12
Politics in
the 1860s
1861 seemed to be a year without political activity for the Netherlands. However, it turned that, even though there were not many important things happening, little things happened, which turned out to affect the future tremendously.
Cabinet-Thorbecke II
The Cabinet-Thorbecke II was a liberal Dutch cabinet. All of the ministers were liberal so there were less difficulties in setting up the new laws. They ruled in the period between 1862-1866. This cabinet directed its attention to the development of the economy. The cabinet accomplished a lot. They established a lot of new laws, for example: the new waterway law, the development of the secondary education, and the decrease in customs in municipal excise duties.
In 1865, the cabinet faces a complication, which led to the abdication of the minister of financials.
Not long after, an internal conflict broke out, after which Thorbecke resigned from the cabinet.
The cabinet achieved much for the Netherlands and its colonies. If it weren’t for Thorbecke II, slavery would not have been stopped in Suriname and Curacao. Today, Johan Rudolph Thorbecke we are very happy that it did.
Petrus Werthweijn
Petrus was born in 1822 in Amsterdam. He lived the rest of his life here and died in 1900. In his life, he followed and educative course on typesetting. Later on, in 1857, he became a member of the Amsterdam typografen vereniging: De Nederlandse Drukpers. Together with some of his co-members, he wanted to set up a funding for unemployed typographers. So, in February 1861, the Onderling Hulpfonds: Boekdrukkunst (the Mutual Help fund: Book press art) was set up. For the Netherlands, this was the first union of co-workers, who worked together to receive financial support for workers who had become unemployed. Werthweijn was elected as councilman for the first administration. In 1866, so 5 years later, this administration proceeded to become a national organization called: de Algemeene Nederlandsche Typografenbond (General Dutch Typographers Bond), with Werthweijn as councilman again.
The act of Petrus Werthweijn caused the first union of colleagues working for financial support, which inspired many more to do so too, even nowadays.