Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden AgeA new and unexpected history of the Dutch pursuit of commerce in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it triggered the Scientific Revolution In this wide-ranging and stimulating book, a leading authority on the history of medicine and science presents convincing evidence that Dutch commerce—not religion—inspired the rise of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh and exciting. He uncovers direct links between the rise of trade and commerce in the Dutch Empire and the flourishing of scientific investigation. Cook argues that engaging in commerce changed the thinking of Dutch citizens, leading to a new emphasis on such values as objectivity, accumulation, and description. The preference for accurate information that accompanied the rise of commerce also laid the groundwork for the rise of science globally, wherever the Dutch engaged in trade. Medicine and natural history were fundamental aspects of this new science, as reflected in the development of gardens for both pleasure and botanical study, anatomical theaters, curiosity cabinets, and richly illustrated books about nature. Sweeping in scope and original in its insights, this book revises previous understandings of the history of science and ideas. |
From inside the book
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... trade throughout the world fell largely under the control of merchants along the European Atlantic coast. They in turn financed the apparatus of their respective nation-states to guarantee their security, and in some places, such as the ...
... trades, and they drove that trade hard, ending up as the major shippers of northwestern Europe. They also became beneficiaries of the direct trade with Asia. That began after Vasco da Gama rounded Africa in 1497–98 and Pedro Álvares ...
... trade, disrupting established relationships and co-opting others while also diverting a portion of the products of Asia back to Europe.17 Their intervention in the spice trade also threatened to cut off the supply of spices via the ...
... trade more than a century later—Priuli was right to see it deeply threatening the customary European spice trade, as it also worried the traditional carriers in the Indian Ocean.20 As it happens, however, the development of a major ...
... trade (the Medici with the established fabric and spice trade of the eastern Mediterranean, the Fuggers with the new worldwide silver and spice trade of the Spanish and Portuguese), and each had aspirations to impose themselves as local ...
Contents
1 | |
42 | |
82 | |
Four Commerce and Medicine in Amsterdam | 133 |
Five Truths and Untruths from the Indies | 175 |
Descartes in the Republic | 226 |
Seven Industry and Analysis | 267 |
Eight Gardens of the Indies Transported | 304 |
The Medicine of East Asia | 339 |
Sticking to Simple Things | 378 |
Eleven Conclusions and Comparisons | 410 |
Notes | 417 |
Bibliography | 473 |
Index | 537 |
Other editions - View all
Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age Harold John Cook No preview available - 2007 |