Working paper series
Abstract
HISSTER is a database of Belgian mortality statistics available at the local (municipality) and regional (arrondissement) level since 1841. It is designed to protect, utilize and make accessible a range of historical data on mortality and causes of death for scientific research and for the public at large. In order to calculate mortality indicators, birth and population statistics were also integrated in the dataset.
Paper presented at Workshop on ‘Women in Changing Labour Markets’ (22 – 23 November 2012, Utrecht) and Rural History Conference (19-22 August 2013, Bern)
Abstract
This paper explores the employment opportunities and subsistence strategies of single women in the countryside around Bruges on the basis of the census of 1814. This source enables us to provide an overview of the professions and household situations of more than 5000 single women above the age of 30. At that age, women exceeded the mean age of marriage and presumably had to develop very specific subsistence strategies. The census of 1814 allows us to look at the registered occupations for older single women in two different social agro-systems (polder and inland Flanders), but it also provides us with material to look more into depth at single women without a registered occupation. While these women were officially ‘without occupation’, they most probably did work. Information on household structures allows us to get an insight into the living arrangements and the activities of these women. From this perspective, the paper contributes to two important discussions, that is on the living conditions of single women, and those of rural women. While women in the city have attracted the most scholarly attention, the living conditions of rural women remain largely unexplored.
Keywords
- J16
- J43
- N33
Abstract
As several scholars have shown, in Late Medieval Crown of Aragon, in general, and in the principality of Catalonia, in particular, tax pressure gave birth to a complex finance system which involved not only towns but even small communities and rural areas. This paper aims to examine the development of this process, especially during one of its crucial stages, the war between the king of Aragon and the king of Castile (1356-1366). It consists of a study based on notarial records and focused on the area of Girona in north-eastern Catalonia. In so doing, the financial strategies employed by rural parishes to meet tax demands are analysed, as well as the social groups that played a part in credit markets deriving from tax collection. In addition, it seeks to explore the effects of it concerning peasantry. Briefly, seeing that people dwelling in rural areas also played a certain role in these credit markets, it is discussed if there were pre-existing elements reused when tax systems were set up in small villages and, in the long run, if the phenomenon could reinforce political cohesion and enhance social differences within these communities.
Keywords
- G1- General Financial Markets
- H81- Governmental Loans; Loan Guarantees; Credits; Grants; Bailouts
- N23- Europe: Pre-1913
- N93- Europe: Pre-1913
Abstract
The development of factor markets during the transition from the middle ages into the early modern period was of crucial importance for long term economic growth. However, especially in the Southern Low Countries, the land market remains understudied. In this paper I focus on the late sixteenth-century rural land market, using two case-studies each consisting of three parishes. A first case-study is formed by the parishes of Sleidinge and Evergem situated inland-Flanders near the city of Ghent. The second cases-study comprises the parishes St-Kathelijne Lombeek, Wambeek and Ternat and is located about ten kilometers from Brussels. Our preliminary research garnered several interesting results. Although both case-studies are part of the larger agrosystem of Inland Flanders, market activity (type of plots sold, average acreage sold, yearly turnover etc...) differed greatly between the two regions. Our analysis shows that these contrasting experiences can be explained by a combination of institutional, socio-economic and geographical factors.
Keywords
- N13
- N33 and N93
- P13
- P25
Abstract
This article will look for the training of Ghent gold- and silversmiths in the second half of the eighteenth century. Initially, attention will be focused on the importance of the new and fashionable. It will be argued that in several countries the solution to the design deficit will be countered by the establishment of art academies and drawing schools. Thereafter, it will be shown that in the historiography there is no general consensus on the academic training of artisans. Subsequently, the focus will be moved to the city of Ghent. First, the importance of design skills for gold- and silversmiths will be given a chance. In the second part, the emphasis is on how precious-metalsmiths develop strategies within the existing structures to be competitive on the market. This contribution will show that the legitimation of skills was high on the academic agenda.
Keywords
- D2 - Production and Organizations
- N93 - Europe: Pre-1913
- O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
Abstract
This bibliography is the sequel to a bibliography published by Devos (Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis/Revue Belge d’Histoire Contemporaine, 2001) on the historical demography of Belgium for the period 1981-2001. Unlike the previous bibliography, which covered the 19th and 20th centuries, this list covers all periods and consists of studies published between 2001 and 2011.
Keywords
- N33 Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy- Europe: Pre-1913
- N34 Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy- Europe: 1913-
Abstract
During the first half of the twentieth century, discourses on distinct gendered sexual experiences were particularly powerful. Sexual lust was considered an invincible element of manly nature. Women had to channel this desire into permissible behavior: while they should not stimulate lust outside marriage, they were subjected to giving in to the manly rights within marriage. This encompasses a more general ideal of men as sexually active and women as passive recipients. In contrast, when it comes to the use of birth control, it is often assumed that women were the ones who took the initiative because the burden of large families weighed heavier on them. Before the existence of modern contraception however, women depended on the cooperation of their husbands since the most common ways to control fertility were temporary abstinence and coitus interruptus. In this perspective, family limitation occurs when women were in a position strong enough to convince the men. In Flanders, fertility levels dropped from about 1900. This creates an interesting paradox: at the moment when the emphasis on female sexual obedience was at its strongest, women’s negotiation power in the bed seems to have increased enormously.
The answer to this apparent inconsistency may be found in a shift of focus from merely the content of the prevailing sexual ideologies to the way they were instructed to and experienced by common people. To this end, this paper analyses (1) how dominant discourses about sexuality were shaped into practical pedagogical literature for adolescents, (2) testimonies of men and women regarding sexual lust and inhibitions outside and within marriage and (3) their negotiation of the use of birth control methods.
We argue that the ideal of male activeness versus female passiveness influenced the sexual practice and family planning of men and women in the first half of the twentieth century. When women were indeed more motivated than their partners to limit the family size, they exploited their passivity by faking sleep or illness. Yet, many couples agreed on family control. This suggests that the preferences of men and women alike had altered during this period. When this was the case, the use of contraceptive practices was considered the man’s duty: he was responsible for using coitus interruptus or purchasing of condoms. This shows that changing perceptions on family limitation were not necessarily linked with more egalitarian sexual experiences
Keywords
- J13 - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- N33 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy. Europe: Pre-1913
- N34 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy. Europe: 1913-
2012-1: The establishment of new market-places in East-Flanders, 1750-1900 (Wouter Ronsijn)
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the number of markets established in East-Flanders between 1750 and 1900, and tries to find whether there was a link with economic ideas and the discourse on the effects of periodic markets: whether more markets were established, and permissions to establish markets were more easily given, in times when free-trade ideas flourished. No clear connection was found between the ideas on the effects of market-places and the number of markets actually established. A comparatively large number of new markets was established in East-Flanders between 1750 and 1900, but this must have been related to other factors than merely the ideas on markets.
Keywords
- N93 - Economic History: Regional and Urban History - Europe: Pre-1913
- N43 - Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - Europe: Pre-1913
- N73 - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - Europe: Pre-1913
- B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925