Please read pages 287-315 of Richard W. Unger, “Dutch Herring, Technology, and International Trade in the Seventeenth Century,’ The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Jun., 1980)
I have provided a file of the book below.
Choose one or a few slides from the Powerpoint added in the files below.
In 300-500 words write an essay relating the slide or slides you chose to the prompts below:
a) How does Unger’s portrayal of Dutch Herring fishing and processing help us to understand the relationship between the Dutch successes and other social, economic, political or cultural trends at that time?
b) Choose an image from the Rijksmuseum website and discuss how it relates to Dutch Shipping during this period.
For prompt b) I have selected and image which can be found at this link: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?q=herring+buss&p=1&ps=12&st=Objects&ii=1#/RP-P-2014-30,1
If you feel there is an image you could better write about or discuss, feel free to look one up, but only on the Rijksmuseum website.
In responding to the prompts please quote the book between pages 287 and 315 at least once and provide a footnote with it.
Book Citation for Footnote: Unger, Richard W. “Dutch Herring, Technology, and International Trade in the Seventeenth Century.” The Journal of Economic History 40, no. 2 (1980): 253–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700108204.
Also, please quote any portion of this text below at at least once at some point in writing your essay, and include a footnote for it:
“Although the Netherlands and Belgium are relatively small countries within Europe, they nevertheless both belong among the richest nations of the world. While the ongoing global financial crisis has hit their economies considerably in the course of the past decade, both continue to be prosperous, industrially innovative nations that depend heavily on foreign trade. The Dutch economy is noted for its stable industrial relations and relatively low unemployment and inflation. The Netherlands is home to a number of companies with an international reputation, not least the Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell, which has its headquarters in The Hague, the multinational banking and financial services corporation ING Groep, and the technology company Koninklijke Philips NV, one of the largest electronics companies in the world, which was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Maritime trade and shipbuilding has, of course, long been one of the pillars of the Dutch economy. The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC (United East India Company), established in 1602, has often been considered one of the first truly multinational corporations in the world, which eclipsed all its European rivals in trade with Asia. It imported huge quantities of spices, silks, cottons and porcelain from the East Indies for trading in the company’s warehouses in Amsterdam, as well as carrying supplies back out to the VOC settlements in Asia. This economic boom came to an abrupt end in the 1670s, although the VOC continued to operate until the end of the eighteenth century and was finally nationalised in 1796. The Netherlands was slow to industrialise and it was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that, for example, the port of Rotterdam was developed westwards to improve the connection towards the North Sea. A large canal, the Nieuwe Waterweg (‘New Waterway’), was dredged to connect the Rhine and Meuse rivers to the sea. In the 1960s the completion of the first Maasvlakte extended the harbour and industrial area now known as ‘Europoort’ by reclaiming land from the North Sea. A ‘Second Maasvlakte’, or ‘Maasvlakte 2’, heralded as one of the largest civil engineering projects in the Netherlands in the twenty-first century, is being created to construct a new port and surrounding infrastructure on more reclaimed land.”
Text Citation for Footnote: Unger, Richard W. “Dutch Herring, Technology, and International Trade in the Seventeenth Century.” The Journal of Economic History 40, no. 2 (1980): 253–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700108204.
