Clé Lesger
Clé Lesger (Amsterdam 1956) studeerde economische en sociale geschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Zijn doctoraalscriptie over de ontwikkeling van huishuren in Amsterdam in de periode van 1550 tot 1850 werd in 1986 uitgegeven. Vanaf 1986 tot 1990 werkte hij aan zijn proefschrift over de economische en demografische ontwikkeling van Hoorn tijdens de late middeleeuwen en vroegmodernetijd. Het onderzoek dat daaraan tengrondslag ligt, werd in 1991 bekroondmet de Praemium Erasmianum. Vanaf 1990 volgde een lange reeks van tijdelijke aanstellingen voor taken in onderwijs en onderzoek. Zo was hij van 1993 tot 1998 onderzoekleider bij het N.W. Posthumus Instituut, de postdoctorale onderzoekschool voor economische en sociale geschiedenis. In die hoedanigheid organiseerde hij met Leo Noordegraaf een aantal congressen en workshops over ondernemers en ondernemerschap in de vroegmoderne tijd. In 1998 werd hij als faculteitsfellow benoemd aan de Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen en vanaf datzelfde jaar participeerde hij voor vier jaar in het onderzoekproject Immigranten in Nederland 1860-1960: determinanten van het vestigingsproces van immigranten en hun nakomelingen in Nederland tussen 1860 en 1960. In 2001 verscheen zijn onderzoek naar de snelle opbloei van de Amsterdamse handel en economie in de jaren omstreeks 1600: Handel in Amsterdam ten tijde van de Opstand. Kooplieden, commerciële expansie en verandering in de ruimtelijke economie van de Nederlanden ca.1550-ca.1630 (Engelse vertaling 2006). Tevens schreef hij over de Amsterdamse economie tijdens de vroegmoderne tijd in de meerdelige Geschiedenis van Amsterdam (Amsterdam 2004-2005).
For English summaries see below.
Terreinen van onderzoek
Kooplieden, handel en scheepvaart in de vroegmoderne tijd. Eeuwenlang was de naam van Amsterdam bijna een synoniem voor handel en scheepvaart. Buitenlandse bezoekers waren verbijsterd over het woud van scheepsmasten in het IJ, de rijkdom van de kooplieden, het kosmopolitische karakter van de stad en de zucht naar rijkdom van de Amsterdammers. Al vroeg gaf de handelsbloei van Amsterdam aanleiding tot het idee dat de stad vooral functioneerde als een gigantisch pakhuis, een zogenaamdestapelmarkt,waarde rest van Europa zich kwambevoorraden. Dat idee heeft zich opmerkelijk goed gehandhaafd maar het is nog maar de vraag of met die karakterisering het laatste woord is gezegd. In mijn onderzoek houd ik me bezig met de organisatie van de handel in de vroegmoderne tijd. Concreet probeer ik te achterhalen waaruit de spectaculaire handelsbloei van Amsterdam bestond, welke positie de Amsterdamse markt innam in het vroegmoderne Europa, hoe de handel concreet in zijn werk ging en wie de kooplieden waren die de Amsterdamse handel vorm gaven.
Na me jaren met de internationale groothandel te hebben bezig gehouden, ben ik recentelijk mijn aandacht gaan richten op de detailhandel. Die heeft in Nederland altijd wat in de schaduw gestaan van de meer spectaculaire handel op verre gebieden. Ik ben vooral geïnteresseerd in de locatiepatronen van winkels, dat wil zeggen de inplanting van winkels in het stedelijk landschap. Daarnaast wil ik zien te achterhalen welke veranderingen er hebben plaatsgevonden in het exterieur en interieur van winkels in de vroegmoderne en moderne tijd.
De sociaal-ruimtelijke structuur van stedelijke samenlevingen De stad is uiteraard geen vormloos geheel van woonhuizen, bedrijven, infrastructuur, en getemde natuur. In de stad zijn talrijke patronen waarneembaar en deze vormen als het ware de ruimtelijke neerslag van processen in de samenleving. Al vanaf mijn studietijd ben ik geïnteresseerd in het woongedrag van de verschillende groepen in de samenleving ende vestigingskeuzevan bedrijven. Lange tijdheeft die belangstelling geen andere uitweg gevonden dan in het onderwijs, maar de laatste jaren doe ik (alleen en in samenwerking met anderen) ook onderzoek op dit terrein. Dat onderzoek bleef tot op heden beperkt tot de woonplaats van vreemdelingen in Amsterdam tijdens de achttiende eeuw en de ruimtelijke spreiding van rijk en arm in Alkmaar en Amsterdam van de zestiende tot de negentiende eeuw.
Netwerken van steden en relaties tussen stad en platteland Als stadskind is de belangstelling voor het verschijnsel stad mij met de paplepel ingegoten; met het platteland hadden wij vroeger thuis weinig affiniteit. Inmiddels ben ik wat minder eenkennig en is mijn belangstelling verbreed naar de ruimtelijke structuren waarin steden en platteland functioneren. Ik hoop via die aanpak meer zicht te krijgen op de soms sterk wisselende lotgevallen van stedelijke samenlevingen. Zo vertoonden Hollandse steden in sommige perioden een snelle demografische en economische groei maar in andere perioden dramatische achteruitgang. In mijn promotieonderzoek heb ik getracht de stedelijke ontwikkeling van Hoorn (in West-Friesland) in verband te brengen met veranderingen in de functie van de stad als handelscentrum/havenplaats en als verzorgingscentrum voor het omliggendeplatteland.Inmijn onderzoek naar de handel in Amsterdam hanteer ik een vergelijkbaar perspectief wanneer het gaat om de veranderende functie van Amsterdam als haven- en handelscentrum in de jaren dat de kooplieden er hun handel uitbreidden tot vrijwel alle delen van de omstreeks 1600 door Europeanen gekende wereld.
Ondernemers en ondernemerschap tijdens de late middeleeuwen en vroegmoderne tijd Terwijl er lange tijd vooral aandacht is geweest voor de grote onpersoonlijke processen in de geschiedenis, is er de laatste decennia sprake van een hernieuwde belangstelling voor het gedrag van individuen. In de geschiedenis van de vroegmoderne handel en nijverheid heeft dat geleid tot onderzoek naar ondernemers en ondernemersgedrag. Daarbij is veel aandacht besteed aan de vraag op welke wijze ondernemers omgingen met de onzekerheid en het gebrek aan relevante informatie waar men in de vroegmoderne tijd mee te kampen had. Het opbouwen van netwerken van familieleden en/of streekgenoten en het aangaan van relaties met overheden waren antwoorden op de problemen waarvoor men zich gesteld zag. Beide thema’s komen uitvoerig aan bod in een tweetal bundels die Leo Noordegraaf en ondergetekende hebben geredigeerd. Daarnaast heb ik me bezig gehouden met de meer theoretische aspecten van ondernemerschap in de vroegmoderne periode.
Lijst van publicaties
Boeken
met Marjolein 't Hart, Louise Hesp en Boudien de Vries: Van vlas naar glas. Aspecten van de sociale en economische geschiedenis van Nederland. (Hilversum: Verloren 2009)
met Kees Zandvliet: De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw. Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum 2006)
The rise of theAmsterdam market and information exchange. Merchants, commercial expansion and change in the spatial economy of the Low Countries, c.1550-1630 (Aldershot: Ashgate 2006)
Handel in Amsterdam tentijde van de Opstand. Kooplieden, commerciële expansie en verandering in de ruimtelijke economie van de Nederlanden, ca.1550-ca.1650 (Hilversum:Verloren 2001)
met L. Noordegraaf (eds.) Ondernemers & Bestuurders. Economie en politiek in de Noordelijke Nederlanden in de late Middeleeuwen en vroegmoderne tijd (Amsterdam 1999)
met L. Noordegraaf (eds.) Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship in early modern times. Merchants and Industrialists within the orbit of the Dutch Staple Market (Den Haag 1995)
Hoorn als stedelijk knooppunt. Stedensystemen tijdens de late middeleeuwen en vroegmoderne tijd (proefschrift Hilversum 1990)
Huur en conjunctuur. De woningmarkt in Amsterdam 1550-1850 (Amsterdam 1986)
Selectie van artikelen
'Merchants in charge. The self-perception of Amsterdam merchants, ca.1550-1700', in: Margaret C. Jacob en Catharine Secretan (eds.), The self-perception of early moderncapitalists (New York 2008) 75-97.
'De locatie van het Amsterdamse winkelbedrijf in de achttiende eeuw', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 4 (2007) 35-70.
met Kees Zandvliet: 'Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl', in: De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw. Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum 2006) vii-xlv.
'Variaties in de herkomstpatronen van nieuwe burgers in Nederlandse steden omstreeks het midden van de zeventiende eeuw', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis3 (2006) 118-139.
'Migrantenstromen en economische ontwikkeling in vroegmoderne steden. Nieuwe burgers in Amsterdam en Antwerpen, 1541-1655', Stadsgeschiedenis 1 (2006) 97-121.
'Informatiestromen en de herkomstgebieden van migranten in de Nederlanden in de vroegmoderne tijd', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 3 (2006) 3-23.
‘Stagnatie en stabiliteit. De economie tussen 1730 en 1795’, in: Willem Frijhoff en Maarten Prak (eds.), Geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Zelfbewuste stadstaat 1650-1813, II-2 (Amsterdam 2005) 219-265, 506-508
‘Vertraagde groei. De economie tussen 1650 en 1730’, in: Willem Frijhoff en Maarten Prak (eds.), Geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Zelfbewuste stadstaat 1650-1813, II-2 (Amsterdam 2005) 21-87, 500-502.
'De wereld als horizon. De economie tussen 1578 en 1650', in: Willem Frijhoff en Maarten Prak (eds.), Geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Centrum van de wereld 1578-1650, II-1 (Amsterdam 2004) 102-187, 473-476.
‘Schepen en schippers in Amsterdam tijdens het laatste kwart van de zestiende eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 23 (2004) 3-16.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History , (Joel Mokyr, ed) lemma’s over ‘Staple Markets and Entrepôts’ en ‘Economic History of Amsterdam’ ( New York e.a. 2003).
Noord-Hollanders in beweging.Economische ontwikkeling en binnenlandse migratie, ca.1800-1930, CGM (Centrum voor de Geschiedenis van Migranten) working paper 4 (Amsterdam 2003) ISSN 1389-6466, 51 pp.
met Leo Lucassen en Marlou Schrover, ‘Is there life outside the migrant network? German immigrants in XIXth century Netherlands and the need for a more balanced migration typology’, Annales de Démographie Historique (2002) 29-50.
‘Clusters of Achievement: the economy of Amsterdam in its golden age’, in: Patrick O’Brien e.a. (eds.) Urban achievement in early modern Europe. Golden ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam and London (Cambridge 2001) 63-80.
‘Regions, urban systems and historical central place analysis: Holland 1550-1800’, in: Peter Ainsworth en Tom Scott (eds.) Regions and Landscapes. Reality and imaginationin late medievaland early modern Europe (Oxford e.a. 2000) 205-232.
‘De mythe van de Hollandse wereldstapelmarkt in de zeventiende eeuw’, NEHA-Jaarboek voor economische, bedrijfs- en techniekgeschiedenis 62(1999) 6-25.
met Willem van den Berg en Marco H.D. van Leeuwen, ‘Residentiële segregatie in Hollandse steden. Theorie, methodologie en empirische bevindingen voor Alkmaar en Amsterdam, 16 e -19 e eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 24(1998) 402-436.
‘Immigration et pratiques de l’habitat dans une société “ouverte”: Amsterdam au XVIIIe siècle’, in: J.Bottin et D. Calabi (eds.) Etrangers dans la ville (Parijs 1998) 389-402.
‘Migranten in Amsterdam tijdens de 18e eeuw: residentiële spreiding en positie in de samenleving’, in: Jaarboek Amstelodamum (1997) 43-68.
‘The “Visible Hand”: Views on Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship in Holland, 1580-1850’ in: M. Rutten & C. Upadhya (eds.) Small Business Entrepreneurs in Asia and Europe. Towards a Comparative Perspective (New Delhi/Londen 1997) 255-277.
'Over het nut van huwelijk, opportunisme en bedrog. Ondernemen en ondernemerschaptijdens de vroeg-modernetijd in theoretisch perspectief', in: C.A. Davids e.a. (eds) Kapitaal, ondernemerschap en beleid. Studies over economie en politiek in Nederland, Europa en Azië van 1500 tot heden (Amsterdam 1996) 55-75.
met Niek Al ‘“Twee volken [...] besloten binnen Amstels wallen”? Antwerpse migranten in Amsterdam omstreeks 1590’, in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 21(1995) 129-144.
‘Stedelijke groei en stedensystemen’, in: Stedebouw. De geschiedenis van de stad in de Nederlanden van 1500 tot heden (Nijmegen 1993) 30-38.
‘De dynamiek van het Europese stedensysteem’, in: Stedebouw. De geschiedenis van de stad in de Nederlanden van 1500 tot heden (Nijmegen 1993) 104-111.
‘Intraregional Trade and the port-system in Holland 1400-1700’, in: Economic and Social History in the Netherlands 4(1992) 185-217.
‘Lange-termijn processen en de betekenis van politieke factoren in de Nederlandse houthandel ten tijde van de Republiek’, in: Economisch en Sociaal-Historisch Jaarboek 55(1992) 105-142.
‘Hiërarchie en spreiding van regionale verzorgingscentra. Het centrale plaatsensysteem in Holland benoorden het IJ omstreeks 1800’, in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, 16(1990) 128-153.
‘Amsterdam, Harlingen and Hoorn: port functions in the Zuiderzee region during the middle of the seventeenth century’, in: W.G. Heeres e.a. (eds.), From Dunkirk to Danzig. Shippingand trade in the North Sea and the Baltic, 1350-1850 (Hilversum 1988) 331-360.
‘Tussen stagnatie en expansie. Economische ontwikkeling en levensstandaard tussen 1500 en 1600’, in: M. de Roever en B. Bakker (eds.), Woelige tijden, Amsterdam in de eeuw van de Beeldenstorm (Amsterdam 1986) 45-62.
‘Regionale tegenstellingen tijdens een periode van expansie: 1500-1650’, in: L. Noordegraaf (ed.), Agrarische geschiedenis van Nederland van prehistorie tot heden (‘s-Gravenhage 1986) 37-58.
English summaries
summary: Lesger, Clé, The Rise of the Amsterdam Market and Information Exchange; Merchants, Commercial Expansion and Change in the Spatial Economy of the Low Countries, c.1550-1630 (Aldershot 2006).
Not without some arrogance and self-satisfaction Amsterdam merchants boasted in 1629 that `during the [Twelve Years] Truce we have sailed all nations out of the water thanks to our skill and shrewdness, drawn most of the business from other countries here and served the whole of Europe with our ships'. There is a large measure of exaggeration in this claim, but it cannot be denied that the Truce years 1609-21 closed an extraordinarily dynamic period in the history of Amsterdam. In a few decades the city had widened its commercial horizons from eastern and northern Europe to the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Africa, America and the Far East. In the same years the value of the goods traded in Amsterdam and the volume of shipping in its harbour had also increased enormously. There is little agreement on the reasons for this spectacular expansion. As we saw in the Introduction, some find the key to this process in the Revolt of the Netherlands and the consequent division into two states, while others emphasize the potential for endogenous growth in Holland, which in combination with the growing importance of transatlantic and Asiatic trade inevitably forced Amsterdam onto centre stage in international commerce.
Recent Dutch historiography appears to lean to the second explanation, with a tendency to push the South Netherlands out of the limelight. At most, historians contrast the characteristic shortcomings of the South Netherlands economy and the modernity of the North. The Revolt thereforemerely accelerated an already inevitable shift.Because Amsterdam beforethe Revolt was already the leading port and trading city of the North, it was no more than natural that it should take over Antwerp's former dominance ininternational trade. This vision is supported by the claim that Amsterdam's trade was active and future-oriented. That of Antwerp, by contrast, is said to have been passive; the system of periodical fairs and the presence of `nations' of foreign merchants harked back to the past and was unsuited to the dynamic developments of the new age. In the Introduction I have already argued that this view can lead to a form of regionalism that does not fitthe political and geographical context in which Amsterdam's commercial expansion took place.
This study therefore chooses as its point of departure the situation in the Netherlands in the middle of the sixteenth century. The spatial economy of the Netherlands at that time was one of economically peripheral zones around the fringes of a western core region comprising Flanders, Brabant, Zeeland and Holland. The population of that core region was commercial and urbanized; in the peripheral zones it was largely agrarian. This global characterization does not imply that there were not great differences within each zone. In the core region, which interests us most here, the industrial centre of gravity was unmistakably in the South and the maritime centre of gravity in the North. But these differences must not be interpreted in terms of contrasts and oppositions, but as the expression of a specialized and by contemporary standards well integrated economy.
The choice of this perspective puts Amsterdam's commerce in a very different light. Amsterdam formed part of a gateway system, which was also characterized by specialization and integration. In hindsight it is not surprising that no trace canbe found of any exceptionally active and `modern' characteristics in Amsterdam's commerce. Just as they did in Antwerp and elsewhere in the Netherlands, the local merchants acted largely as intermediariesbetween the foreign merchants and ships' masters who visited the city, and the producers and consumers in the hinterland. It was in that intermediary role that the legal position of the Amsterdam merchant in local society, his knowledge of local markets and of supply and demand in the hinterland, and his contacts with other merchants were all exploited to the full. The qualityof Amsterdam's port, its good connections with the hinterland and the pro-commercial policy of the local authorities had favoured thedevelopment of Amsterdam as the great northern gateway to the Netherlands. But the trade carried on there didnotdisplay any features that differed fundamentally from the norm elsewhere or foreshadowed the great changes that were to take place at the end of the sixteenth century.
The spatial structure of the economy in the years around 1550 was the result of a long process of development, and therefore it displayed a great resilience to change. Over time spatial structures became fixed in the buildings, the physical infrastructure, the institutions and the knowledge and skills of the people. When vast changes occurred in the spatial economy of the core provinces and in the gateway system in the later sixteenth century they were not the result of inherent instability in those spatial structures, nor of a lack of adaptability and modernity in the southern part of the Netherlands, but of an external shock: the Revolt. In Holland and Zeeland the Revolt raged fiercely for a relatively short time; but in Brabant and Flanders as well as on the northeastern periphery the political, social and economic life of the provinces was disturbed for decades. Nevertheless the spatial structure of the economy was generally characterized by continuity until the 1580s.
Only when Antwerp fell to the armies of the Duke of Parma and the front line began to harden into afrontier was the spatial economy dislocated. The large export industry of the South Netherlands suffered particularly from the changes that followed. Tormented by the violence of war and by unemployment once imports of raw materials and exports of their products were cut off, tens of thousands of artisans in the South Netherlands were forced to seek work elsewhere. Many of them emigrated to the North, especially Holland, and others followed in their wake. War and internal unrest were endemic in sixteenth century Europe, and it was not unusual for large groups of people to be forced to migrate in search of work.Thedifference between the situation in the Netherlands and that elsewhere was not so much the scale of the phenomenon, but the fact that for most of the migrants there was no way back. For in the course of the struggle a frontier emerged, which for decades made it harder for the Southern provinces to keep open the contacts with the outside world they needed if their export industry was to survive. At the same time the economy of the North, thanks in part to the influx of Southern immigrants, entered a period of rapid expansion. Return to Flanders or Brabant was therefore unattractive for the migrants. Since the front line also came to mark a religious frontier, this was even truer for adherents of Protestantism.
In this period of disintegration the gateway system, as it had operated until the 1580s, was also destabilized. The specialization that had taken shape over time now became a problem, because the fall and blockade of Antwerp cut the link that connected the North with Southern Europe, the colonial world and Southern Germany. The problem was even more acute because the collapse of productive capacity in theSouth and the arrival of numerous migrants gave a powerfulboost to export industry in Holland. In Amsterdam, which had already become the most important gateway to the North before the Revolt, this created new opportunities. They found fertile soil for growth because after the ousting of the old pro-Spanish magistracy in 1578 commercial interests became even more prominent in city politics than before. More generally Amsterdam society was permeated by incentives to invest in wholesale trade. Once the old structures had collapsed, new prospects far wider than any that had existed beforeopened up to Amsterdam's merchant community, established men and newcomers alike.The break with the Habsburg empire cleared the way forcommercial expansion in regions previously considered to lie within the Spanish and Portuguese sphere ofinfluence. What was more, this expansion was welcomed as part of the struggle against a foreign and hostile ruler.
The changes in the spatial economy of the Netherlands as a result of the Revolt and the division of the country, the disintegration of the old gateway system and the new opportunities that emerged from it, explain the feverish pace of expansion in Amsterdam at the end of the sixteenth century. Of course Amsterdammers also profited from the availability of an elastic supply of shipping, low transaction costs and efficient markets, but those who see these as the only causes underestimate the complexity and integration of the Netherlands economy. That does not imply, however, that the economic boom in the North was merely a continuation of the flowering of the Flemish and Brabant economies, which had been interrupted by exogenous causes. The economy of the young Republic had its own internal growth dynamic and was favoured by the modernity that many recent studies have identified. That does not, however, detract from the importance of the impulse given by the Revolt and the restructuring of the spatial economyofthe Netherlands. The rapid expansionof the economy ofHolland and the trade of Amsterdam can only be properly understood if they are placed in the wider context of the old Netherlands.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century merchants flocked to Amsterdam, mainly from Antwerp; some of them soon belonged to the city's new mercantile elite. These newcomers owed their position to the capital, the commercial knowledge and the contacts they brought with them to Amsterdam. But the isolated position of theSouth Netherlanders in Amsterdam society and the close relationships they kept up within their own group as a response to this, also contributed to their commercial success. Only a few dozen of the old mercantile elite, on theother hand,exploited thenew possibilities created by the restructuring of the spatial economy and the gateway system. In a few trades, such as that to the East Indies, they were major players, and thereby challenged the view that old elites are held back by their vested interests from implementing innovations. Nevertheless it is clear that the commercial expansion of Amsterdam was above all the work of new groups, both natives and migrants.
The economic success of the newcomers did not bring about the fall of the old economic elite, who made good use of theirgrip on the most important administrative posts, and by fair means or foul built up or maintained their fortunes. Until the end of the period studied here the old Amsterdam families managed to keep the newcomers out of the most influential administrative colleges. They reserved these lucrative posts for themselves and thus secured their position in society. It is even possible that over the long term this path to wealth and social prestige was more successful than trade. Study of the situation in the middle of the sixteenth century soon made it clearthattrade was organizedin flexible network-like structures. This applies both to the flows of goods and to the participants. Contrary to what one might expect from research into the spatial structure of trade, the nodal points in the network system were not fixed in permanent hierarchies of staple places, with a dominant centre at the summit of the hierarchy. On the contrary, although the location of the gateways was of course fixed, their relative positions and importance in the hierarchy were impermanent and prone to constant change. The participants themselves also formed parts of network-like structures, with partners,factors and subordinates in the various gateways andagreat deal of travelling to profit from the specialization and locational advantages of specific nodal points. This finding gave me sufficient reason to re-examine the existing view of the Amsterdam staple market in the seventeenth century and to revise it on certain points.
I have been unable, for example, to confirm the existence of a hierarchy of staple markets crowned by a central or world staple market. In my view the huge international transit trade of Amsterdam was not the result of structural shortcomings in the earlymodern commercial system that created a need for stocks to be formed at physical markets. No, the commercial flowering of Amsterdam was rooted in its function as the gateway for a large and highly developed hinterland. That function encouraged the emergence of numerous specialized services, which in turn formed the soil in which international transit trade could flourish. In other words Amsterdam did not become an important centre of international transit trade because there was a need in early modern Europe for a central staple where stocks were held, but because certain transactions could be carried out more efficiently and cheaply there than anywhere else. We would do better to forget the term `staplemarket', for in fact the situationof Amsterdam'stransit trade in the seventeenth century was no different from that of modern international transit trade. Just as in modern trade, early modern transit trade was always under threat of being cut out of the chain of supply. As soon as the advantages of using Amsterdam could no longer outweigh the costs for producer and wholesaler, they would switch to alternative channels of trade. It never came to that point in the early seventeenth century, but the stagnation that set in around the middle of the century makes it clearthat Amsterdam's international transit trade was by no means as necessary and indispensable as is often believed. Only for the trade in colonial goods and the exchange of goods with the large and dependent hinterland didAmsterdam enjoy anaturaladvantage and manage to retain its position almost without effort. In all other markets the Amsterdam merchant always had to fight to keep his position as middleman. If he usually succeeded, that was thanks to the creative flair with which he profited from the capital and know-how available in the city and the range of services that had developed there.
If it was not a staplefor goods, Amsterdam was certainly a staple for information. Thanks to its favourable position on the traffic lanes, the size of its commercial network and the frequency of ship movements in its port, the city developed from the end of the sixteenth century into one of the most important junctions in the flows of international news. In Amsterdam the latest information on a great many markets could be heard or read, and the city also provided an infrastructure for the processing, storage and distribution of this news. That was a more modest function than that of world staple or centre of world trade, but one for which there seems to me to be more empirical evidence. Nor was the Amsterdam information market unimportant, for it was admirably suited to serveasa benchmark, as the best vantage point fromwhich to surveysupply and demand in geographically dispersed markets. The prices formed in Amsterdam, as I have argued, therefore acted as base prices and moderatedthe extreme price fluctuations to which producers and consumers in early modern times were exposed. Furthermore the convergence of information on geographically separate markets was necessary to allow goods to flow from regions with a relative surplus to those with a relative deficit, and to induce producers to produce scarce goods or offer substitutes. Thus the information market in Amsterdam, through the price mechanism, promoted the efficient allocationof goods and production factors, and stimulatedregional economic specialization. In the absence of radical technological breakthroughs thiswas animportantsource of productivity gains and growing prosperity for early modern society.
summaries articles
'De locatie van het Amsterdamse winkelbedrijf in de achttiende eeuw', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 4 (2007) 35-70.
Patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century
In this paper location theory and Nelson’s distinction between general, arterial and special accessibility is used to map and analyze the patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century. In accordance with theory the main shopping streets were located in the city center, which was highly accessible to all residents and to consumers from the surrounding countryside and small cities. In the city center as well as along the main axes to markets and the city gates the retailing of shopping goods (textiles, consumer durables) was much more prominent than elsewhere in the city. In contrast, shops selling convenience goods (foodstuffs etc) were scattered all over the city.Thecorrespondence of empirical data and locationtheory suggeststhat the urban government and institutions like guilds did not interfere with the location preferences of shopkeepers. An analysis of local actsand guild regulations corroborated this assumption. What did affect the location patterns of shops was history, or, to put it more precisely, the morphological and socio-economic structure of Amsterdam as it came about in the preceding centuries. This legacy of the past acted as an intermediary between general location principles and the implantation of shops in theurban landscape.
'Informatiestromen en de herkomstgebiedenvanmigranten in de Nederlanden in de vroegmodernetijd', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 3 (2006) 3-23.
Diffusion of information and the origin of migrants in the Low Countries during the early modern period.
In numerous case studies it has been argued that the origin of migrants and their professional specialisation are intimately linked up. However, from these well-known examples it should not be concluded that regional specialisation is the only or even the main factor accounting for the clustering of the origins of migrants and the direction of migration streams. In this paper it is demonstrated that many towns attracted migrants of both sexes and with very different professional backgrounds from a limited number of areas. In these cases it was not regional specialisation in the areas of origin, but the diffusion of information among migrants and potential migrants in these areas that accounted for the marked clustering of places of origin. Long standing (trading) contacts and easy access by land and water go a long way in explaining the direction of the information flows and the precise location of the areas of origin.
'Migrantenstromen en economische ontwikkeling in vroegmoderne steden. Nieuwe burgers in Amsterdam en Antwerpen, 1541-1655', Stadsgeschiedenis 1 (2006)97-121.
Migration and the rise anddeclineof early modern cities. New citizens in Antwerp and Amsterdam, 1541-1655
During the period under consideration the economy and populationof Antwerp declined dramatically, while Amsterdam experiencedmassive growth. These citiesare therefore well suited for studying the effect of economic and demographic development on the origin, profession and social status of migrants in periods of growth and decline. In the paper it has been demonstrated that in periods of decline the proportion of migrants from far-off places declined, but the size and location of recruitment zones remained the sameforaconsiderable period of time. The demand for migrant labour in Antwerp shifted away from international trade to the service sector and to luxury industries and consequently social inequality in the city became less pronounced. For Amsterdam it has been established that the size of recruitment zones increased, and so did demand for unskilled labour in the expanding mercantile economy. By the mid-seventeenth century inequality of income, wealth and social status must have increased significantly.
'Variaties in de herkomstpatronen van nieuwe burgers in Nederlandse steden omstreeks het midden van de zeventiende eeuw', Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 3 (2006) 118-139.
Local variations in the origins of migrants in Dutch cities around the middle of the seventeenth century
In a number of surveys the broad outline of the migration history of the early modern Netherlands is adequately summarized. However, much less is known about local variations in the origins of migrants in Dutch cities since comparative research in this field is scarce. In this paper data on the origins of new citizens in thirteen selected Dutch cities have been studied and it has been established that the areas in which early modern Dutch cities recruited migrants varied widely. Among the many factors involved (1)distance, (2) population size, (3) economic function, and(4) relative location go a long way in explaining the observed local variations in the interaction between places of origin and destination ofmigrants.