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Rh Dutch began to turn their minds exclusively to commerce and the acquisition of wealth. There were especially two points in their policy, to the attainment of which they bent all their energies.

I. That in peace no nation should grant to its own inhabitants any privilege in relation to freightage which Holland should not equally enjoy.

II. When any other nation was engaged in war, that they should enjoy, as neutrals, the right of protecting the commerce of its enemies.

If they could only attain these two objects they might hope to acquire the carrying trade of the world;—a trade which was the basis of their prosperity and the natural direction of their energies. No other nation (except England) had more shipping than was equal to the carriage of their own produce and manufactures, and the peculiar position and characteristics of the Dutch gave them particular advantages in the