 The new constitution addressed many of the reformist concerns of the Patriots since 1785 ( no hereditary offices ; no sinecures ; accountability of officials ) . It also came down on the side of economic liberalism ( as opposed to mercantilism ) in the economic debate then raging in republican circles ( and therefore promised to do away with guilds and internal impediments to trade ) . The old provincial @-@ repartition system of public finance was to be replaced by a system of national taxation . There was to be a five @-@ man Uitvoerend Bewind as a collective Executive , with eight national Agenten ( government ministers ) doing the actual Administration work ( Foreign Affairs , Police and Interior , Justice , Finance , War , Navy , National Education , and National Economy ) . Most importantly , as the British historian Simon Schama states : " [ i ] ts central aim was to change the nature of the Dutch state and to bind its new institutions into the framework of an electoral democracy . " As such it had an importance that outlasted the Batavian Republic and set up an ideal to emulate for its successor states . 
