Industrialization and modern economic growth came comparatively late to the Netherlands. Unlike the political elites of the frontrunners England and Belgium, who pushed for change, those in the Netherlands were supposedly content with the status quo. We explore to what extent this was true by reconstructing the composition of the wealth holdings at death of the Dutch political elite between 1780 and 1920. We analyze the financial results of these investments and we perform an in-depth analysis of investment in agriculture, a sector which changed dramatically during the century under consideration, first through elites resuming active management of their landed estates, then through outside competition forcing change and the adoption of new cultivation methods.