The Netherlands are thought to have pioneered an early modern ‘Retail Revolution’ which reduced the transaction costs of bringing market wares to wider social strata, facilitating the Consumer Revolution. This paper addresses open questions about this development using a commonly used quantitative benchmark – the ‘retail ratio’, defined as the number of retailers per 1,000 inhabitants. We present a large dataset of Dutch retail ratios and use them to show how the density of retailing in the Netherlands varied across space, over time, and with other local characteristics. We conclude by drawing broader implications of our findings for understanding the early modern Retail Revolution.