1 PART I ‘Of Inconspicuous, if Honest Lineage’ THE ASSER FAMILY CHAPTER 1 THE ANCESTRY Through the Mists of Time 1.1 17TH CENTURY AMSTERDAM JEWRY 1.1.1 The Historical Backdrop 1.1.2 Dutch Opportunism 1.1.3 The First Pockets of the Sephardim 1.1.4 Toleration and Trade 1.1.5 Internal Friction 1.1.6 The Ashkenazi Immigration Gulf 1.1.7 Social Bifurcation 1.2 THE ARRIVAL OF THE ASSERS 1.2.1 The Surname 1.2.2 Kalman and Margalioth 1.2.3 The Asser-Shochets 1.2.4 Salomon Asser-Shochet (1731-1796) 1.2.5 Plantations along Essequibo River CHAPTER 2 MOSES SALOMON ASSER (1754-1826) A Rebel with A Cause 2.1 THE FOUNDING FATHER 2.1.1 Character 2.1.2 Upbringing 2.1.3 Marriage and Early Career 2.1.4 Hermanus Leonard Bromet (1724-1812) 2.2 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRISIS 2.2.1 The Amsterdam Ashkenazim 2.2.2 The Amsterdam Sephardim 2.2.3 Jewish Identity Crisis 2.2.4 Enlightenment and Patriot Movement 2.2.5 The Batavian Republic (1795-1806) 2.3 THE RISE OF MOSES SALOMON 2.3.1 Business Man and Lawyer 2.3.2 Felix Libertate (1795) 2.3.3 Adat Yeshurun (1796) 2.4 LAW REFORM AND CODIFICATION 2.4.1 The Code of Commerce (1806) 2.4.2 French Administrative Reform 2.4.3 Due Recognition 2.5 LAST YEARS AND DEMISE CHAPTER 3 THE NEXT GENERATION Consolidating Success 3.1 CAREL ASSER (1780-1836) 3.1.1 Character and Upbringing 3.1.2 Marriage 3.1.3 Propagation of the Jewish Cause 3.1.4 Carel Asser and Jonas Daniel Meijer 3.1.5 The Kemper Codification Committee 3.1.6 Later Years 3.2 TOBIAS ASSER (1783-1847) 3.2.1 Youth and Family Life 3.2.2 Jewish Identity 3.2.3 Entertainment at Singel 548 2 CHAPTER 4 THE GRANDCHILDREN ‘The Little Darlings’ 4.1 LOUIS ASSER (1802-1850) 4.1.1 Professional Career 4.1.2 Poetry 4.1.3 Louis and Netje 4.2 ANNA GRATIE MARIANNE ASSER (1807-1893) 4.2.1 Willful Womanhood 4.2.2 Writing Talents 4.2.3 Intellectual Training 4.2.4 Passion for the Theatre 4.2.5 ‘Le Théatre du Singel’ 4.2.6 A Pre-Arranged Match 4.2.7 The Years of Marriage 4.3 EDUARD ISAAC ASSER (1809-1894) 4.3.1 Personality 4.3.2 Artistic Outpouring 4.3.3 Doctorate and German Tour 4.3.4 Poetry 4.3.5 ‘Life is No Eden’ 4.3.6 Wedding and Early years of Marriage 4.3.7 A Regrettable Incident 4.3.8 Photography 4.3.9 Last Decades 4.4 CAREL DANIEL ASSER (1813-1890) 4.4.1 Character and Early Years 4.4.2 Marriage 4.4.3 Law Firm and Local Politics 4.4.4 The Judge 4.4.5 The Battle for Jewish Emancipation 4.4.6 Final Years 4.5 EPILOGUE PART II ‘Le Monde marche!’ TOBIAS ASSER: THE EARLY YEARS (1838-1860) THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT 1. NINETEENTH CENTURY CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES 2. SOCIAL DILEMMAS 3. DUTCH LIBERAL THOUGHT 4. THE DISENCHANTMENT CHAPTER 5 YOUTH (1838-1855) A Precocious Youngster 5.1 EARLY CHILDHOOD 5.1.1 Birth 5.1.2 Home Addresses: Herengracht 5.1.3 Chicken Pocks 5.1.4 The Born Actor 5.1.5 The Smart Aleck 5.2 TOBIE’S NOTEBOOK (1848-1849) 5.2.1 Tobias’s Personality 5.2.2 Foreign Languages 5.2.3 The Playwright 5.2.4 Arithmetics 5.2.5 Drawings 3 5.3 THE AWAKENING GENIUS 5.3.1 Birthday Offerings (1850) 5.3.2 Cousin Jeanne’s diary (1850) 5.3.3 The Seven Years’ War (1852) 5.3.4 The statue of Rembrandt (1852) 5.3.5 The Lex Cassia Agraria (1853) 5.3.6 Intellectual Training (1853-1855) 5.3.7 Richelieu and the Thirty Years’ War (1856) 5.3.8 A View from the Beach 5.4 NETJE AND HER FAMILY 5.4.1 Netje asser and Rosette Godefroi 5.4.2 The Hague Branch of the Asser Family 5.4.3 Lange Houtstraat 16 5.4.4 Jeanne’s Sister Rosa 5.4.5 A Discourse on Spinoza 5.4.6 On Pietism 5.4.7 Carel Asser (1843-1898) 5.5 TOBIAS AND JEANNE, THE FIRST DECADE (1850-1860) 5.5.1 Jeanne’s Talents and Likings 5.5.2 Tobias and Jeanne, the Early Correspondence Annex Pedro CHAPTER 6 TOBIAS’S STUDENT YEARS (1855-1860) ‘Aciunt Musae Ingenium’ 6.1 THE PROGRAMME OF STUDIES IN AMSTERDAM 6.1.1 Preliminary Studies 6.1.2 Law Studies 6.2 THE PROGRAMME OF STUDIES AT LEIDEN UNIVERSITY 6.2.1 The Reason for the Move 6.2.2 The Province of Studies 6.2.3 Final Examinations with Vissering in Leiden 6.2.4 Roman Law Studies 6.3 AMSTERDAM STUDENT SOCIETY 6.3.1 Societies, Senate and Almanac 6.3.2 Tobias’s Involvement 6.3.2 Literary Work in the Student Almanac 6.3.4 A.M.I.C.A. 6.3.5 ‘The Role of France in European Political History’; A Blueprint of Views 6.3.5.1 CONTENTS 63.5.2 OVERAL OUTLOOK 6.3.6 Fond Memories 6.4 HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE DUTCH REPUBLIC (1581-1795) 6.4.1 The Troubled Origins 6.4.2 Amsterdam’s Aspirations 6.5 THE AMSTERDAM ATHENAEUM ILLUSTRE 6.5.1 The Mercator Sapiens 6.5.2 Disillusion 6.5.3 Structural Reform 6.5.4 The Resurge 6.6 THE AMSTERDAM LAW FACULTY 6.6.1 A False Start 6.6.2 Hendrik Cras 6.6.3 Den Tex and Van Hall 6.6.4 De Bosch Kemper and Amorie van der Hoeven 6.6.5 A Juvenile Sin CHAPTER 7 ECONOMIC INTERESTS AND LIBERAL OUTLOOK ‘The Liberalism of Optimism’ 4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 1. The History of Economics 2. The Pertinence of the Treatise under Consideration 7.1 THE LEIDEN PRIZE COMPETITION 7.2 THE CATALYSING EFFECT 7.3 THE BACKGROUND FOR TOBIAS ASSER’S OUTLOOK 7.3.1 The Political Outlook 7.3.2 The Family Perspective 7.3.3 Asser the Innovator 7.4 THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ECONOMICS 7.4.1 The Early Stages 7.4.2 The Physiocrats 7.5 THE CLASSICAL ECONOMISTS (1775-1875) 7.5.1 Adam Smith 7.5.2 The French School 7.5.3 The British School 7.5.4 The German School 7.6 THE INTERNATIONAL DEBATE 7.7 FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT 7.8 THE DUTCH TRADITION 7.8.1 The 17th century: Practice vs. Theory 7.8.2 The 19th century: A New Beginning 7.8.3 De Bruyn Kops 7.9 SIMON VISSERING 7.9.1 Role and Record 7.9.2 Inaugural Address (1850) 7.9.3 Textbook (1860, 1865) 7.9.4 Alternative Views CHAPTER 8 THE TREATISE ON THE ECONOMIC CONCEPT OF VALUE (1858) ‘The Blind and the Lame Writ Large’ 8.1 THE LEIDEN SCHOOL 8.1.1 Hugo Grotius (1625) 8.1.2 De Bruyn Kops (1850) 8.1.3 Vissering (1860) 8.2 ASSER’S TREATISE: THE INTRODUCTORY NOTE 8.2.1 Antiquity 8.2.2 Middle Ages and Early Modernity 8.3 THE FIRST PART OF THE TREATISE 8.3.1 Structure 8.3.2 The Physiocrats 8.3.3 From Smith to Malthus 8.3.4 Bastiat 8.3.5 The German and British Traditions 8.4 THE SECOND PART OF THE TREATISE 8.4.1 Structure 8.4.2 Chapter I: Economic Value 8.4.2.1 THE CONCEPT OF VALUE 8.4.2.2 VALUE IN USE AND VALUE IN EXCHANGE 8.4.2.3 THE BASIS OF EXCHANGE VALUE 8.4.3 Chapter II: Exchange Value, Its Constituent Elements 8.4.4 Chapter III: Exchange Value, Its Relation to Wealth and Price 8.4.5 Chapter IV: Exchange Value; The Futile Quest for a Yardstick 8.5 CONCLUSIONS 8.6 SAMUEL VAN HOUTEN 8.6.1 The Concept of Value 8.6.2 Asser and Van Houten 8.6.3 Louis Asser’s Response (1890-1891) 8.6.4 A Critique of the Discipline 5 8.7 NICOLAAS PIERSON 8.7.1 Personality and Standing 8.7.2 The Concept of Value 8.7.3 The Essence and Objective of the Discipline 8.7.4 Pierson and Asser 8.7.5 The Afterglowth of Dissent PART III ‘The Thread of Ariadne’ A CAREER AND A LIFE IN THE MAKING CHAPTER 9 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND THE POLICY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS Jura Majestatica Exterim 9.1 THE LEIDEN DISSERTATION 9.1.1 The Choice of Director of Studies 9.1.2 Acknowledgements 9.1.3 Two Preliminary Notes 9.2 THE FULL PUBLICATION 9.2.1 The Full Publication as Compared to the Dissertation 9.2.2 Structure 9.3 THE INTRODUCTORY NOTE 9.3.1 ‘Le Monde Marche!’ 9.3.2 Political Reform 9.3.3 The Historical Approach 9.4 PART I: ISSUES OF WAR, PEACE AND TREATIES 9.4.1 A Family Expertise 9.4.2 The Period Prior to the Republic 9.4.3 The Union of the Seven Provinces (1581-1795) 9.4.4 The Years of Revolution (1795-1813) 9.4.5 The Constitutions of 1814, 1815 and 1840 9.4.6 The Constitution of 1848 9.5 ARTICLE 55: THE KING’S SUPREMACY IN MATTERS OF FOREIGN RELATIONS 9.5.1 The Right of Interpellation 9.5.2 The Foreign Ministry and the Diplomatic and Consular Services 9.6 ARTICLE 56: THE KING’S PREROGATIVE ON THE DECLARATION OF WAR 9.7 ARTICLE 57: THE CONCLUSION OF TREATIES 9.8 PART III: VARIOUS ISSUES 9.8.1 Limburg and the German League 9.8.2 The Dutch Colonies 9.8.3 Ministerial Responsibility 9.8.4 The Proclamation of Treaties 9.8.5 The Judiciary 9.8.6 Reprisals 9.8.7 Consular Competence 9.9 PART IV: THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS OF OTHER COUNTRIES 9.9.1 The United States of America 9.9.2 The Swiss Confederacy 9.9.3 The German League 9.9.4 France, Belgium, Sardinia 9.9.5 Scandinavia 9.9.6 Great Britain and Ireland 9.10 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE INTERACTION OF CROWN AND PARLIAMENT 9.10.1 The Special Condition of Foreign Affairs 9.10.2 The Mission of Political Economy 9.10.3 Affairs of War and Peace 9.10.4 Treaties 9.11 THE RECEPTION BY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS 6 CHAPTER 10 A CAREER IN THE MAKING (1860-1865) ‘Le Progrès par la Science et la Liberté’ 10.1 THE LEGAL PRACTITIONER 10.2 THE YOUNG DIPLOMAT: THE RHINE COMMISSION (1860) 10.2.1 An Honourable Invitation 10.2.2 The Eventful History of Rhine Transport 10.2.3 Towards a River Regime 10.2.4 The Coblence Conference (1860) 10.2.5 Asser’s Reports 10.2.6 The Aftermath 10.3 THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER: COUVREUR’S ASSOCIATION (1862-1867) 10.3.1 L’Association internationale pour le progrès des sciences sociales (1862-1865) 10.3.2 John Westlake 10.3.3 Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns 10.3.4 The Brussels Congress (1862) 10.3.5 The Ghent Congress (1863) 10.3.6 The Amsterdam Congress (1864) 10.3.6.1 THE VENUE 10.3.6.2 THE SOCIAL PROGRAMME 10.3.6.3 ASSER’S POSITION ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF FOREIGNERS 10.3.7 The Berne Congress 10.3.7.1 THE DIARY OF MARIE ROSE 10.3.7.2 THE JOURNEY 10.3.7.3 THE ATMOSPHERE AT THE CONGRESS 10.3.8 The Eclipse of Couvreur’s Association CHAPTER 11 MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE: THE FIRST DECADE ‘I Embrace You and Are Your jeanne!’ 11.1 THE ENGAGEMENT (1863-1864) 11.1.1 House Hunting 11.1.2 ‘Oranje Boven!’ 11.1.3 The