Great Depression in the Netherlands

The Great Depression led to political instability and riots, and can be linked to the rise of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands.

[1] After 1925, partly because of economic improvements in Germany, the post-war depression in the Netherlands ended and the country rejoined the gold standard.

However, among others because of strong trade restrictions in Germany, this improvement was limited and did not cause an economic boom as in some other European countries and the United States (associated with the Roaring Twenties).

In spite of these slight economic improvements the Dutch economy struggled with structural problems in the period before the Great Depression.

Until 1931 the social consequences of the economic crisis had been limited; by decreasing work hours and wages, mass unemployment had so far been avoided in most sectors.

[1] At the start of the depression, employed workers still saw their wage cuts matched by strong decreases of the price of consumption articles.

In large parts of society, it was felt that unemployed people should above all be stimulated to find work, so only income support at subsistence level should be given.

Support receivers had to report at a government agency twice a day, waiting in the endless lines of unemployed which became a symbol of the depression.

More impressive was the strike or mutiny in 1933 of the sailors of De Zeven Provinciën, an armored ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

The mutiny ended when the Dutch army bombed the ship, killing 22 of the sailors and forcing the rest of the crew to surrender.

A reduction of the already low government unemployment support sparked protest and riots in several cities in the Netherlands, most strongly in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam.

The upheaval of the Great Depression can also be linked to a rise of xenophobia[citation needed] and the, albeit limited, success of the National Socialist Movement (NSB).

Starting in 1932 a series of "crisis laws" was issued to further subsidise the agricultural and shipping sectors, and to enable a measure of government control on import, export and capital flows.

While most industrialised countries strongly increased their trade restrictions from the early stages of the Great Depression onward, the Dutch government still hoped for international cooperation to solve the economic crisis.

By cooperating in international negotiation as a "gold bloc" and lowering trade restrictions among themselves these states tried to survive harsh foreign competition without accepting currency devaluation.

At the same time the effects of the depression became less visible as European states started to rearm themselves in the preamble of World War II.

By 1939, large numbers of formerly unemployed people had been drafted into the army, while rising defence expenditure (the budget tripled between 1936 and 1939)[1] artificially revived several sectors of the economy.

The new cabinet proposed an ambitious strategy to invest large sums of money in public works to finally end the depression.