A THE REPUBLICAN The Netherlands and Switzerland are among the world’s most successful ndré societies. Their inhabitants enjoy high standards of living and express great satisfaction with their lives according to surveys. This despite serious natural H handicaps, such as a lack of raw materials and an abundance of water and Maarten Thomas Maissen, olenstein, rock respectively. The foundation for their prosperity was laid in the early modern period, between roughly and , when, as federal republics, the two countries were already something of an anomaly in Europe. Their inhabitants experienced serious anxieties and tried to justify their exceptionality, to which they were, at the same time, greatly attached. The Republican Alternative attempts through a sustained comparison, to highlight the special character of the two countries, which were similar perhaps at first sight, but nonetheless developed their own solutions to the challenges they faced. The book includes in-depth discussions of citizenship arrangements, Swiss and Dutch dealings with religious pluriformity, political discourses justifying the republican form of government, and the A advantages and disadvantages of an agrarian over a commercial society. L T P is Professor of Early Swiss and Comparative Regional rak (eds.) E History at Berne University, Switzerland. R is Professor of Early Modern History at the Ruprecht- NA Karls University Heidelberg, Germany. is Professor of Social and Economic History at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. T THE REPUBLICAN IVE ALTERNATIVE The Netherlands and Switzerland compared André Holenstein, Thomas Maissen, Maarten Prak (eds.) 9 789089 640055 www.aup.nl DPVWHUGDPXQLYHUVLW\SUHVV DPVWHUGDPXQLYHUVLW\SUHVV Prak ea 2.indd 1 02-06-2008 09:45:09 the republican alternative The Republican Alternative The Netherlands and Switzerland compared André Holenstein,Thomas Maissen, Maarten Prak (eds) amsterdam university press Omslag: Geert de Koning, Ten Post Lay-out: Adriaan de Jonge, Amsterdam isbn 9789089640055 nur 685 © Holenstein, Maissen, Prak / Amsterdam University Press, 2008 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort had been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted il- lustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction: The Dutch and Swiss Republics Compared 11 André Holenstein, Thomas Maissen, and Maarten Prak part irepublican structures 1 ‘The League of the Discordant Members’ or How the Old Swiss Confederation Operated and How it Managed to Survive for so Long 29 Andreas Würgler 2 Challenges for the Republic: Coordination and Loyalty in the Dutch Republic 51 Maarten Prak part ii republican religions 3 Bridging the Gap: Confessionalisation in Switzerland 75 Francisca Loetz 4 Was the Dutch Republic a Calvinist Community? The State, the Confessions and Culture in the Early Modern Netherlands 99 Willem Frijhoff part iiirepublican ideas 5 Inventing the Sovereign Republic: Imperial Structures, French Challenges, Dutch Models and the Early Modern Swiss Confederation 125 Thomas Maissen 6 Turning Swiss? Discord in the Dutch Debates 151 Martin van Gelderen 7 The Content, Form and Function of Swiss and Dutch Images of History 171 Olaf Mörke part iv republican art 8 Republican Art? Dutch and Swiss Art and Art-Production Compared 193 Michael North 9 The Dassier Workshop in Geneva and the Netherlands: Two Calvinist Republics Expressed in Medallic Form, 1695-1748 211 William Eisler part vrepublican economies 10 Exporting Mercenaries, Money and Mennonites: A Swiss Diplomatic Mission to The Hague, 1710-1715 237 Stefan Altorfer-Ong 11 Republican Risks: Commerce and Agriculture in the Dutch Republic 259 Ida Nijenhuis 12 Republican Futures: The Image of Holland in 18th-Century Swiss Reform Discourse 279 Béla Kapossy part vi improving the republic 13 Radical Elements and Attempted Revolutions in the Late-18th-Century Republics 301 Marc Lerner 14 Debating the Republic: A Conference Report 321 Daniel Schläppi Bibliography of Pre-Modern Swiss-Dutch Relations 331 Simon Hari About the Authors 353 Index 355 Acknowledgements This book is the outcome of a workshop organised by the editors on May 7-9, 2004. The conference was hosted by the Universität Bern, and we gratefully acknowledge the efforts put into this meeting by the university’s staff, in particular Mrs. Christine Hostettler from the Institute of History. The meeting was generously sponsored by the Rector of the Universität Bern, the Max und Elsa Beer-Brawand- Fonds of the Universität Bern, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Berne, Switzerland. The organisation of the workshop was also supported by the ambas- sador of the Netherlands at the time, the Rt. Hon. Roelof Smit, whose enthusiasm we gratefully acknowledge here; without him, this book would never have happened. In the context of the conference the Dutch embassy in Berne organised a public debate in which the past and the present of Switzerland and the Netherlands were con- fronted in a variety of interesting ways. We would like to extend our gratitude to the moderator of that evening, Roger de Weck (Zurich), and the four speakers, prof. Wim Blockmans (Universiteit Leiden), prof. Peter Blickle (Universität Bern), prof. Uriel Rosenthal (Univer- siteit Leiden), and prof. Ulrich Zimmerli (Universität Bern) for their contributions to this part of the programme. We would like to thank our editors at Amsterdam University Press, Jeroen Sondervan and Christine Waslander for their help and sup- port. An anonymous reviewer for aup made various helpful sugges- tions for the improvement of the text. Financially, the production of this book has been helped along by the Dutch Embassy in Berne, where Ria Hennink has been very supportive. 9 Introduction: The Dutch and Swiss Republics Compared André Holenstein, Thomas Maissen and Maarten Prak History textbooks tell us that the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies were the Age of Royal Absolutism. France under Louis xiv be- came the model for monarchies across Europe. Nations initially adopted this form of absolutism in a rather autocratic way, but later in a more enlightened sense, as in Frederick ii’s Prussia or Joseph ii’s Austria. Absolutism was, for example, sometimes even installed by official royal edict, as was the case with the Danish kongelov. Al- though recent scholarship has suggested that absolutism in general had more trouble unifying the political realm than has often been as- sumed, it was, nonetheless, a major step towards the formation of the ‘modern state’ in Europe.1 However, the monarchical model did not prevail everywhere. The confrontation with absolutism and the recognition of its challenges led to an obvious clash between monar- chies and republics in both political theory and political practice. The European free-states developed a decidedly antimonarchist sen- timent, which was directed against the arrogance and expansionism of the monarchs. However, many republicans did admire the monar- chies because as unified states they managed to monopolise political power, exploit the resources of the country, and achieve military effi- ciency more effectively. Nonetheless, the republics of Europe went their own ways for a va- riety of reasons. Textbooks have long ignored these historical ‘anom- alies’. After the Italian Renaissance, republics make only brief ap- pearances during the period of the English Civil War and Dutch Golden Age, with the latter usually considered an exception to the general European pattern.2 In a nutshell, the problem was that, al- though most republics were successful in terms of political stability 11 and economic prosperity, their political systems and their societies did not conform to the dominant model of centralised monarchy. But the republic has made a spectacular comeback, as the concept of ‘republicanism’ has been rediscovered by historians of political thought as a major aspect of Europe’s intellectual heritage.3 In gen- eral, comparative methodologies have forced historians to rethink their evaluations of various historical trajectories. More specifically, recent studies of European state formation have emphasised the di- versity of this process and the variety of societal models, especially in the era preceding the French Revolution.4 This book is part of this re- publican revival, but seeks to explore beyond the mere notion of re- public, by also investigating the practicalities of two early modern re- publics, as well as their (self-)images. When we start to consider the early modern republic as practice, and not just an idea, several con- trasts with the monarchical system come to mind.5 These contrasts are more distinct in the case of large federal republics like the United Provinces [the Netherlands] and the Swiss Confederation. Many of the distinctions are also typical for the Italian city-states (Venice, Genoa, Lucca, San Marino). In general, these contrasts can be sum- marised in the following way:6 Social Sectors Republics Dynastic states Government Polyarchic via co-optation Monarchic with hereditary succession Commerce International trade Regional trade Production