A targeted public: public services in fifteenth-century Ghent and Bruges

Though the phrase 'public services' is a nineteenth-century invention, which was supported by a developed rhetoric of political economy, this article shows that the concept, practice and supply of such services could also be found in the medieval city. It specifically analyses three areas of urban service provision: jurisprudence and legal security, infrastructure and finally health care and poor relief. Although the available sources tend to stress the involvement of municipal authorities in providing public services, it turns out that in fact the furnishing of services was highly multi-layered. In all three areas studied, a wide range of public and private institutions offered services to specific groups within late medieval urban society. In contrast to what the notion of 'public services' lets us presume, however, public services in the medieval city were not available to all inhabitants. Instead, the provision of services was usually quite restrictive, and targeted particular groups in society

Early modern consumption history: current challenges and future perspectives

Stimulated by wide-ranging theories on its cultural and economic significance, the history of early modern consumption in the Low Countries has received a remarkable amount of attention in historiography during the last three decades. During this period the growing body of empirical evidence, as well as shifting theoretical frameworks, have gradually altered our understanding of early modern patterns of consumption, their causes and consequences. The current article presents a review of the main tendencies in the field of early modern consumption history, and the challenges to this historiographical field these have presented. Based on these challenges, the article suggests new avenues for future research

Chapter Economic inequality in the rural Southern Low Countries during the Fifteenth century: sources, data and reflection

This chapter seeks to explore local and regional variation in levels of inequality in different types of rural localities and regions within the late medieval County of Flanders. Our research indicates that fiscal sources for the County of Flanders can produce reliable data on the distribution of income during the late medieval period. The analysis of these data shows that important local and regional differences can be observed in the distribution of rural income. To a large extent, these local variations can be explained by differences in access to local economic resources. Our results, however, also indicate that substantial regional differences in access to rural resources can produce similar income distributions

Economic inequality in the rural Southern Low Countries during the fifteenth century : sources, data and reflections

This chapter seeks to explore local and regional variation in levels of inequality in different types of rural localities and regions within the late medieval County of Flanders. Our research indicates that fiscal sources for the County of Flanders can produce reliable data on the distribution of income during the late medieval period. The analysis of these data shows that important local and regional differences can be observed in the distribution of rural income. To a large extent, these local variations can be explained by differences in access to local economic resources. Our results, however, also indicate that substantial regional differences in access to rural resources can produce similar income distributions

Benjamin Schmidt, Inventing Exoticism: Geography, Globalism, and Europe’s Early Modern World

Benjamin Schmidt, Inventing Exoticism: Geography, Globalism, and Europe’s Early Modern World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015, 448 pp., isbn 978 0 8122 4646 9)

Tussen corporatisme en kapitalisme?

This article uses returns by nineteen Flemish cities to an industrial survey undertaken by the central authorities in the Austrian Netherlands in 1738, to explore the state of urban industries in the County of Flanders on the eve of an economic revival that would lead into the first industrial revolution on the European continent. By focussing on three empirical questions – the extent and nature of industrial activity, the importance of craft guild organization, and indications of capitalist labour relations – the study aims to contribute to wider debates on the relationship between guilds and economic change in the run-up to industrialization. While the sundry nature of the data complicates their quantitative analysis, they provide valuable insight into the underlying diversity of both social realities and conceptions of ‘industry’ and ‘work’ in this period of transformation. The resulting image confirms a continued dominance of textile production in Flemish cities, in which mixed fabrics have replaced traditional woollens, while showing the tentative emergence of new consumption-culture oriented sectors (such as earthenware, tobacco, soap) and signalling the presence of varied organizational forms (workshops, manufactures, subcontracting, domestic workers, family labour). While the bulk of urban industrial activity was still craft-organized, this did not preclude the presence of highly proletarianized labour relations in both guild-based and non-guild-based activities