 The unitary state was not an end in itself , but a means to higher ends . The republic had been in dire financial straits even before the revolution of 1795 . The system of public finance that had been the envy of the world in its Golden Age , enabling it to throw far beyond its weight in world politics up to the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 , had become a millstone around its neck . By 1713 the public debt of the province of Holland had reached 310 million guilders ; the debt of the Generality was 68 million ; and the debts of the smaller provinces , and of the cities came on top of this . The debt service of Holland alone in that year required 14 million guilders , which exceeded its regular tax revenue . Most of this humongous public debt was held by Dutch private citizens , so in a sense it merely engendered an internal money circuit in the Dutch economy . However , it was mostly concentrated in the hands of the rentier class , while the debt was serviced by mainly regressive taxes that weighed on the working population . Most importantly , these were taxes levied by the individual provinces , who serviced their own debt , and paid into the Generality coffers according to a repartition schedule last changed in 1616 . Attempts to reform this structure during the 18th century were mainly fruitless . 
