Pieter de la Court

Pieter de la Court was a Dutch economist and businessman from the wealthy De la Court family who pioneered modern thinking about the economic importance of free competition.

Born in Leiden, one of the world's centers of cloth manufacturing, Pieter de la Court belonged to a family of a wealthy cloth manufacturers and protestant immigrants who moved from Flanders. After he completed education at Leiden University, he entered his father's business, and together with his brother established one of the most important cloth manufacturing businesses in Leiden.

His association with the business world of Leiden inspired him to write his first book on the economic welfare of Leiden (1659). It was followed by his most famous and influential work which provoked controversy entitled “The Interest of Holland, or Grounds of Holland’s Welfare” (1662). The work was one of the most advanced political programs of its time. Although initially banned in the homeland, it was widely translated and read abroad by all those interested in the secrets of the Dutch economic success. As the leading factors contributing to the wealth and power of his homeland, he emphasized free competition and the republican form of government. Today it is considered that he is not the sole author of this work.

In 1665 he moved to Amsterdam, the center of world trade, where he became the leader of a merchant association which sought to break the monopoly of the Dutch East India Company on all trade with the Dutch East Indies.