Note 7 — Trade of the Philippines

A truce of eight months, to begin with May, 1607, was arranged between Spain and the United Provinces, in which for the first time Spain gave up its claims to control the latter. This paved the way to the long truce of twelve years signed at the meeting of the States-General at Bergen-op-Zoom, in April, 1609, in which the independence of the United Provinces was recognized (see Vol. XI, p. 166, note 27). But that independence was completely recognized and assured only by the treaty of Westphalia or Münster (in October, 1648), which also opened to the Dutch the ports of the Eastern and Western Indias.