Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 131, Issue 3, 2018

Abstract From Binary Narratives to Diversified Tales. Changing the Paradigm in the Study of Dutch Colonial Participation This article defends the existence of a Dutch empire and that this empire, as all the other empires in Western Europe, fulfilled the goals, interests and necessities of the central state, of the local elites and of the common man. There was thus a societal consensus about, and acceptance of empire. Further Read More

Abstract Taking the Companies to Court. Wage Litigation against the Dutch East and West India Companies in the High Court Both the Dutch East and West India Companies were taken to court in the Republic. Court cases were pursued to the highest court in the Republic, the appellate Hoge Raad van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland (High Court), by subjects of the States General and by foreigners, individuals, and groups. Read More

Abstract Petitions, public opinion, and personal connections. The three Ps of lobbying in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic This article argues that lobbying was an essential element in political decision-making in the early modern period. There were three main ways of lobbying: by issuing petitions, influencing public opinion, and through personal connections. While petitions were used to convince political mandataries, publ Read More

Abstract Agents overseas. The principal-agent problem in early modern Dutch chartered companies Could early modern chartered companies effectively ensure that their agents overseas were working in the best interests of the firm rather than in their own personal interests? This principal-agent problem has been the topic of a number of important studies in early modern economic history. This article contributes t Read More

Abstract The missing link between company and consumption. Who were the main buyers at the auctions of the Dutch East India Company in the eighteenth century? The wholesale and retail market for Asian goods in Europe is still largely unexplored. Historians’ growing interest in consumption patterns is now revealing the importance of Asian products in the nascent European consumer market. Earlier studies hav Read More

Abstract The Resources of Others. Dutch Exploitation of European Expansion and Empires, 
1570-1800 Historiography pertaining to the study of European colonial empires can generally be defined in two different strands: on the one hand, the nationally geared scholarship that zooms in on the development of specific ‘national’ empires and their relationships to non-European individuals, groups and polities and, on the other Read More