Contents. Acknowledgements 5

Transcription

1 Contents Acknowledgements 5 1 Introduction Dutch women in the early modern period New impulses to longstanding debates 21 Women and work 21 Women, business and entrepreneurship Boundaries and choices 29 Time and space 29 Commerce and traders Sources The composition of this book 36 2 Women, commerce and the Dutch Republic Society s view on gender roles 40 Travellers and merchants guides 40 Moralists Education and training Women s legal status 56 A special judicial status for married female entrepreneurs 58 Consequences for daily practice 63 Wider implications Women and commercial enterprise in the local economy 69 Amsterdam 71 Leiden 74 s-hertogenbosch 76 Graft, De Zijpe and Winkel Conclusion 83 3 At the market Female street vendors and stallholders Women and peddling: marginal activities? A well-regulated economy: the cooperation of governments and guilds 91 Numbers: permits issued yearly 93 Female and male stallholders The identities of female stallholders 99 Selling meat 100 Selling vegetables 103 Selling fish 110

2 3.4 Life cycles and careers 121 Career lengths 122 Entrance to the market 123 Exit from the market Conclusion In the shop Women as shop owners Shopkeeping: an easy alternative? The share of women in shopkeeping 139 Urban areas 140 Rural areas The s-hertogenbosch shopkeepers guild 147 Becoming a guild member Membership rates Changing guild policy: expanding opportunities? 158 Single women 159 Soldiers wives 161 Masters daughters The 1753 alteration: a reduced entrance fee for poor people 166 The effect on gender ratios Conclusion Specialisation Products, clientele and the impact of consumer changes The consumer revolution and its impact on women Product specialisation Consumable Household Goods 187 Tea and Coffee 191 Other stimulants Wearing Apparel 199 Cloth 203 Haberdashery 206 Old and new clothes Wealth, marital status and gender preferences Specialisation through clientele: the voc, orphanages and other large institutions Conclusion At the merchant s office Women in international trade and finance Women making money: an uncommon phenomenon? Amsterdam as a case study 229 Female presence in the Amsterdam merchant community 230 Women with a Wisselbank account 233

3 6.3 The impact of changing commercial structures 237 Business activities 241 Traders and rentiers 243 Modes of operation Business as usual? Activities of men and women compared 251 Financial transactions 253 Careers Conclusion Conclusions Economic structure Commercial transformations Institutional forces The impact of location The heroic Dutch businesswoman: myth or reality? 275 Appendices 1 Population numbers of localities under study, II The occupational classification system and the occupational structures of the localities under scrutiny, c III Prijn, Van Teunenbroek, De Rooij and Van Asdonk family trees 288 IV Matching the guild membership list and the 1742 census: the s-hertogenbosch kramersgilde and its grip on the town s trading community 291 V Categorising traders according to product specialisation 293 VI The Amsterdam Wisselbank (Bank of Exchange) 296 Bibliography 299 Summary in Dutch 321 Index 327

4 12 Women and entrepreneurship List of tables 2.1 Literacy rates among members of the shopkeepers guild in Zwolle, Overview of several urban ordinances on married female traders The five most common occupations of the female and male urban poor in s-hertogenbosch compared to the numbers and shares of people who earned a living as a retailer, and the people without occupation, Permits for Leiden food markets per 10,000 population, c The shares of female permit holders at the various Leiden food markets, measured every ten years ( ) Women and men at the Amsterdam eel market, Career length of Amsterdam eel vendors, Ages of married stallholders at the Amsterdam eel market at different stages in their lives ( ) Married couples as stallholders at the Amsterdam eel market, Numbers and shares of female traders in s-hertogenbosch (Household heads; first occupations only) Numbers and shares of female traders in urban and rural settings, c (Household heads; first occupations only) Share of women among rural traders and shopkeepers, c (Household heads; first occupations only) Guilds and membership figures in s-hertogenbosch, c The distribution of specialised traders over different product categories, c (Household heads, first occupations) Traders selling Consumable Household Goods, c (Household heads, first occupations) Traders selling Wearing Apparel, c (Household heads, first occupations) Female and male heads of household selling cloth, distributed according to fabric in s-hertogenbosch, Leiden, and Zwolle, c Permits for the various Leiden textile markets distributed according to gender, c The number of household heads specialised in selling second-hand goods, distributed according to the type of trade, in s-hertogenbosch, Leiden and Zwolle, c Rentiers who supplied the Amsterdam Chamber of the voc in Average numbers of transactions and the average amount per transaction issued by accountholders distributed according to gender 258

5 List of tables The minimum number of years people held an account in the seventeenth and eighteenth century distributed according to gender, and for women according to marital status 260 I Population numbers of localities under study, IV.a The share of traders in the 1742 registration that can be traced in the membership lists of the s-hertogenbosch kramersgilde 292 V.a Categorisation of specialised traders according to product or product group 294

6 14 Women and entrepreneurship List of figures 1.1 The Northern Netherlands The distribution of different types of traders between wholesale and retail trade Index permits for Leiden food markets and population, (1650=100) The number of children of female stallholders at the Amsterdam eel market, c New female and male masters in the s-hertogenbosch shopkeepers guild, Poor and regular entrances in the s-hertogenbosch shopkeepers guild, Share of women among new members in the shopkeepers guild of s-hertogenbosch, The share of women among the new members of shopkeepers guilds in Zwolle, Maastricht, s-hertogenbosch and Haarlem, Gender ratios among specialised traders distributed over five product categories, c The marital status of female tea, coffee and chocolate dealers in eighteenth-century Leiden Specialised traders distributed according to wealth, measured by monthly house rent, Leiden Female accountholders in the Amsterdam Wisselbank (percentage and numbers), Changes in the commodity flow in the transition from trading on own account to commission trading The number of transactions issued per financial year by female and male accountholders, 1676, 1706, 1742 and The total value of transactions issued per financial year by female and male accountholders, 1676, 1706, 1742 and III.a Family tree Prijn 288 III.b Family tree Van Teunenbroek 289 III.c Family tree De Rooij 289 III.d Family tree Van Asdonk 290

7 List of illustrations 15 List of illustrations Adriana van Heusden and her daughter at the new fish market in Amsterdam, Emanuel de Witte, c (London, National Gallery) Cover 1.1 Commercial activity in early modern Amsterdam, H.P. Schouten, c (Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief) The money changer, Tibout Regters, 1753 (The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie rkd) The central marketplace in s-hertogenbosch, Jac. Everts, 1777 ( s-hertogenbosch, Stadsarchief) The village Winkel, Cornelis Pronk, c (Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief) The Leiden vegetable market, Hendrik van der Burgh, 1666 (Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) The central fish market at the Damsluis in Amsterdam, c (Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief Amsterdam) A women behind the counter of a pastry shop, Job Adriaensz Berkheyde, between (The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie rkd) The hamlet Sint Maartensbrug in the polder De Zijpe, Hendrik de Winter, 1744 (Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief) A (married?) couple behind the counter of a cloth shop. Matthijs Naiveu, 1709 (Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) The voc warehouse and wharves in Amsterdam c (Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief) The Amsterdam Bourse, Emanuel de Witte, 1653 (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen) Dam Square in Amsterdam, with in the back the city hall which housed the Wisselbank, Gerrit Adriaensz Berkheyde, 1673 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) Johanna Borski-Van der Velde, copy of the portrait by Nicolaas Pieneman (Amsterdam, Museum van Loon) 252

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