Was There a West-European Trajectory of State Formation? A Comparison with the Ottoman Empire from a Dutch Perspective

Despite jealous enemies among much more populous states and fierce interstate competition, the very small state of the Netherlands was able to maintain itself as an independent entity in Western Europe since its emergence in the sixteenth century. There is no doubt that not only developments in international relations, but also its fiscal system have been an important factor to explain this phenomenon, especially before the nineteenth century. Were the emergence and the changing character of this fiscal system mainly determined by necessities or also by values and preferences? What have been the role of population density and the unsuitability of much of its territory for grain cultivation in this fiscal system? Was the success of this small state due to its wealth, or was its wealth mainly due to its success as a state? And was this Dutch federative state an anomaly or did for instance the role of cities in its fiscal system make into a typical West-European fiscal system as compared to the fiscal system in the ‘world of Islam’?