This study offers the first complete overview of the remarkable public finances of the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces. Wantje Fritschy has analysed the development and structure of its public revenue and expenditure. She argues that a tax revolution and the fiscal resilience of the provinces together were more important for its surprising performance than Holland s public debt alone, and the institutional and economic characteristics of its urban system were more important than wealth due to foreign trade. Comparisons with the fiscal systems of three more centralized states - the...