In April 2016 the Dutch Tax & Customs Museum in Rotterdam will open the exhibition ‘Revolt!’. The presentation will deal with the early years of the 80 years of uprising of the Netherlands against Philip II of Spain, focussing on the tax revolt versus the centralising fiscal effort of the Spanish empire as executed by the Duke of Alba.

Along with the exhibition we will organise a symposium on the fifth of April 2016, the 450th anniversary of the offering of the petition of noblemen to Margaret of Parma, an important event running up to the Dutch Revolt.

Titled ‘The tenth penny: a two sided coin’, the symposium will take into account both the Dutch and Spanish sides of the conflict with a loose focus on the financial side of the story. We are after all the Tax & Customs Museum.

Programa

Carlos Javier de Carlos Morales from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, will talk about the role of the ‘alcabalas’ in the financing of the Spanish Empire during the reign of Philip II.

Raymond Fagel from Leiden University will talk about how the duke of Alba’s financial policy affected the Spanish administrators and soldiers in the Low Countries.

María José Rodríguez Salgado of the London School of Economics will talk about the Duke of Alba’s policies in the Netherlands and how these fit into the broader imperial policies of Philip II.
And then for the talks about the Dutch side of the conflict we have Gustaaf Janssens, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, who will speak about the Duke of Alba’s tenth penny and how the Netherlands reacted to it. How did negotiation compare to open resistance?
Oscar Gelderblom from Utrecht University will talk about how the Dutch revolters managed to finance their war effort.

And as an epilogue Marjolein ’t Hart, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, will talk about how the eventual Dutch Republic managed to finance their governance and war after the early years of the revolt. How did they levy taxes without running into the same trouble the duke of Alba experienced?
Maurits Ebben from Leiden University will act as moderator.