Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age

During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands--a small country with just two million inhabitants and virtually no natural resources--enjoyed a "Golden Age" of economic success, world power, and tremendous artistic output. In this book North examines the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch society boasted Europe`s greatest number of cities and highest literacy rate, unusually large numbers of publicly and privately owned art works, religious tolerance, and a highly structured and wide-ranging social network.