In the 18th century the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustasius traded neutral with no tax or customs on goods.
Main trades were; contraband, rum and especially weapons.
At his peak around 3500 ships arrived annually visiting a flourishing island population of 10.000 people.
Mainly during the American independence war against the British, a big part of the American weapons came from this island.
This was one of the few places the Americans could buy weapons through the neutrality of the island.
During this time it got the nickname "the golden rock".
The Dutch gave their first salute to the American flag on this island, recognizing the new country as one of the first.
The English partly blamed their loss on the Dutch weapon supplies from the island.
So declared war on Holland (4th anglo- ducth war) and sent a massive fleet to the island.
The Dutch surrendered without a fight looking at this overwhelming show of force.
The French (Dutch allies) later chased the re -meaning occupying English off, giving the island back to the Dutch.
From then on trades slowly went down on the island.
Today it has a population of less than a 1.000 souls.