Statistics, the argument will be, in its authentic meaning of political and moral state description was converted by Kluit into a tool for envisaging the Dutch state within a system of interlocking complementary national economies and thereby ultimately a yardstick for guiding domestic reforms. 2 In particular, the aim is to present a reading of the way in which the discursive characteristics of early statistics served to connect internal reform processes to ideas about the interstate system and its possible development. The purpose of this article is to provide a moderately revisionist reading of Kluit's adoption of statistics as sustaining an outlook on the specific character of Dutch commerce that fed into the ongoing reform process of the state. 1 Among Kluit's noted achievements is the fact that through his lectures at the University of Leiden he stood at the beginning of the official recognition of statistics as an academic discipline in the Netherlands in first half of the nineteenth century. The Dutch lexicographer, historian, lawyer and political writer Adriaan Kluit (1735–1807) has long been recognised as a key figure in late eighteenth-century academic life in the United Provinces, even though few full-size studies specifically dedicated to his works exist.

Thorbecke wil het by Remieg Aerts