This article documents and explains the rise of capitalist cattle farming in the sixteenth-century eastern Low Countries. The case of the two parishes of Zeddam and Netterden shows that by 1570, a small group of graziers, specialised in the fattening of Danish-bred oxen, had come to hold a prominent place in the local rural economy. In some localities, their pastures represented more than 40 per cent of the total value of taxed landholdings. When conceptualising capitalist farming based on its internal logic of accumulating capital through exchanging commodities, these graziers can be considered to be capitalist farmers. Because capitalist cattle farming in the eastern Low Countries emerged in a different context than the typical capitalist tenant farmer in the western areas of the Low Countries, the case offers a fresh perspective on the causal factors allowing a capitalist logic to take root in farming. The rise of the capitalist graziers in Zeddam and Netterden was the combined consequence of the expansion of long-distance trade networks, local geographical conditions, and local property relations. The studied case thus shows how the two currently dominant explanatory models focused on ‘commercialisation’ and ‘property relations’ can be integrated to explain the rise of capitalist farming.
This interview study investigates how present-day Dutch upper secondary students construct meaningful understandings of the past by connecting historical examples to their ultimate concerns – core values and fundamental worldviews. Building on research on sensitive history, historical narrativity, and historical consciousness, the study shifts attention from teachers’ perspectives to students’ own meaning-making. Using a qualitative research design inspired by narrative methods in spiritual care, this article analyses semi structured interviews of fourteen students and their museum-style ‘living timelines’. The findings show that these Dutch students predominantly mobilise values such as equality and freedom to attribute significance to historical events and actors. Personal experiences and social identities strongly shape narrative meaning. Most students employ intentional and existential explanations and view history largely as a story of progress, while a few construct more tragic plots. The study provides a deeper understanding of why certain historical topics are experienced as sensitive and how personal meaning-making informs students’ engagement with the past.
In de laatste dertig jaar van de twintigste eeuw behoorden bedrijfsbezettingen tot het standaardrepertoire van arbeiders- en vakbondsactivisme in Nederland. Tussen 1972 en 2000 konden er 177 worden geïdentificeerd. In dit artikel analyseer ik de aard, oorzaken en veranderingen in de toepassing van dit actiemiddel. Wat voor soort bezettingen kunnen worden onderscheiden en hoe verhielden die zich tot andere, vergelijkbare acties? In welke bedrijfstakken kwamen zij voor en wat was het verband met de de-industrialisatie in deze periode? Hoe succesvol waren de bezettingen op de korte en de langere termijn? Het artikel onderzoekt de motieven en drijfveren van de bezetters, met bijzondere aandacht voor de rol van emoties. Het is tevens bedoeld als een aanzet om de emotional turn te integreren in de geschiedschrijving van de arbeidersbeweging.
This article challenges the assumption that the late medieval Low Countries were predominantly an immigrant-receiving region by highlighting the significance of emigration from these supposed ‘promised lands’. It examines evidence from the migrant confraternity of Saint Barbara in Florence. Database research on its membership register from 1445-1456 reveals details of 457 individuals who migrated from the Low Countries to Tuscany, revising Mario Battistini’s earlier figures upward. Migrants from these areas constituted the largest share of the confraternity, questioning its previous characterisation as ‘German’. Primarily composed of cloth and linen workers displaced by issues in their native urban textile industries, these migrants had different economic profiles compared to those moving to fifteenth-century England, who were mostly highly-skilled artisans. Cloth weavers found wage-based opportunities in Florence, while linen weavers faced less competition there. The confraternity also included many female migrants, but due to limited information, it is challenging to determine their reasons for migrating.
