The influence of spatial change on operational strategies in early-modern Dutch maritime shipping: a case-study on Dutch maritime shipping in the Gulf of Finland and on Archangel, 1703-1740

A fundamental discrepancy between neoclassical and institutional research approaches lies at the core of contrasting results in historical studies about maritime shipping and trade. However, there is one point on which both contrasting approaches agree: both of them see maritime shipping as a spin-off effect and even more often as an illustration of trade. Thus, the mere fact that maritime transportation is an economic activity in its own right is ignored. In this paper, I claim that in order to understand the foundation of St. Petersburg in function of its influence on Dutch maritime shipping an evolutionary theory and methodology need to be applied, since they can overcome the limitations of neoclassical and institutional approaches to economic history. The goal of this case-study is to understand the how spatial change affects maritime shipping. This goal serves a double purpose. Firstly, it makes an activity commonly seen as a spin-off effect of trade central to the analysis. Secondly, it makes the interaction between land and sea a core analytical issue. I carry out the study of the influence of spatial change on maritime shipping in a historical context, thus subscribing to Paul David’s claim to use the past as “a museum of interesting cases” that provides a better empirical basis than the present.maritime history; economic history; Dutch-Russian trade relations

When Nyen became St. Petersburg: Patterns of specialization in Dutch shipping in the eastern Gulf of Finland in the first half of the eighteenth cntury

This article is in the first place an attempt to provide evidence of specialization on the basis of a number of Dutch maritime shipping sources. Related topics such as employment, the question of demand and supply, the characteristics of good streams or the everlasting “homeport of the ship or of the shipmaster”-discussion will not be focused on here, although they can be studied using the same source material. The analysis of the data will be limited to transportation as such and to the way in which it is registered in the sources (i.e. in the form of ship movements). In the first part of the analysis a short explanation of the data is provided, then followed by a descriptive analysis based on the appendices. Finally, some preliminary conclusions will be offered, first of all concerning patterns of specialization, in second place concerning the effects of tsar Peter’s attempt to divert foreign trade to St. Petersburg. Throughout the analysis, it is important to keep in mind that the results presented in this paper are only preliminary and based on the part of the source material that has already been processed.maritime shipping; maritime history; specialization; Dutch trade history

A synergistic approach to non-narrative historical sources : the database and digital edition of the Spängler household account books, 1733–1785

The household account books of the Salzburg merchant family Spängler cover an exceptionally long period and constitute a unique source for the history of consumption in Central Europe in the eighteenth century. This review assesses the diplomatic and database edition that was published by the University of Salzburg and partners in 2020. The review focuses on the synergies that the scholarly digital edition of the household account books aims to establish between the transcription of the books, a database for querying their contents, and a special section containing biographical entries about the actors registered in the books. The review shows where this combination of editing styles is fruitful, especially for non-narrative sources, and where there is scope for further improvements

Chapter The Dutch Republic as Example of Maritime Transport Services Clusters in Preindustrial Europe (ca. 1650-1800)

By means of a comparative analysis of the ‘Dutch case’ with the Saintonge in South-West France and Bohuslän in South-West Sweden, this paper analyses the rise and decline of maritime services clusters in preindustrial Europe. The leading question for this comparative analysis is: Was the ‘Dutch case’ exceptional or can similar developments be recognised in other parts of Europe as well? A survey of the regional economic origins of communities of maritime transporters is combined with analyses of their operations and institutions. Relying on primary sources, the paper addresses the contribution of a great many ‘anonymous’ people, that literally connected the ‘nodes’ in international maritime trade networks, but whose contribution to the preindustrial European economy has been assumed a priori rather than thoroughly investigated

The burden of complexity : Dealing with measurement and taxation in the Sound Toll registers – a response to Yrjö Kaukiainen

This paper replies to a research note outlining a method for the conversion of weights and measures in the Danish Sound Toll registers. Whereas Yrjö Kaukiainen argues that the use of values for Danish units of measurement is sufficient, Werner Scheltjens highlights the complexity of pre-modern weights and measures, and raises concerns about the simplification of the measurement and taxation procedures at the customs office in the Danish Sound

Logistics in early-modern Europe: A discussion of specialization, flexibility and efficiency in the activities of the Dutch shipping community in the eighteenth century

In this paper, I try to substantiate the necessity of studying early-modern maritime shipping as an integral economic activity, by which I mean that early-modern maritime shipping is defined not only by the nodes it connects nor by its own social structures exclusively, but by both elements at the same time. Moreover, maritime shipping must be viewed in an unabridged fashion: it is an economic activity that covers large distances and long periods of time. This implies that we need to find a way to overcome the limitations of the currently predominant view of early-modern maritime shipping as a set of condensed numerical data. I will prove empirically that transportation networks were indeed socially constructed spaces with the necessary features to allow us to speak of maritime shipping as an integral economic activity. I will do this by studying the operational and organizational structures of Dutch maritime shipping in the first half of the eighteenth century. In this paper, I present a preliminary taxonomy of shipping patterns on the basis of a continuous trade-off between cargo, port of destination and origin of the shipmaster. This taxonomy distinguishes between repetitiveness and flexibility in the shipmaster's choice of cargoes and routes.maritime history; maritime shipping; methodology of using early-modern maritime shipping records

'Omdat wij van de geesteswetenschappen zijn': rondetafel Digital Humanities

Interview with Trudi Noordermeer, Demmy Verbeke, Sally Chambers and Saskia Scheltjens about digital humanities and academic libraries in Flanders, Belgiu