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In his seminal work, Cities of Commerce, Oscar Gelderblom has famously argued that urban competition was the driving force behind economically efficient institutions.[1] This blog post examines the different competitive strategies developed by the โgreat skippersโ guildsโ through their admission requirements and further regulations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Despite the crucial role of inland navigation,…
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๐ New Book: ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ. ๐๐บ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐บโ๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ต ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐๐ฟ๐ Step inside one of Amsterdamโs most iconic buildings and discover its hidden past! ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ unveils the fascinating history of the Royal Palace on Dam Square โ originally built as Amsterdamโs City Hall during the Dutch Golden Age. Far from todayโs serene marble halls, it…
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๐ As part of our research project on multilevel governance in medieval and early modern commercial cities, Maurits den Hollander and I are expanding our website with a series of short vignettes on the legal histories of key trading hubs. In each of these introductions we explore the organisation of urban governance in relation to…
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Wednesday 26 March 2025, our team, joined by dr. Niels Fieremans (Universiteit Gent), organised a panel as part of the European Social Science History Conference 2025 at Leiden University. Titled โUrban Professionals and Commerce in the Low Countries, c. 1400-1700โ, the panel united five papers focusing on various types of urban officials in cities of…
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The city of Amsterdam occupies a prominent role in our research. Two of our team members completed their PhD’s at the UvA, while both principal investigators used the city as case study for our own doctoral dissertations. Libraries have been written about the rise of the city on the Amstel as a global economic power.…
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Friday, 24th of January 2025, Maurits den Hollander and Marco in โt Veld organised a specialised workshop as a kick-off of their combined research project. The aim of the workshop was to explore the historical and legal dimensions of commission trade in early modern Europe. This much-neglected area of study offers rich insights into the…
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The concept of commission trade and the role of commission agents in early modern Europe presents a complex and often confusing narrative. Historians have struggled to define this crucial component of trade, as the boundaries between commission agents, brokers, factors, and other intermediaries were not always clearly demarcated. While the term โcommission agentโ may seem…
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By the end of summer 2024, we received great news from Tilburg Law School. Our faculty accepted our proposal to receive a top-up grant for our collaborative research program ‘Multilevel Governance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Cities of Commerce’, which integrates both of our Starter Grant projects. Our personal interests and research have a…