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Republic. Most ordinary people, however, refer to that territory as ‘Holland’. In this book, which is intended for a general rather than a narrowly academic readership, I have used ‘Holland’, ‘Dutch Republic’ and ‘United Provinces’ interchangeably, and I hope that my readers will accept an occasional looseness or even vagueness about the country thus designated. I consistently refer to the people of that territory as ‘Dutch’. I have largely avoided calling the diverse and mingled community in Antwerp ‘Flemish’, because my protagonists there moved regularly between what today we know as Belgium and the northern Netherlands, which is the focus of my story. Academics will, I hope, forgive me for my occasional cartographic imprecision, in the interests of a clearly comprehensible story.

Dutch and English currency conversion in the period:

£9 sterling = one hundred Dutch guilders.

One pond Vlaams = six guilders;

one guilder (fl) = twenty stuivers;

one stuiver = twelve penningen

Two calendars were in use throughout the period this book covers. The Julian calendar was followed in England, and the revised Gregorian calendar was followed everywhere else in western Europe. The difference between them was ten days in the seventeenth century and eleven days in the eighteenth century (because England observed the year 1700 as a leap year, but the Continent of Europe did not). Thus 12 April in the Julian calendar (in England) would be 22 April in the Gregorian (in the Dutch Republic) before 1700, and 23 April after 1700.

Throughout this book I have given dates in the form appropriate to the location, unless I state otherwise. Sometimes, where correspondence I follow crosses boundaries, the difference in dates becomes significant. In those cases I have specified in brackets following a date whether it is old style (Julian) or new (Gregorian).

During the same period the civil year in England began on 25 March. In ordinary usage, however, the new year started on 1 January, as now. Thus the English civil date 14 February 1675 is 14 February 1676 according to our modern system of dating (some people in the period wrote such a date as 14 February 1675/6 for clarity). I have given all dates as if the new year began on 1 January.

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Copyright

GOING DUTCH. Copyright © 2008 by Lisa Jardine.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © August 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04338-2

Published in Great Britain in 2008 by HarperCollinsPublishers.

FIRST U.S. EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-060-77408-0

08 09 10 11 12 OFF/S.C. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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