The Dutch seemed really advanced, controlling the spice islands (modern day Indonesia), and all the qualities listed in the article... so... how did England get ahead? (I guess, via the Industrial Revolution, which is what the blog is about.)
Also: today's semiconductor fabs rely on Dutch equipment. Surely, they get a large share of the profits of biggest industry of recent times. I am curious: was the investment that made this possible somehow facilitated by the profitability of the Dutch East Indies Company? The past extends into the future...
Yes, of course. Philips (the Dutch company that initially invested in both TSMC and ASML) was founded on old tobacco money. But that's like saying Microsoft has to thank William Gates Sr. profitable lawyer career for their success. It's technically true that without that career the circumstances would likely not have facilitated the founding of Microsoft. But it's just one of the great many factors in their story.
After being founded on Tobacco money, Philips was successful in producing high quality lightbulbs. I think they're also comparable to companies like Sony/Samsung that started out as a place where cheap labor was available, and that gradually grew into more and more high tech and intellectual property.
I think that's also an interesting side note. Despite the Dutch as a country becoming super wealthy, historically the people in The Netherlands have always been poor, there always was a very large wealth gap. I'm not a historian but I think the closing of this wealth gap (in terms of living standards, not money per se) is something that started after WW2, could be wrong.
Also: today's semiconductor fabs rely on Dutch equipment. Surely, they get a large share of the profits of biggest industry of recent times. I am curious: was the investment that made this possible somehow facilitated by the profitability of the Dutch East Indies Company? The past extends into the future...