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biography
| name: |
Court, Pieter de la
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pronunciation:
[duh la koor]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1618–85)
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| biography:
| Dutch political writer, born in Leiden, W Netherlands. His early experiences as a cloth manufacturer led him to write a polemic against the restrictive practices of the guilds, which Johan de Witt encouraged him to expand into a work on political control in general. He promoted economic, religious, and political freedom, as against the sovereignty of the princes of Orange or of the regents, and was a free-trader, opposing monopolies such as the VOC (United East India Company). His ideas were based on those of the Cartesians and Thomas Hobbes. He was so well known for his anti-stadtholder views that he fled to Antwerp, where he met Peter the Great. |
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