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Jan Willem Veluwenkamp

ForSEAdiscovery, Groningen, 6-7-8 May 2015

The Dutch commercial system and its written sources

1500-1800

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RUG1

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Dutch production in the 16th century: dairy products

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A.G. Bilders. Koeien in de weide. 1865. Rijksmuseum http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/RIJK01:SK-A-2264

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RUG1 Om de datum in te stellen:* >Invoegen >Datum en tijd* Bij Vast: vul de datum in in formaat dd-mm-jj* >Toepassen op alle dia's RUG; 30-8-2007

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http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/ZZM01:007497

Dutch production in the 16th century: herring

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http://www.mijnstambomen.nl/leiden/laken.htm

Dutch production in the 16th century: woollen cloth

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http://www.animaatjes.nl/plaatjes/graan/animaatjes-graan-49551-483928/

Grain came from the Baltic: the mother commerce

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The Flemish hub, 1550

Source: http://histoforum.digischool.nl/nederland/historie.htm

The Dutch RevoltThe fall of Antwerp 1585The rise of Amsterdam

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White Sea

America

AsiaThe Dutch

commercial system

in the 17th and 18th

centuries

international

intermediate trade

colonial empire

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http://users.clas.ufl.edu/harlandj/maps_main.html

The Dutch commercial systemVOC 1602WIC 1621

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http://retecool.com/post/het-moet-gewemeld-hebben-van-de-walvissen

The whaling industry: oil and fat

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hemp

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flax

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cotton

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silk

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Salt production on Ile de Ré

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The Dutch Commercial System

1550-1665

expansion

functions:

• export of Dutch produce

• import for the home market

• international intermediate trade

(including colonial re-export and trade with the hinterland)

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The Dutch Commercial System 1665-1790

stagnation

Mercantilism undermines export industry and intermediate trade.

Compensation by:

re-export of Asian and American produce

hinterland trade.

Relative decline.

After 1740 export industry virtually gone.

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Textiles from the Republic to the Baltic Sea area (percentages)

Source: Unger, 1926-1958

050000

100000150000200000250000300000350000400000450000

Textiles from the Republic to the Baltic Sea are (pieces)

Bron: Unger, 1926-1958

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01000020000300004000050000600007000080000

‘Colonial commodities’ on Dutch shipsto the Baltic Sea area (thousands of

pounds)

Bron: Unger, 1958 en Lindblad, 1993

0102030405060708090

100

‘Colonial commodities’ on Dutch shipsto the Baltic Sea area (percentages)

Source: Unger, 1958 en Lindblad, 1993

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http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/OHR01:61

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http://www.zaans-industrieel-erfgoed.nl/pages_3/met%20stoom%2024%20art%20%2004.html

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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_de_Velde_(I)?uselang=nl7 May 2015 22

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Basic Dutch business organisation:

Family businesses of individual entrepreneurs,

essentially alone in a dangerous world

with little institutional protection.

Social and commercial security sought through:

• specialization (knowledge)

• permanent relations (security)

• co-operation, mainly with relatives, in companies (trust)

• transfer to the next generation (social position).

Result:

Family networks in branches of business.

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Entrepreneurial behavioure.g. in the Dutch Russia trade

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Gillis Hooftman

1521-1581Nicolaes Ruts

1573-1638

Coenraet Klenck

1628-1691

Christoffel Brants

1664-1732

David Leeuw

1682-1755

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Promotion of branch of trade interests through

interest groups:

Directie van de Levantse Handel en de Navigatie

op de Middellandse Zee (1625)

Gecommitteerden van de Groenlandvaart

in het Gewest Holland (1677)

Ca. 1689:

Directie van de Oosterse Handel en Rederijen

Directie van de Moscovische Handel

Gecommitteerden van de Noordse Handel en Rederijen

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Attemps to obtain monopoly charters from the Estates-General:

• Import of Russian grain (1629)

• Trade with North Africa and the

Levant (1629).

In vain:

the commercialy dominated

government defended

free market entry.

http://www.poldermuseumheerhugowaard.nl/wh-04.htm

Andries Bicker

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Two big exceptions:

VOC: United East India Company (1602-1799)

WIC: West India Company (1621-1791)

Chartered joint-stock monopoly companies,

financed by marketable shares,

with (in theory) separated ownership and management.

Initiated by the Estates-General, with monopoly but

open to all Dutch merchants and investors.

Purpose:

To exclude competition to effectively use the companies

in the war against Spain (1568-1648) – ‘war companies’.

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Scheepvaartmuseum Rotterdam: http://www.maritiemdigitaal.nl/index.cfm?event=search.getdetail&id=101002288

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Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam: http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/OHR01:17

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Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam: http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/OHR01:29

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Smak Kof

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http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/RIJK01:SK-C-1582

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View of Amsterdam from the IJ

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Written sources

• Government archives: reports, fiscal registers, correspondence, treaties

• Notarial archives: contracts, statements, conflicts, testaments…

• Company papers: correspondence, financial records.

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Amsterdam charterparty, 2 June 1702

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Amsterdam charterparty, 2 June 1702

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Amsterdam charterparty, 2 June 1702

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Sound Toll Registers (STR):

› Danish Toll Records

› kept by the Danish National Archives, Copenhagen

› preserved: 300 of 360 years from 1497 through 1857

› almost uninterrupted from 1574 through 1857

› 1.8 mln passages

Kronborg, Helsingoer Map: Wilhelm Blaeu

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Sound Toll Registers Online

Electronic database

of all passages through the Sound

recorded in the Sound Toll Registers

to be consulted at:

www.soundtoll.nl

Kronborg, Helsingoer

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polderlandschap_'t_Beijersche.jpg

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Sound Toll Registers (Copenhagen)

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Main routes of beams shipped westward through the Sound, 1780-1799

Source: www.soundtoll.eu

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