The Dutch Lottery: Gambling, Crowdfunding, and the Bonds of Empire

In this episode of The Story of the Netherlands, Lucas and Luna explore the Dutch lottery as a financial instrument that helped build the Dutch empire. From the early municipal lotteries of the fifteenth century to the massive state-run lotteries of the seventeenth, they uncover how a passion for gambling funded public works, colonial ventures, and even the construction of the Amsterdam canal ring. Along the way, they meet the 'lottery widows,' the earliest documented problem gamblers, and consider the moral debates that raged in the Dutch Golden Age. Lucas also reveals how the lottery functioned as a form of crowdfunding, with ordinary citizens buying tickets that financed everything from orphanages to the Dutch East India Company's first voyages. This episode offers a fresh look at a lesser-known engine of Dutch economic growth, showing how risk-taking, both financial and personal, was woven into the fabric of the Republic.

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