Management of an Economy

Abstract

We have previously characterized Holland’s ecology as a dense population bearing upon limited space and resources. Her geographic limitations have been compounded by the recent events of a depression, a military occupation, the dismantling of much of her industrial plant, the loss of established trade channels, and the end of her colonial empire. Yet by “force of methods” Holland has attained an economic recovery that well deserves the term miraculous. Her national income rose from $ 4 billion in 1949 to $ 65 billion in 1974.¹ Undoubtedly the root cause of Holland’s success has been the general rise in world prosperity. A nation whose economy is dependent for over half its income on world trade could never gain such achievements alone. Yet the formulation and coordination of deliberate economic policy aimed at full employment, maximum capital development, and high-level trade balance, could not but help contribute towards the rising national incomes that the nation experienced.