Oostvaardersdiep
INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TRANSPORT
The Zuiderzee was of great importance to Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In those days, Amsterdam was the most important trading city in the Netherlands. Numerous ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (WIC) were anchored on the Zuiderzee. The mighty three-masters waited to unload or load in Amsterdam or to sail to distant places at the right tide.