Économie et protestantisme : Qui inspire le commerce en Angleterre ? L’influence des Provinces-Unies

In the XVIth century overseas trade dramatically developed as numerous ships kept sailing to and fro, bringing spices, silks and other goods which were in great demand by potential consumers. Merchants would meet in fairs or exchanges, such as Antwerp’s, the most highly rated one in the European continent. But in those places political and religious ideas were exchanged as well as commercial products. For instance, as the Protestant Reformation gradually spread in the Northern Netherlands, it strengthened their inhabitants’ desire of independence and enabled them to win economic preeminence all through the next century. This young protestant nation thereby became an example. This paper aims firstly at exploring the rather close links between religion (calvinism and arminianism) and Dutch political and economic life, secondly at showing the fascination of English merchants (in particular Josiah Child) for that country’s achievements.
Pouget Elsa. Économie et protestantisme : Qui inspire le commerce en Angleterre ? L’influence des Provinces-Unies. In: Anglophonia/Caliban, n°17, 2005. Protestantisme(s) et autorité / Protestantism and authority. pp. 235-241.