Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ralph Raico
“We can take a positive example and positive model of European development, and that is the Dutch experiment. The Low Countries — that is, today, the Netherlands and Belgium — had long benefitted from the legal system inherited from the Dukes of Burgundy who had ruled the area. These were rulers who governed in collaboration with the Estates-General. The Estates-General is a meeting of representatives of all of the estates, or in other words, legal categories of noble, commoner, and sometimes clergy. The Dukes of Burgundy and the acts of the Estates-General promoted an open commercial and industrial system based on the protection of property rights. Naturally enough, the Estates-General was constituted of representatives of the property-owning classes. In the rise of the northern Netherlands — or the United Provinces or Holland, as we say — we have a near perfect example of the European miracle of decentralization in operation.” (06/11/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/dutch-model-secession-commercial-freedom-and-religious-tolerance