Britain. 79 See Paul M.M. Klep, 'A Historical Perspective on Statistics and Measurement in the Netherlands 1750–1850', in The Statistical Mind, pp. 31–40, 68–9. 80 Porter dedicates a few lines to this 'ill-defined science of states and conditions' in The rise of statistical thinking, 1820–1900 (Princeton, 1986), p. 11, 23; Pearson, The history of statistics in the 17th and 18th Centuries against the background of intellectual, scientific and religious thought (London, 1978), pp. 2–9. 81 ULL Ms. BPL 1844, f.4. See Gabriella Valera, 'Statistik, Staatengeschichte, Geschichte im 18. Jahrhundert', in Aufklärung und Geschichte. Studien zur deutschen Geschichtswissenshaft im 18. Jahrhundert, eds. Hans Erich Bödeker, Georg G. Iggers, Jonathan B. Knudsen and Peter H. Reill (Göttingen, 1992), pp. 119–43 and in the same volume Pasquale Pasquino, 'Politisches und historisches interesse. Statistik und historische Staatslehre bei Gottfried Achenwall (1719–1772)', pp. 144–68. On political science in Göttingen – where J.R. Thorbecke also received his academic training – see Hans Erich Bödeker, "'…wer ächte freie Politike hören will, muss nach Göttingen gehen". DieLehre der Politik in Göttingen um 1800', in Die Wissenschaft vom Menschen in Göttingen um 1800. Wissenschaftliche Praktiken, institutionelle Geographie, europäische Netzwerke (Göttingen, 2008), pp. 325–69. 82 Disregarding the political culture within which Sinclair used statistics as a means to direct agricultural and social-economic 'improvement', according to Pearson, The history of statistics, p. 2, 7–8: 'A Scotsman steals the words 'Statistics' and 'Statistik' and applies them to the data and methods of 'Political Arithmetic". 83 John Sinclair, Specimens of statistical reports; exhibiting the progress of political society, from the pastoral state, to that of luxury and refinement (London, 1793), ix–x, with reference to E.A.W. von Zimmermann, A political survey of the present state of Europe (London, 1787). 84 For a discussion of the early Vissering see Stamhuis, 'Cijfers en Aequaties', pp. 149–59. see also A. Nentjes, 'Simon Vissering, De klassieke school in Nederland', in: A.J. Vermaat, J.J. Klant and J.R. Zuidema eds., Van liberalisten tot Instrumentalisten, Anderhalve eeuw economisch denken in Nederland (Leiden, 1987), pp. 19–37 and J.T. Buys, 'Mr. Simon Vissering', De Gids 52/3 (1888), pp. 466–9. 85 Lecture notes by W.P. Sautijn Kluit from 1859–1860 are in ULL Ms. BPL 1517. 86 Simon Vissering, Redevoering over vrijheid, het grondbeginsel der staathuishoudkunde (Leiden, 1850). 87 Irène Hasenberg Butter, Academic economics in Holland 1800–1870 (The Hague, 1969), p. 77. Adam Smith was honoured in 1842 by Ackersdijck in a memorial address in Latin which appeared in translation in the Tijdschrift voor staathuishoudkunde en statistiek 2 (1842), pp. 196–212, directed by baron B.W.A.E. Sloet to Oldhuis. Surveys of Dutch political economy of the period are J.R. Zuidema, 'Economic Thought in the Netherlands between 1750 and 1870', Economic Thought in the Netherlands: 1650–1950, eds. Jan van Daal and Arnold Heertje (Aldershot, 1992), 'Free Seas, Free Trade, Free People: Early Dutch Institutionalism', History of Political Economy 26 (1994), pp. 395–422, and, themselves presenting a slightly later lineage of the same kind of political economy discussed here, Schoorl and Plasmeijer, Managing markets and money, who draw attention to the connection between Hogendorp and his correspondent the liberal ideologue J.R. McCulloch (p. 9). 88 Simon Vissering, 'De statistiek in Nederland', De Gids 13/4 (1849), pp. 1–22. 89 Vissering, 'De statistiek in Nederland', p. 20. 90 ULL Ms. BPL 1517. 91 ULL Ms. BPL 1516, f.4. 92 ULL Ms. BPL 1517, f.22. 93 ULL Ms. BPL 1517, f.20. 94 ULL Ms. BPL 1517, f.3. 95 ULL Ms. BPL 1517, f.4–5. 96 ULL Ms. BPL 1517, f.5. 97 Stamhuis, 'Cijfers en Aequaties', pp. 176–81. 98 C.A. den Tex, 'Over de dwalingen en verderfelijke stellingen, tot welke de voorstelling van den Burgerstaat als werktuig, en deszelfs beschouwing uit enkel materiële oogpunten leiden', Bijdragen tot Regtsgeleerdheid en Wetgeving 4 (1829), pp. 9–58. See also Jan Ackersdijck, 'De statistiek', Staatkundig en Staathuishoudkundig Jaarboekje 6 (1854), pp. 318–28, Otto van Rees, Redevoering over de wetenschap der statistiek (Utrecht, 1860) and Nico Randeraad, 'The Dutch Paths to Statistics 1815–1830', in The Statistical Mind, pp. 99–124. 99 J.K.W. Quarles van Ufford, 'De beoefening der statistiek', Algemeen Letterlievend Tijdschrift 1 (1850), pp. 1–46, B.W.A.E. Sloet tot Oldhuis, 'Iets over de grenzen der statistiek', Tijdschrift voor staathuishoudkunde en statistiek 11 (1855), pp. 216–21, H.A. Wijnne, 'Statistische Studiën over Nederland', Staatkundig en Staathuishoudkundig Jaarboekje 8 (1856), pp. 265–82 and Rees, Redevoering over de wetenschap der statistiek. 100 For Jan Ackersdijck and a bibliographyh, see Bert Mosselmans and Henk W. Plasmeijer, Jan Ackersdijck (1790–1861). The secret History of the Economic Agent in the Low Countries (Paris, 2003)
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