Amsterdam tot Zeeland


Book Description

Sedert die stigting van Stellenbosch en sy distrik in 1679, het slawerny 'n integrale rol in die ekonomiese en sosiale ontwikkeling van die gemeenskap gespeel. Op 1 Desember 1834 is hierdie stelsel, soos in die res van die Britse koloniale ryk, afgeskaf. Die afskaffing van slawerny het egter geen onmiddellike gelykstelling met die middelklas beteken nie - die gewese slawe moes tot 1 Desember 1838 steeds as 'ingeboekte vakleerlinge' (apprentices) in die diens van hul voormalige eienaars bly. Gedurende die vier jaar het daar min opleiding plaasgevind wat hulle werklik vir arbeid in die ope mark sou bekwaam. Ook na Desember 1838 het die Britse owerheid sy plig versaak om op daadwerklike wyse by te dra tot die opheffing en verbetering van die nagenoeg 36 000 individue se lewensomstandighede. Hierdie taak is deur verskillende sendinggenootskappe met beperkte finansiele bronne, verrig. Enkele slawe het wel die voorreg gehad om in daardie tyd skoolopleiding te ontvang. Dit was egter nie onderwys en geletterdheid wat aanvanklik tot ekonomiese vooruitgang gelei het nie, maar eerder die beoefening van ambagte soos messelary, smidswerk en wamakery.In Amsterdam tot Zeeland word die unieke genealogiese afkoms van die Stellenbosse slawe en die oorsprong van die bruin gemeenskap bestudeer. Die menings hierin opgeneem word gerugsteun deur die verwerking van oorspronklike dokumente uit die Kaapse Argief wat op die ingeslote kompakskyf gelees kan word.




Shaping Medieval Markets


Book Description

In the late Middle Ages the county of Holland experienced a process of uncommonly rapid commercialisation. Comparing Holland to England and Flanders this book examines how the institutions that shaped commodity markets contributed to this remarkable development.










The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century


Book Description

This collection of essays explores the emergence of economic societies in the British Isles and their development into a European, American and global reform movement in the eighteenth century. Its fourteen contributions demonstrate the intellectual horizons and international networks of this widespread and influential phenomenon.







The Rise and Decline of Dutch Technological Leadership (2 Vols)


Book Description

This book provides a wide-ranging overview of Dutch technological leadership in the early modern Europe, it explains whence this leadership came about and why it ended and it explores to what extent the Dutch case illuminates the evolution of technological leadership in general.




Dutch Atlantic Connections, 1680-1800


Book Description

This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access. Dutch Atlantic Connections reevaluates the role of the Dutch in the Atlantic between 1680-1800. It shows how pivotal the Dutch were for the functioning of the Atlantic sytem by highlighting both economic and cultural contributions to the Atlantic world.




Amsterdam's Atlantic


Book Description

In 1624 the Dutch West India Company established the colony of Brazil. Only thirty years later, the Dutch Republic handed over the colony to Portugal, never to return to the South Atlantic. Because Dutch Brazil was the first sustained Protestant colony in Iberian America, the events there became major news in early modern Europe and shaped a lively print culture. In Amsterdam's Atlantic, historian Michiel van Groesen shows how the rise and tumultuous fall of Dutch Brazil marked the emergence of a "public Atlantic" centered around Holland's capital city. Amsterdam served as Europe's main hub for news from the Atlantic world, and breaking reports out of Brazil generated great excitement in the city, which reverberated throughout the continent. Initially, the flow of information was successfully managed by the directors of the West India Company. However, when Portuguese sugar planters revolted against the Dutch regime, and tales of corruption among leading administrators in Brazil emerged, they lost their hold on the media landscape, and reports traveled more freely. Fueled by the powerful local print media, popular discussions about Brazil became so bitter that the Amsterdam authorities ultimately withdrew their support for the colony. The self-inflicted demise of Dutch Brazil has been regarded as an anomaly during an otherwise remarkably liberal period in Dutch history, and consequently generations of historians have neglected its significance. Amsterdam's Atlantic puts Dutch Brazil back on the front pages and argues that the way the Amsterdam media constructed Atlantic events was a key element in the transformation of public opinion in Europe.




Hugo Grotius


Book Description

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is the most famous humanist scholar of the Dutch Golden Age. He wrote influential works on the laws of war and peace, Dutch history and the unification of the churches. His plea for a freedom of the seas in Mare liberum offered the Dutch East India Company a ready justification for the establishment of a trading empire in the East Indies. As far as his daily duties left him any spare time, he penned confidential, learned and beautifully-written letters. This voluminous correspondence offers a trove of information on Grotius’ life and works, and forms the basis of his newest biography which sketches a life caught in a fierce struggle for peace in Church and State.