Jelle van Lottum

Labour Migration and Economic Performance: London and the Randstad, C. 1600-1800

In most studies of early modern north-western Europe, England is regarded as the successor of the Netherlands in terms of economic leadership. Whereas related topics like institutional and technological change or changes in trade and capital flows have been incorporated into the research on the comparison of these two rival states, labour migration is usually omitted. This article aims to fill this lacuna by focusing on labour migration to the two core regions of the Netherlands and England: the Randstad and London. Two main research questions are raised in this article. First of all, in what way did the two cores and their hinterlands differ with regard to their demographic, economic, and spatial structures, and how did this contribute to different trends in labour migration over time? Secondly, what was the effect of the configuration of the demand and supply factors of London and the Randstad for their economies and for those who lived in them? By trying to answer these two questions this article aims not only to shed light on a hitherto largely unexplored topic in the comparative geographic, economic, and demographic history of the two countries, but also to contribute to the understanding of migration as a factor in the promotion of economic growth.

Estimating levels of numeracy and literacy in the maritime sector of the North Atlantic in the late eighteenth century

Abstract This paper reconstructs comparative levels of numeracy and literacy for seamen of different ranks from 14 countries in the eighteenth century using the British Prize Papers. Results show how skill was rewarded in the maritime labour market, where captains show higher levels of numeracy and literacy than lesser officers and ordinary sailors. The levels of numeracy and literacy among ship masters and Scandinavian sailors are among the highest found anywhere, while Dutch, French and Spanish sailors were at par with the common labour force. This is discussed in light of the migratory and competitive character of the maritime sector.

Some considerations about the link between economic development and migration.

More than forty years after the publication of Zelinsky’s article in theGeographical Review, the hypothesis of the mobility transition is still very much alive. As it is frequently cited in migration related publications and is still an important part of the curriculum in geography departments all over the world, it is likely that the theory will be around for a while. Perhaps the greatest appeal of Zelinsky’s theory of the mobility transition in past and present lies in the fact that it seems to fit well with an image of the nineteenth century that is still predominant: a century of rapid and large social and economic change. Many of these ideas stem from the work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, but later scholars have also supported this notion, explicitly or implicitly. The idea of an economic take-off, as proposed in Walt Rostow seminal book, was adopted by many others after him, for instance in the important work of Dean and Cole. In this particular view or paradigm, industrialization could be regarded as a ‘dramatic culmination to a long-gathering process of change, rather as the cylinder may be charged with a head of steam quite quickly but only if the water has long been heating’. The notion of a sudden societal transformation supports the still prevalent idea of the nineteenth century as a hinge point in social and economic change, and so indeed does Zelinsky’s theory to a great extent. However, research in the last couple of decades on the industrialization of Britain, in particular by Crafts and Wrigley, has shown that this picture is largely incorrect, and that change, in terms of both its social and its economic character, was much more gradual and was therefore stretched over a much longer period than people previously believed. The article discussed here, with its careful analysis of migration ratios over five centuries, fits in with this ‘new’ orthodoxy of gradual change and adds an important new aspect to the debate, that of migration.

Immigrants in the Polder. Rural-Rural Long Distance Migration in North-Western Europe: The Case of Watergraafsmeer

Long distance emigration of agriculture workers or farmers is usually associated with seasonal migration. Permanent migration of farmers on the other hand, is considered to be a non-European phenomenon and commonly linked to migration to the New World where capital costs were relatively low and institutional barriers limited. Interestingly, in the early modern period, in the wake of the mass migration from continental north-western Europe to the urban areas of the Dutch Republic, a contingent of German market gardeners and their descendants were slowly able to take over the production of farmed vegetable goods for the nations capital, Amsterdam. In the middle of one of Europes most densely populated areas, in a polder called Watergraafsmeer, a parish neighbouring, and subsequently part of, Amsterdam, Germans dominated the agricultural sector for over a century. This article will try to answer the question of how these German migrants were able to control a sector that is usually run by locally born producers, for such a long period of time.

Surprisingly gentle confinement: British treatment of Danish and Norwegian prisoners of war during the napoleonic wars

ABSTRACT The Napoleonic Wars saw the British capture and incarcerate thousands of sailors in disused Royal Navy ships, the so-called prison hulks. Many Danes and Norwegians – navy personnel, privateers and merchant sailors – were thus interred. This article uses a new data source, the official record books kept in the National Archive at Kew, to test whether the prison hulks were as bad as popular perception might suggest. In doing so, we provide the first rigorous quantitative assessment of the Danish and Norwegian sailors’ prisoner experience. We find that death rates were surprisingly low, suggesting the quantity and quality of food and medical care was reasonable. Prison hulks were not ‘floating tombs’. The records also show which prisoners were released and exchanged, and when. Officers did well, reflecting the age old system of a gentleman’s honour. Privateers did worse than merchant sailors: those who took up arms were likely to serve longer as prisoners.