1790s
Total population 2.08 million, urbanization (34 principal towns) 32 percent (1795).
| January 1795 | French invasion; foundation of the Batavian Republic. |
| April 1798 | First constitution of the unitary state followed by a first national budget. |
| August 1799 | Anglo-Russian invasion of North Holland, evacuation from mid-October |
1800s
Total population 2.16 million; urbanization 30 percent (1809); 42 percent of workforce in agriculture (1807); flooding of the major rivers in 1809; domestic product 352 million in 1913 guilders, 163 per head (1807–9).
| April 1805 | Authoritarian Batavian Commonwealth under Schimmelpenninck, adoption of the first national tax system designed by Gogel (between October 1805 and January 1807). |
| June 1806 | Napoleon replaces Commonwealth by the Kingdom Holland under his younger brother Louis. |
| November 1806 | Berlin Decrees introduce the Continental system that prohibits trade with Britain. |
| July 1809 | British expeditionary force invades Walcheren (Zeeland), evacuation late December. |
1810s
Total population 2.22 million; urbanization 29 percent (1815); urban crude death rate in final war years (1812–4) at 42 per thousand, net decrease of 10 per thousand; domestic product 390 million in 1913 guilders, 173 per head (1814–9).
| July 1810 | Cession of southern departments to the French Empire, followed by full annexation; default through suspension of interest payments on two-thirds of the public debt; conscription introduced. |
| Restoration of independence; the surviving son of Willem V, Willem Frederik of Orange-Nassau, lands in Scheveningen from London. | |
| March 1814 | Adoption of a new constitution followed by the inauguration of Willem I as sovereign of the northern Netherlands. De Nederlandsche Bank created. |
| May 1814 | Law on the Restoration of National Debt passed; a systematic restructuring of rates of interest to 2.5 percent is combined with an incidental wealth tax and the creation of a ‘deferred debt’ equal to the two-thirds defaulted upon since 1810 (1151 million). |
| September 1815 | Willem I is inaugurated as hereditary King of the United Netherlands under an adapted constitution with a co-legislative bicameral parliament. |
| June 1816– | Extreme food prices as a result of the eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 and its effect on harvests; arable prices peak in June 1817 at 2.5 times the 1814–50 average. |
| November 1816 | First adapted system of import tariffs since 1725, prohibitive with respect to coal and refined sugar. National metrication of measurement units, introduction of a Dutch decimal currency (parallel until 1845 currency reform). |
| October 1819 | First ten-yearly ‘ordinary’ budget and parliamentary debate; initial rejection. |
1820s
Average population 2.50 million; urbanization 30 percent (1829); domestic product 465 million in 1913 guilders, 186 per head.
| 1820–4 | Highpoint in public expenditure on transport infrastructure (canals, roads, harbors) under Willem I. |
| 1821–2 | Overhaul of the tax system aimed at reconciling northern and southern interests; excises on soap and fuel abolished (until 1832/4); northern interests prevail in tariff policy, Fund for Industry created in compensation. Creation of the Amortisatie syndicaat with the purpose of taking deferred debt out of the market (replaces Amortisatiekas). |
| 1823 | Appearance of the first steamships and foundation of the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij, running a service between Rotterdam and Antwerp; followed in 1825 by the Amsterdamsche Stoomboot Maatschappij; |
| Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappij created; joint-stock company aimed at a revival of colonial trade, becomes main vehicle of preferential rights and subsidization in textiles, shipbuilding, sugar refining, trade and shipping on the East Indies after 1830. | |
| 1825 | Revision of the tariff system; import tariffs on grains and iron raised. Fund for Industry cut by parliament. |
| 1829 | Second ten-yearly budget and parliamentary debate, rejected twice before passed. |
1830s
Average population 2.74 million; urbanization 30 percent (1839); domestic product 558 million in 1913 guilders, 203 per head.
| 1830 | July Revolution in Paris, start of the Belgian Revolt in August; provisional government proclaims independence in October. Governor General Van den Bosch introduces the Cultuurstelsel in the Dutch East Indies, replacing the system of land-rents by remittances in kind from a fifth of all cultivated land. |
| 1831 | The Mainz Convention liberalizes international Rhine traffic in consequence of the Treaty of Vienna, forcing a drawn-out reduction of Dutch duties and regulations that lasts until 1850 (protecting staple trade and regulated transport). |
| 1832–4 | Higher excises on milling, fuel and soap reintroduced and excises on drink and wine raised in reaction to the fiscal crisis triggered by Belgian secession; start of perseverance policy involving military mobilization; Ten-Day Campaign (August 1831); siege of the citadel of Antwerp (1832). |
| 1835 | Graanwet sliding-scale import tariffs on grain (abolished 1845). Revolt in Amsterdam against the introduction of a new tax on real estate. |
| 1839 | Third ten-yearly budget unanimously rejected; budget reveals the state of public finance and triggers a sustainability crisis; public debt again over two times domestic product; individual ministers resign. Opening of the first railway line between Haarlem and Amsterdam. |
Average population 3.02 million; urbanization 29 percent (1849); 39 percent of workforce in agriculture (1849); domestic product 646 million in 1913 guilders, 214 per head.
| 1840 | Constitutional reform abolishing ministers’ freedom from persecution and introducing ministerial countersign; start of biennial budgets; abdication of Willem I (October). |
| 1843 | Start of systematic debt restructuring under Van Hall; a voluntary loan of 127 million at 3 percent (23 percent of GDP; NWS market rate is at 4.6 percent) is combined with the threat of an alternative 1.5 percent wealth tax, completed in 1845. |
| 1846 | Start of currency reform, old coins lose status as legal tender, injection of paper money, transition from bimetallism to silver standard through demonetization of gold coins. Emergence of the potato blight, followed by failing grain harvests, high food prices and a cholera epidemic (1846–8); urban crude death rate in 1847/9 at 38 and 40 per thousand; arable prices peak in May 1847 at 2.2 times the 1814–50 average. |
| 1848 | Dutch constitutional reform under Thorbecke; direct elections with widened eligibility (from 1850 11% of male population over 23, based on direct taxation); King brought under ministerial responsibility; up to 1851 organic laws on the electoral system and provincial and municipal governance. First municipal gasworks founded in Leiden. |
1850s
Average population 3.23 million; urbanization 30 percent (1859); domestic product 738 million in 1913 guilders, 228 per head.
| 1850 | Definitive liberalization of Rhine trade and transport. |
| 1852 | First liberal fiscal reform package: abolition of the excise on pork and mutton and the local surcharge on milling. |
| 1853–5 | High grain prices from late 1853 as a result of the disruption of Russian Black Sea exports in relation to the Crimean War; arable prices peak in June 1854 at 1.9 times the 1814-50 average. |
| 1854 | Abolition of the municipal bread assize. |
| 1855 | Abolition of the national excise on milling. |
Average population 3.46 million; urbanization 30 percent (1869); domestic product 837 million in 1913 guilders, 242 per head.
| 1860 | Railway Act combines public construction with private exploitation to systematically extend railway network (from 340 to 1865 kilometers by 1880). |
| 1862 | Adoption of a free trade regime. |
| 1863 | Bank Law; renews the monopoly of DNB as circulation bank, but links this to the opening of a Rotterdam branch and further agencies, seeking to extend credit facilities to the wider economy. |
| 1864–5 | Abolition of the fuel excise and local excises, which are replaced by direct funding from general tax returns. Decisions on large-scale public investment in the Nieuwe Waterweg and the Noordzeekanaal (completed 1876) connecting Rotterdam and Amsterdam to the North Sea more directly and with greater draught. |
| 1865–7 | Epidemic of rinderpest imported from Eastern Europe via Britain. |
| 1869 | Abolition of the stamp duty on newspapers with strong effects on industrial activity in printing and paper. |
1870s
Average population 3.80 million; urbanization 32 percent (1879); domestic product 1027 million in 1913 guilders, 270 per head.
| 1870 | Effective abolition of the Cultuurstelsel in the East Indies. |
| 1872 | Definitive end to differential tariffs in the East Indian colonies (started 1865). |
| 1874 | Vestingwet sets-up a regional defensive structure based on inundation, allowing for the demolition of early modern city-walls and urban extension. |
| 1875 | By minting a convertible ten-guilder gold piece parallel to silver currency the Netherlands effectively joins the Gold Standard. |
| 1878 | A ‘peoples petition’ (Volkspetitionnement) organized by the largest protestant faction in politics over the question whether denominated schools should be publicly funded triggers the formation of formal political parties. |
Average population 4.28 million; urbanization 36 percent (1889); 35 percent of workforce in agriculture (1889); domestic product 1305 million in 1913 guilders, 305 per head.
| 1881 | Start of high public outlays on fortifications in relation to German power politics. |
| 1887 | Constitutional reform widens the franchise on the basis of ‘signs of eligibility and prosperity’; from 1888 27 percent of all males over 23 are eligible to vote. |
1890s
Average population 4.82 million; urbanization 40 percent (1899), city growth at its peak at 2.7 percent per year over the decade; domestic product 1554 million in 1913 guilders, 322 per head.
| 1892–3 | Fiscal reform package introduces corporate taxation and taxation on income (initially only on gains from capital above 13 thousand guilders), and abolishes the patent license tax and the excise on soap. |
| 1896 | Electoral Law widens the franchise on the basis of tax returns (which remain dominant), savings, wages, schooling and home ownership; from 1897 49 percent of males over 25 eligible to vote; by 1913 66 percent. |
1900–1914
Average population 5.70 million, urbanization 41 percent (1909), 29 percent of workforce in agriculture (1909), domestic product 2061 million in 1913 guilders, 361 per head.
| 1901 | Introduction of the Ongevallenwet on industrial accidents starts collective social security. |
| 1914 | Introduction of a general and progressive income tax. |
| 28 July 1914 | Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, start of the First World War. |