The socioeconomic evolution of the Netherlands from 1000 to 1800 is of unique intellectual significance for scholars of capitalism. The Dutch economy was the “first modern economy” to achieve self-sustaining growth since the mid-medieval period.1 The causal mechanisms behind this groundbreaking path urge social scientists to explore the preconditions that made such growth possible. As New Institutional Economics argues that inclusive institutions and secure property rights contribute to initial economic development, for example, the study of capitalistic institutions’ emergence in the Netherlands becomes particularly consequential.2

Additionally, the Netherlands’ socioeconomic transformation as one of the pioneers of capitalism is related to the transition between feudalism and capitalism. Did the country undergo a transition in line with Marxism, which claims that “primitive capital accumulation,” the commercialization of labor, and the rise of the bourgeoisie are necessary conditions for capitalism? Prak and van Zanden’s book introduces the eight centuries of social...

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