Settler farming, agricultural colonisation and development in Katanga (Belgian Congo),1910-1920

From 1908 to 1920, the Belgian Ministry of Colonies organised the first state-led agricultural colonization efforts in Katanga, Belgian Congo. This article ex-amines the complex interactions between public and private actors and how theyshaped a colonial agricultural policy. Mission Leplaehad a very difficult start and wasterminated after ardent discussions in the Belgian Parliament, despite the support of theAgricultural Service. This migration initiative exposed the different views and even ten-sions between the opinions of technical experts such as agronomists and the ideas of thecolonial hommes politiquesand private actors, both in Belgium and in the Congo.In this article, the image of a homogeneous colonial state acquires nuance as we unraveland analyse the daily realities and initiatives of these first Belgian agricultural settlersin the broader framework of Belgian colonial politics. When the alliance between theState, the mining sector and agricultural settlers ceased to exist, because European agri-culture was not developing fast enough and geopolitical interests had changed, the gov-ernment stopped supporting the colonization project. After the First World War, the num-ber of Belgian farmers in Katanga began to increase again, mainly thanks to supportfrom the private sector. This article shows how state support was an important but notdecisive factor in the survival strategies of a settler community

de huishuren in Belgie, 1800-1920, voorstelling van een databank.

Deze paper draagt de bouwstenen aan voor een diepgaande analyse van de huurprijsontwikkeling in enkele Belgische steden gedurende de jaren 1800-1920. Nieuw onderzoek in archieven van openbare instellingen (OCMW’s en steden), gecombineerd met reeds gepubliceerd cijfermateriaal, leverde een uitgebreide databank op met huurprijsgegevens van acht Vlaamse en Waalse steden: Antwerpen, Brugge, Brussel, Gent, Kortrijk, Leuven, Luik en Namen. Aan de hand van deze data werden -volgens de methode van een schakelindex- stedelijke indices berekend. Deze vormden op hun beurt de basis voor de berekening van een nationale huurprijsindex

The formation of agricultural governance: the interplay between state and civil society in European agriculture, 1870-1940

In this paper, we focus on the relationship between state and agriculture in Europe in the period roughly from 1870 to 1940. Since the crisis of the late nineteenth-century, state intervention had increased into many areas of agricultural markets, and a growing social mobilization within the countryside had also made its mark, with the diffusion of agricultural associations (landowners associations, farmers unions, specialized crop producers’ associations, co-operatives, ...) that led to a much more organized rural society. Already prior to the 1930s, the state had become involved, one way or another, with the development of agriculture, such as the promotion of technical advancement, in the regulation of agricultural markets, and in the development of farm supportive policies. Throughout this period, agricultural associations played a growing role as intermediary institutions, and it is this period that we consider to be the formative period of this interplay between the state and agricultural civil society. The result was a metamorphosis from the mobilization of the peasantry and the representation of agrarian interests to a form of selfgovernment or co-government of the agricultural sector at the national level, which reached its highest point only after the Second World War.En este artículo, centramos nuestra atención en la relación entre el Estado y la agricultura en Europa en el período aproximadamente de 1870 a 1940. Desde la crisis de fines del siglo XIX, el intervencionismo estatal aumentó en muchas áreas de los mercados agrícolas, al mismo tiempo que se producía una creciente movilización social en el mundo rural, con el desarrollo de asociaciones agrarias de muy diversos tipos (asociaciones de propietarios, sindicatos de agricultores, asociaciones de productores de cultivos especializados, cooperativas,...) que dieron lugar a una sociedad rural mucho más organizada. Ya antes de la década de 1930, el Estado se había involucrado, de una forma u otra, con el desarrollo de la agricultura, como por ejemplo en la promoción del cambio técnico, en la regulación de los mercados agrícolas y con políticas de apoyo a la agricultura. A lo largo de este período, las asociaciones agrarias desempeñaron un papel creciente como instituciones intermediarias, y es este período el que consideramos como el período formativo de esta interacción entre el Estado y la sociedad civil en el mundo rural europeo. El resultado fue una metamorfosis desde la movilización del campesinado y la representación de los intereses agrarios hacia una forma de autogobierno o cogobierno del sector agrario a nivel nacional, que alcanzaría su punto más alto después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Economic Clusters, Knowledge Networks and Globalization: Fruit Growing in Dutch Limburg, 1850-1940

This paper unravels and analyses how the fruit sector in the province of Limburg (The Netherlands) reacted to growing (inter)national competition between 1850 and 1940. Entrepreneurs, private and public organisations created shared facilities which operated on a regional scale, such as auctions and a state horticultural consultancy, to respond to this global competition and to stimulate the formation of a regional fruit cluster. This process of economic development is embedded in the emergence of knowledge networks, in which scientific and economic know how, mainly regarding product and processing quality, circulated between various actors. Initially, the fruit cluster operated mainly in a regional network, but from the First World War onwards it became increasingly integrated in a national network, steered by the government and agricultural associations

De huishuren in Belgie, 1800-1920, voorstelling van een databank

nrpages: 38status: publishe