Editing Dutch Republic (section)

===Economic growth===
{{Main|Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)}}
[[File:Job Adriaensz. Berckheyde 001.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Euronext Amsterdam|Amsterdam Stock Exchange]], by [[Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde]]]]
The era of explosive economic growth is roughly coterminous with the period of social and cultural bloom that has been called the [[Dutch Golden Age]], and that actually formed the material basis for that cultural era. Amsterdam became the hub of world trade, the center into which staples and luxuries flowed for sorting, processing, and distribution, and then reexported around Europe and the world.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Joost |last=Jonker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8xwWAQAAMAAJ |title=Merchants, bankers, middlemen: the Amsterdam money market during the first half of the 19th century |publisher=NEHA |date=1996 |isbn=9789057420016 |page=32}}</ref>

During 1585 through 1622 there was the rapid accumulation of trade capital, often brought in by refugee merchants from Antwerp and other ports. The money was typically invested in high-risk ventures like pioneering expeditions to the [[East Indies]] to engage in the [[spice trade]]. These ventures were soon consolidated in the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC). There were similar ventures in different fields however, like the trade on Russia and the [[Levant]]. The profits of these ventures were ploughed back in the financing of new trade, which led to its exponential growth.<ref>Charles R. Boxer, ''The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800'' (1965)</ref>

Rapid industrialization led to the rapid growth of the nonagricultural labor force and the increase in real wages during the same time. In the half-century between 1570 and 1620 this labor supply increased 3 percent per annum, a truly phenomenal growth. Despite this, nominal wages were repeatedly increased, outstripping price increases. In consequence, real wages for unskilled laborers were 62 percent higher in 1615–1619 than in 1575–1579.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Jan |last=de Vries |first2=A. |last2=van der Woude |title=The First Modern Economy. Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 |date=1997 |pp=668–672}}</ref>