TY - CHAP AB - The key argument of the book is that parcellization of power between great merchant families and the patrimonial corporations they ruled, first fuelled the Dutch Golden Age and then contributed to its demise. Even though farsighted contemporaries realized that a measure of centralization was essential, they were unable to loosen the patricians’ grasp of particular hereditary powers. Were the internal dynamics of elite families one factor in driving political fragmentation? Adams stresses that the “betrayal of the bourgeoisie,” routinely used as explanation of Dutch decline, can also be read as “loyalty of the patriarch,” and notes that the patriarchs acted in defence of the lineage continuity they themselves imagined and represented. In this area in particular, systematic attention should also be given to the urgings, imaginings and interests of other household and family members, and the cautionary tales of kin and friends who, in one way or another, missed out. VL - 19 SN - 978-0-76231-418-8, 978-1-84950-545-1/0198-8719 DO - 10.1016/S0198-8719(08)19011-1 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0198-8719(08)19011-1 AU - Miller Pavla ED - Diane E. Davis ED - Christina Proenza-Coles PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - Familial state and the dynamics of household mastery T2 - Political Power and Social Theory T3 - Political Power and Social Theory PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 283 EP - 288 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -