 The new constitution addressed many of the reformist concerns of the Patriots since 1785 (no hereditary offices; no sinecures; accountability of officials). It also came down on the side of economic liberalism (as opposed to mercantilism) in the economic debate then raging in republican circles (and therefore promised to do away with guilds and internal impediments to trade). The old provincial-repartition system of public finance was to be replaced by a system of national taxation. There was to be a five-man Uitvoerend Bewind as a collective Executive, with eight national Agenten (government ministers) doing the actual Administration work (Foreign Affairs, Police and Interior, Justice, Finance, War, Navy, National Education, and National Economy). Most importantly, as the British historian Simon Schama states: "[i] ts central aim was to change the nature of the Dutch state and to bind its new institutions into the framework of an electoral democracy." As such it had an importance that outlasted the Batavian Republic and set up an ideal to emulate for its successor states.
