Danielle van den Heuvel

Partners in marriage and business? Guilds and the family economy in urban food markets in the Dutch Republic

This article examines spousal cooperation in the early modern Dutch food markets. It shows that although husband and wife business partnerships were very common in market-based retailing, great differences existed in the way spouses worked together. Most urban retail trades were guild-organized and the guilds therefore had a significant influence on the family economy. Guild policy was, however, very flexible and responded to local economic circumstances. It appears that the size and the organization of the markets were crucial in shaping the roles of the men and women who held stalls. Processes of commercialization generally benefited independent female entrepreneurship over the more traditional husband and wife partnerships.

The Multiple Identities of Early Modern Dutch Fishwives

This contribution investigates the identities of Dutch fishwives in the early modern period. It shows that beneath the stereotypical portrayals of female fish sellers as rowdy, bossy, and disorderly women at the margins of society lay a very different and much more diverse historic reality. The contribution studies the fish trade in eighteenth-century Amsterdam, a city that was one of the principal commercial centers in Northern Europe and had a highly specialized and well-developed system of fish markets. Based on an analysis of empirical data on one of the principal fish markets in the city, the central eel market, it reveals the participation in the fish trade of a group of women very different from the stereotypical fishwife: relatively well-off businesswomen with substantial trades and long-term careers. It shows that these women benefited from close links to the local fish sellers’ guild and closely knit family networks that allowed them to combine motherhood with business and secure their children a position in the trade. Even though rowdy fishwives may very well have been a part of early modern Dutch urban society, this contribution argues that a great variety of fishwives operated in the markets and in the streets, and, more important, that the reason for certain fishwives to engage in disorderly behavior perhaps may not have been the product they sold but rather the marginality of their position in the trade.

Working on Labor

Using comparative and long-term perspectives the seventeen essays in this collection discuss the development of labor relations and labor migrations in Europe, Asia and the US from the thirteenth century to the present.

POLICING PEDDLERS: THE PROSECUTION OF ILLEGAL STREET TRADE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH TOWNS

Street vending was a common feature in many towns in early modern Europe. However, peddlers and hawkers often operated outside the official framework, lacking permission from governments and guilds. The impact of their informal status has hitherto not featured very extensively in historical studies. This article assesses the impact of policing of street vendors by looking at familiar source materials in a new way. Rather than solely focusing on those people who were ultimately punished, this article investigates the full process of policing and prosecution of street traders in eighteenth-century Dutch towns. It exposes that apart from those receiving a formal punishment, many more traders could suffer from policing activities, and that particular groups of street vendors were more vulnerable than others due to the specific dynamics of local power relations. As such, this article provides new insights into policing and social control, while also offering wider lessons for our understanding of the relationship between the formal and informal economy in pre-industrial Europe.

Gender in the Streets of the Premodern City

It is often held that between 1600 and 1850, women gradually withdrew from the public sphere of the street and moved to the private sphere of the home. This powerful narrative, linked to theories of modernization, remains a prominent feature in urban history, despite important revisionist scholarship. In recent years, scholars from fields as diverse as art history, economic history, literary studies, and human geography have made important contributions to further our understanding of the gender dynamics in historical city streets. This essay for the first time brings together the findings on gender and premodern urban space from these different disciplines. Starting off from the latest insights, it furthermore proposes crucial new ways for studying the history of gender in streets.It is often held that between 1600 and 1850, women gradually withdrew from the public sphere of the street and moved to the private sphere of the home. This powerful narrative, linked to theories of modernization, remains a prominent feature in urban history, despite important revisionist scholarship. In recent years, scholars from fields as diverse as art history, economic history, literary studies, and human geography have made important contributions to further our understanding of the gender dynamics in historical city streets. This essay for the first time brings together the findings on gender and premodern urban space from these different disciplines. Starting off from the latest insights, it furthermore proposes crucial new ways for studying the history of gender in streets.

New Products, New Sellers? Changes in the Dutch Textile Trades, c. 1650–1750

From the late seventeenth century onwards, the north-west European textile trades blossomed as part of larger transformations in consumption, generally referred to as the ‘Consumer Revolution’.1 Not only did the types of textiles for sale expand greatly as a result of new product and process innovations and the influx of products from new colonies in the East Indies, due to faster circulation of products and cheaper prices the importance of fashion gained in relevance for ever larger groups of people.2 The growing demand for textiles also generated an increase in business opportunities. Although some studies have indeed shown that the number of textiles dealers grew during the so-called ‘Consumer Revolution’, we still know remarkably little about their identities.3 This chapter asks what new business opportunities arose from the expansion of the supply and the demand in textiles, and who precisely benefited from these opportunities. It will focus on the Dutch Republic, the country that, alongside England, is generally assumed to have experienced these changes earliest and most profoundly. Various studies have suggested that the rise of a consumer society and the accompanying growth of the retail sector took place exceptionally early in the northern Netherlands; in some areas, most notably the province of Holland, already around 1670.4 However, while steadily more information is uncovered on Dutch early modern retail transformations, we still lack a thorough understanding of when exactly these changes took place, at what speed and scale, and how they precisely impacted on the character of the retail sector.5 Based on a variety of records such as tax registers, municipal archives and retail guilds’ financial administrations from a selection of Dutch towns, this chapter investigates how the retail trade in textiles and associated products such as accessories and clothing changed over time, and who were the new sellers of these products.

L.H. Remmerswaal, Een duurzame alliantie. Gilden en regenten in Zeeland, 1600-1800; Nico Slokker, Ruggengraat van de stad. De betekenis van gilden in Utrecht, 1528-1818

L.H. Remmerswaal, Een duurzame alliantie. Gilden en regenten in Zeeland, 1600-1800; Nico Slokker, Ruggengraat van de stad. De betekenis van gilden in Utrecht, 1528-1818