[104] (18th century) Without reaching the importance of the importance of the Big Dutch companies the Ostend Company, during its short life before it was sacrificed to the imperative demands of the Habsburg policy, carried on an activity of quite considerable importance. However the trade of these provinces could at no time be measured with the development of the trade of the United Provinces. It lacked a sufficiently large merchant fleet, an indispensable condition for world expansion at a time when the maxim of the classical economists was that trade follows the flag [.....].