1st Edition
The Rise of the Amsterdam Market and Information Exchange Merchants, Commercial Expansion and Change in the Spatial Economy of the Low Countries, c.1550–1630
By Clé Lesger
Copyright 2006
344 Pages
by
Routledge
344 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Most scholars agree that during the sixteenth century, the centre of European international trade shifted from Antwerp to Amsterdam, presaging the economic rise of the Dutch Republic in the following century. Traditionally this shift has been accepted as the natural consequence of a dynamic and progressive city, such as Amsterdam, taking advantage of expanding commercial opportunities at the... Read more
Contents: Preface; Introduction. Part I Trade in Amsterdam and the Spatial Economy of the Low Countries: The spatial economy of the Low Countries around the middle of the 16th century; Continuity and change in the gateway system c.1550-c.1630; Commercial expansion in Amsterdam and changes in the spatial economy of the Low Countries during the Revolt; Established merchants and newcomers in Amsterdam. Part II Amsterdam and the Organization of Trade in the Early Modern Period: Amsterdam and the organization of trade; Amsterdam as a centre of information supply. Summary and conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Indexes.
Biography
Clé Lesger is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research interests include the organization of early modern trade; the spatial economy of the Low Countries; the history of migration; and urban land use and the spatial structure of cities.
’This important study offers a radical reinterpretation of both the causes and nature of Amsterdam's trading success in the seventeenth century... Taken as a whole, this is a valuable [...] contribution to the debate on the causes and nature of Amsterdam's rise and, more generally, of the economic success of the Dutch Republic as a whole.’ English Historical Review ’This is an an extremely rich book, a pleasure to read and a very stimulating experience.’ Economic History Review ’Not everyone will agree with all of Lesger’s arguments, but this book deserves to be, from now on, the first one that everyone reads.’ European History Quarterly
