Abstract
In 1585 the Duke of Parma conquered Antwerp, which was followed by a blockade of the river Scheldt. A large number of merchants moved to Amsterdam. Since the beginning of the twentieth century a historical debate has been going on about the economic effects of these events. The submitted data, gathered from different historical sources, aim to provide a precise answer to this question. Information from nine different sources (e.g. poortersboeken of the city of Amsterdam, two tax registers, Notarieel Archief and VOC/WIC-archives) has been combined in an attempt to reconstruct the entire merchant community of Amsterdam between 1578 and 1630. This resulted in a data collection on more than 5,000 wholesale traders. Analysis of the data shows that migration to Amsterdam started long before the siege of Antwerp because of old commercial ties between the two cities. Moreover, the role of the newcomers was of moderate importance. In 1609 the immigrants amounted to one third of Amsterdam’s merchant community. The majority of them were young men of modest means, seeking an international career in Amsterdam. Since collaboration between merchants from the north and the south dated back to the 1540s, the influx from Antwerp may be considered part of one single merchant community which developed in the Low Countries in the course of the sixteenth century.
Highlights
In 1585, after the Duke of Parma conquered Antwerp, Dutch rebels blocked both the river Scheldt and the Flemish coast
Data-gathering and selection procedures have been explicitated in Gelderblom’s thesis Zuid-Nederlandse kooplieden en de opkomst van de Amsterdamse stapelmarkt (1578–1630), Hilversum 2000. Systematic analysis of their background shows that most of these entrepreneurs were at the very start of a career in international trade
Most frequent professions mentioned in the burgherbooks. (View interactive spreadsheet here.) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gRuKl0C6r0mdmYvCKN1Y sicuSBY5bR7wwlRBMhxX9Xc/edit?usp=sharing research data journal for the humanities and sDoowcnilaoaldesdcfrioemnBcrilel.csom(1210/0126/2)012-11003:43:24PM
Summary
In 1585, after the Duke of Parma conquered Antwerp, Dutch rebels blocked both the river Scheldt and the Flemish coast. Those who claim an important role for the immigrants have more or less repeated the ideas that were formulated at the beginning of the twentieth century In their view, the new merchants were endowed with a capitalist spirit, large amounts of liquid capital, modern trading techniques, extensive commercial networks and a specialisation in specific, often high-value products. The new merchants were endowed with a capitalist spirit, large amounts of liquid capital, modern trading techniques, extensive commercial networks and a specialisation in specific, often high-value products Those who deny a crucial role to the immigrant merchants stress a number of earlier developments that favoured Amsterdam after 1580: the specialisation of Dutch agriculture which made labour from the country side available. One could add the excellent geographical position of Amsterdam between northern and southern Europe and the virtual independence of the Dutch Republic from the Habsburg Empire after 1590
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