The once-in-a-generation chance to write a history of the Netherlands should not have been wasted on a Flemish-centred economic history, no matter how good it is. Blockmans’s point of departure is mapping and understanding the internal dynamics of the Netherlands,…

J.L. van Zanden, A. van Riel, Nederland 1780-1914. Staat, instituties en economische ontwikkelingInternal rules or external circumstances?While De Vries and Van der Woude scorned 'institutional economics' in favour of the Annalesschool of thought in their The First Modern Economy on…

Taking Stock. The Dutch economy in the Nineteenth CenturyThe publication entitled Nederland, 1780-1914. Staat, Instituties en Economische Ontwikkeling [The Netherlands, 1780-1914. The State, Institutions and Economic Development] is the culmination of a large-scale project called the Reconstruction of the Dutch…

The Human Face of Economic HistoryIn response to the reviews written about Nederland 1780-1914. Staat, instituties en economische ontwikkeling by Griffiths & De Jong and Fritschy, we have sketched the theoretical framework of the above-mentioned book, and in particular the…

Urbanity was a distinguishing feature of the medieval Low Countries, but even in its most urbanised core a majority of the population continued to live outside the city walls. In his new and encompassing synthesis of the history of the…

Although the Low Countries formed a political unity only for short periods they have been seen by other European nations as a region in its own right. What created some kind of unity, as experienced by the inhabitants? My concept…