Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age [Hardcover]

Harold J. Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2007

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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cook challenges existing interpretations of the rise of science during the early modern period and provides an immensely informative overview of science and medicine in the Dutch Golden Age."—Mark Harrison, University of Oxford

(Mark Harrison )

"Matters of Exchange is a magisterial book linking science and commerce. From now on, ''the Scientific Revolution'' has a Dutch accent."—Mary E. Fissell, Johns Hopkins University

(Mary E. Fissell )

"Ever since the seventeenth century, the startling Dutch achievement in arts and economy has obsessed foreign observers: how to explain and learn from this seemingly miraculous rise to world power of a small nation lacking any obvious natural resources? In this powerfully argued and carefully organised new book, Hal Cook makes the Dutch Golden Age somewhat less miraculous but much more fascinating. By charting the networks and values embodied in what he calls its information economy, Cook guides us along the remarkable paths of trade and intelligence which dominated Dutch society''s successes and ambitions. Busy merchants and ambitious scholars scoured their expansive world for new goods, new facts and thus new opportunities for trade and commerce. The results were visible in the shops, libraries, gardens and colleges of the new Republic. Their orientation towards reliable information, mobile credit and solid commodities affected not only global trade but also world-wide knowledge systems. With lucid detail and appealing illustration, Cook introduces key figures in the Dutch information economy: pharmacists and botanists, anatomists and mariners. Familiar protagonists of the new sciences of early modern Europe, including René Descartes and Hermann Boerhaave, are here properly put back into the milieux that mattered to their schemes for human welfare and the improvement of knowledge. The book''s stage is set wide, from the Dutch bases in east Asia, southern Africa and the Americas to the wharves, theatres and markets of the great Netherlands cities. By insisting with such authority on the mutual relationship between global commerce and worldly knowledge, Cook opens a quite new perspective on the roots of the modern system of science and capital."—Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge 

(Simon Schaffer )

"In this ground-breaking book, Professor Cook investigates the way in which the unprecedented growth in global knowledge in the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries accompanied, and reflected the rapid expansion of the Dutch global commercial empire. Meticulously tracking the relations between these two areas of activity, Cook argues vividly and convincingly that in the case of medicine, commerce and the rise of a recognisable modern practice went hand in hand, and that, in general, across Europe, a new global economy marked the beginnings of science as we know it. A book of real importance for all cultural historians and historians of science of the early modern period."—Lisa Jardine, Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, and Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary, University of London
 
[You are welcome to edit my text]

(Lisa Jardine )

"Effective and important...An excellent coverage of key features of the Dutch Golden Age."--Steven Paul Matthews, Journal of World History

(Steven Paul Matthews Journal of World History )

About the Author

Harold J. Cook is director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine and professor at University College London. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (April 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300117965
• ISBN-13: 978-0300117967
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,045,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical narrative and disciplinary integration, April 20, 2010

By 

Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. "Stephen" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (Paperback)

I've long admired the Dutch Golden Age, but Harold Cook's work made many new connections for me, showing strong connections between developments in science, art, philosophy, commerce, and politics. It is unfortunate that so many of the key works of the era are still available only in Dutch or Latin, and Cook's work opened this English-speaking reader's eyes to many significant authors. Much appreciated.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice historical description, but poor hypotheses about the emergence of the "Scientific Revolution", December 6, 2009

By 

Francesc (Ontario) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (Kindle Edition)

This book was 20 years in development. Therefore, it includes a detailed description about the Dutch Golden Age. Good chapters are above all the fifth and the sixth. So far so good. However, this book has a huge blind spot. The part dedicated to explain the reasons of the "Scientific Revolution" is trivial. Cook describes only single focal points at regional and global level, but not at societal structural level. There is not evidence that merchant values and increasing of social complexity can be integrated as this book does. The arguments linking scientific revolution and commerce are unprecise. Moreover, they lack of systematic theorizing. A sentence of the preface's book summarizes my views on the book:

"And I hope that even those who disagree with the arguments of the book will find some of the descriptive material on which it is based to be of interest". Preface. p.xii.