The economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815) is the history of an economy that American-Dutch scholar and economist Jan de Vries calls the first "modern" economy. It covers the Netherlands as the Habsburg Netherlands, through the era of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland. Historically, the Dutch were responsible for at least four major pioneering institutional innovations (in economic, business and financial history of the world):

The economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815) is the history of an economy that American-Dutch scholar and economist Jan de Vries calls the first "modern" economy. It covers the Netherlands as the Habsburg Netherlands, through the era of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland. After becoming de facto independent from the empire of Philip II of Spain around 1585 the country experienced almost a century of explosive economic growth. A technological revolution in shipbuilding led to a competitive advantage in shipping that helped the young Republic become the dominant trade power by the mid-17th century. In 1670, the Dutch merchant marine totalled 568,000 tons of shipping—about half the European total. Pillars of this position were the dominance of the Amsterdam Entrepôt in European trade, and that of the Dutch East and West India Companies (VOC and WIC) in intercontinental trade. Beside trade, an early industrial revolution (powered by wind, water and peat), land reclamation from the sea, and agricultural revolution helped the Dutch economy achieve the highest standard of living in Europe (and probably the world) by the middle of the 17th century. Affluence facilitated a Golden Age in culture typified by the great artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). However, around 1670 a combination of politico-military upheavals (wars with France and England) and adverse economic developments (a break in the upward secular trend of price levels) brought the Dutch economic boom to an abrupt end. This caused a retrenchment of the Dutch economy in the period up to 1713, in which the industrial sector was partly dismantled and growth in trade leveled off. The economy struck out in new directions, including whaling, colonial plantations in Suriname, and new types of trade with Asia. However, these riskier ventures often failed to bring commensurate gains. The VOC embarked on a period of profitless growth. The financial strength proved more durable, enabling the Netherlands to play the role of a major power in the European conflicts around the turn of the 18th century by hiring mercenary armies and subsidizing its allies. These conflicts put an enormous strain on the resources of the Republic, however, and for that reason the Republic (like its opponent, the France of Louis XIV) was deeply in debt at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. The regents of the Republic more or less abandoned its Great-Power pretensions after 1713, cutting down on its military preparedness in a vain attempt to pay down this overhang of public debt. That debt brought a significant rentier class into being that helped change the nature of the economy from one invested primarily in trade and industry into one in which a significant financial sector played a dominant role. By the end of the 18th century the Republic was the major market for sovereign debt, and a major source of foreign direct investment. During the period of Proto-industrialization, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire, chiefly from the latter's most developed region known as Bengal Subah. Wars with Great Britain and France with the Republic's Indian allies at the end of the 18th century, and attendant political upheavals, caused a financial and economic crisis from which the economy was unable to recover. After the successors of the Republic (the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland) were forced to engage in policies of economic warfare against the French Empire, which proved disastrous for Dutch trade and industry; most of the gains of the previous two centuries were rapidly lost. The newly independent Kingdom of the Netherlands was faced in 1815 with an economy that was largely deindustrialized and deurbanized, but still saddled with a crippling public debt, which it was forced to repudiate (the first time that the Dutch state defaulted since the dark pre-independence days of the Revolt). In the 17th century, Amsterdam became the leading commercial and financial centre of the world. It held this position for more than a century, and was the first modern model of an international financial centre. As Richard Sylla (2015) noted, "In modern history, several nations had what some of us call financial revolutions. These can be thought of as creating in a short period of time all the key components of a modern financial system. The first was the Dutch Republic four centuries ago." Amsterdam – unlike its predecessors such as Bruges, Antwerp, Genoa, and Venice – controlled crucial resources and markets directly, sending its fleets to all quarters of the world. Until about the mid-1700s, the Dutch Republic's economic and financial system were the most advanced and sophisticated ever seen in history. As Jacob Soll (2014) noted, "with the complexity of the stock exchange, [17th-century] Dutch merchants' knowledge of finance became more sophisticated than that of their Italian predecessors or German neighbors." From about 1600 to 1720 the Dutch had the highest per capita income in the world. The Dutch Golden Age's Tulip Mania (in the mid-1630s) is generally considered as the first recorded asset price bubble (also known as speculative bubble). Similarly, early stock market bubbles and crashes had their roots in socio-politico-economic activities of the 17th-century Dutch Republic (the birthplace of the world's first formal stock exchange and stock market), the Dutch East India Company (the world's first formally listed public company) and the Dutch West India Company, in particular. At the dawn of modern capitalism, wherever Dutch capital went, urban features were developed, economic activities expanded, new industries established, new jobs created, trading companies operated, swamps drained, mines opened, forests exploited, canals constructed, mills turned, and ships were built. In the early modern period, the Dutch were pioneering capitalists who raised the commercial and industrial potential of underdeveloped or undeveloped lands whose resources they exploited, whether for better or worse. For example, the native economies of pre-VOC-era Taiwan and South Africa were virtually undeveloped or were in almost primitive states. In many way, recorded economic history of Taiwan and South Africa began with the golden age of the VOC in the 17th century. It was VOC people who established and developed first urban areas in the history of Taiwan (Tainan) and South Africa (Cape Town, Stellenbosch). In Werner Sombart's words (1902), "in all probability the United Provinces were the land in which the capitalist spirit for the first time attained its fullest maturity; where this maturity related to all its aspects, which were equally developed; and where this development had never been done comprehensive before. Moreover, in the Netherlands an entire people became imbued with the capitalist spirit; so much so, that in the 17th century Holland was universally regarded as the land of capitalism par excellence; it was envied by all other nations, who put forth their keenest endeavours in their desire to emulate it..." Historically, the Dutch were responsible for at least four major pioneering institutional innovations (in economic, business and financial history of the world):
* The foundation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the world's first publicly listed company and the first historical model of the multinational corporation (or transnational corporation) in its modern sense, in 1602. Historically, the VOC played a crucial role in the rise of corporate-led globalization, corporate identity, corporate governance, corporate finance, and corporate capitalism. The birth of the VOC is often considered by many to be the official beginning of corporate-led globalization with the rise of modern corporations (multinational corporations in particular) as a highly significant socio-politico-economic force that affect human lives in every corner of the world today. As the first company to be listed on an official stock exchange, the VOC was the first company to issue stock and bonds to the general public. With its pioneering features, the VOC is generally considered a major institutional breakthrough and the model for modern corporations (large-scale business enterprises in particular). It is important to note that most of the largest and most influential companies of the modern-day world are publicly-traded multinational corporations, including Forbes Global 2000 companies. Like present-day publicly-listed multinational companies, in many ways, the post-1657 English/British East India Company's operational structure was a historical derivative of the earlier VOC model.
* The establishment of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (or Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser in Dutch), the world's first official stock exchange, in 1611, along with the birth of the first fully functioning capital market in the early 1600s. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they didn't develop the other ingredient necessary to produce the fully fledged capital market in its modern sense: a formal stock market. The Dutch were the first to use a fully fledged capital market (including the bond market and stock market) to finance public companies (such as the VOC and WIC). This set a precedent for the global securities market in its modern form. In the early 1600s the VOC established an exchange in Amsterdam where VOC stock and bonds could be traded in a secondary market. The establishment of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange by the VOC has long been recognized as the origin of modern-day stock exchanges that specialize in creating and sustaining secondary markets in the securities issued by corporations. The process of buying and selling shares (of stock) in the VOC became the basis of the first formal stock market. The Dutch pioneered stock futures, stock options, short selling, bear raids, debt-equity swaps, and other speculative instruments. Amsterdam businessman Joseph de la Vega's Confusion of Confusions (1688) was the earliest book about stock trading.
* The establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam (Amsterdamsche Wisselbank), often considered to be the first historical model of the central bank, in 1609. The birth of the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank led to the introduction of the concept of bank money. Along with a number of subsidiary local banks, it performed many functions of a central banking system. It occupied a central position in the financial world of its day, providing an effective, efficient and trusted system for national and international payments, and introduced the first ever international reserve currency, the bank guilder. Lucien Gillard calls it the European guilder (le florin européen), and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works (Smith 1776: 446–455). The model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden (1668) and the Bank of England (1694).
* The formation of the first recorded professionally managed collective investment schemes (or investment funds), such as mutual funds, in 1774. Amsterdam-based businessman Abraham van Ketwich (also known as Adriaan van Ketwich) is often credited as the originator of the world's first mutual fund. In response to the financial crisis of 1772–1773, Van Ketwich formed a trust named "Eendragt Maakt Magt" ("Unity Creates Strength"). His aim was to provide small investors with an opportunity to diversify. Today the global funds industry is a multi-trillion-dollar business. In many respects, the Dutch Republic's pioneering institutional innovations greatly helped revolutionize and shape the foundations of the economic and financial system of the modern-day world, and significantly influenced many English-speaking countries, especially the United Kingdom and United States.