Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"At its peak, in the late seventeenth century, it [Dutch East India Company] was the richest corporation in the world, owning 150 trading ships and 40 ships of war, and employing 20,000 sailors, 10,000 soldiers and nearly 50,000 civilians. . . . The decisive period for the end of the Dutch Republic’s ‘Golden Age’ appears to have been the second quarter of the eighteenth century, when the ‘rich trades’ receded and the fishing industry collapsed. . . . The Dutch Republic had suffered the fate common to many other economies enjoying the initial advantage of being first in the field. So rapid was its expansion, so astounding was its wealth, that it was bound to attract the jealous hostility of other states. . . . The overexertion necessitated by decades of incessant warfare eventually exhausted the Republic’s resources." [Blanning: Pursuit of Glory, p. 98-102]