Pieter de la Court
Pieter de la Court the Younger ( * 1618 in Leiden, † May 28, 1685 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch economist, businessman, and political philosopher. He was a staunch supporter of republican government ideas in the Netherlands and partisans of Johan de Witt.
He used as a form of the name but also by Dutch translations of his French family name: Pieter van den Hooft or Pieter van der Hove. Several of his publications are available only through one of the author's abbreviation VDH, VH and D.C. drawn.
Life
De la Court was the son of Protestant refugees from Flanders, who settled about 1613 in Leiden. His father was the clothes producer Pieter de la Court the Elder ( 1593-1657 to ), his mother Jeanne Planques. Pieter de la Court, the younger studied at the University of Leiden and was from 1641 to 1643 on grand tour through Europe ( London, Saumur, Geneva, Basel), of which a 1928 diary published reports. After his return he founded with his brother Johan a successful dresses trading company. He was with Johan Eleman, member of the Leyden Council and friend of Johan de Witt, friends and married in 1657 his sister Elisabeth Tollenaar. After the untimely death in 1661 he married Catharina van der Voort from a wealthy Amsterdam merchant family (and related to Johan de Witt ). With her he had two children Magdalena and Pieter de la Court van der Voort ( 1664-1739 ). In 1665 he moved to Amsterdam, where he worked with his brothers-. They tried the East India Company to make competition by submitting a petition that their monopoly should only apply for the trip around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1668 it funded a reconnaissance trip to the Arctic to explore an alternative sea route around Siberia around.
His books were published anonymously, but were attributed to him during his lifetime. Today it is believed that his brother Johan (1622-1660) author of several books was - the political philosophy texts Consideratien van staet and Politike Disco Ursus - and that his polemical held Hauptwerk Interest van Holland (published 1662) Johan de Witt and others contributed. He leads in the economic success of the Netherlands back to competition from free markets and the republican form of government. The book was a bestseller at the time with eleven editions to 1671 and has also been translated into other languages (1665 in German, 1702 and 1709 into English into French ). The book also made him the mouthpiece of the Republican Party by Johan de Witt, who reigned at that time in the Netherlands to their overthrow in 1672, was directed against the Orangemen, traditionally the quasi- monarchical governor presented, the de Witt wanted to abolish. It also sets the primacy of the rich province of Holland was compared with the other provinces stresses and represent a policy of peace to the outside, which was to serve the commercial interests. Monopolies, such as those of the guilds and the East and West India Company were shown harmful than the free competition and recommended the construction of a large commercial and naval fleet.
The book was influential until the 18th century, including at the French Physiocrats and Adam Smith, and generally in terms of republican ideas in America, England and the Netherlands.
After the overthrow and murder of Johan de Witt and his brother by an angry mob of supporters of the House of Orange in the wake of the invasion of Louis XIV in the Netherlands, the Dutch were able to meet only by opening the dikes and flooding the country, fled de la Court to Antwerp. However, a year later, in 1673, he returned again and resumed his commercial activity. He is buried in the Nieuwe Kerk.
There are several portraits of him by an unknown person in 1637 at the museum in Leiden, by Godfried Schalcken ( in Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, 1679 ), by Abraham Lambertsz. van den Temple in 1667 in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and Frans van Mieris the Elder ( Amsterdam, The Private Collection? ). Pictures of his parents by Pierre Dubourdieu located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Faculty of Social Sciences of Leiden University is located in a building named after him. His descendants were a well known family in the Netherlands. He was also his son Pieter de la Court van der Voort a great collector of art.
Writings
- Interest van Holland ofte Gronden van Hollands- Welvaren. Amsterdam in 1662 ( under the symbol V.D.H. ) edited new edition under the title: Aanwysing the salutary maxims politike Gronden en van de Republike van Holland en West - Vriesland. Leiden and Rotterdam, 1669
- German translation: Interest of Holland or Fonda Menten of Holland's welfare. anonymous translator, 1665, FU Berlin
- French translation of part of it in: Mémoires de Jean de Witt par mad. de Zoutelande. The Hague 1702, Regensburg 1709
- English Translation: The true interest and political maxims of the Republick of Holland and West Friesland. Written by John de Witt and other great men in Holland, London 1702
- English Translation: The true interest and political maxims, of the republic of Holland. Written by John de Witt. Translated from the original Dutch. To Which is prefixed, ( never before printed ) historical memoirs of the illustrious brothers Cornelius and John de Witt. By John Campbell. London 1746
- In verses by J. van Hogstraten, Amsterdam 1731
Maybe by his brother Johan, but also attributed to him:
- Consideratien s Exempelen van State. Omtrent de fonda instruments van allerley Regeringen. Amsterdam 1661, 6th Edition 1662 (as V. H. )
- Consideratien van staet ofte Polityke Weegschaal. Amsterdam 1661, 2nd edition 1662 (as V. H. )
- Politician Disco Ursus. Leiden 1662, Amsterdam 1662 (as D. C. )