Abstract
This article presents the first methodologically grounded calculation of the weight of Atlantic slave-based activities in the Dutch economy of the second half of the eighteenth century. In this period, the Dutch Republic was one of the most developed commercial societies in Europe. The import, processing and export of slave-produced goods such as sugar, coffee and tobacco played an important role in this economy. 5.2 percent of the GDP of the Dutch Republic in 1770, and even 10.36 percent of the GDP of its richest province Holland, was based on slavery. In this year, 19 percent of Dutch imports and exports consisted of goods produced by the enslaved in the Atlantic. These high percentages were dependent on the prominent role that the Dutch Republic, the province of Holland in particular, played in Atlantic slavery-based commodity chains. These chains ran from the provisioning of slave-ships in the Dutch Republic, through the slave trade, to the plantations, the transport of tropical products to Europe, their processing in the Dutch Republic, to their final export to the European hinterland. This chain connected the Dutch Republic not only to Dutch colonies such as Suriname, but also to other plantation colonies such as the French colony Saint Domingue. In total, the enormous flow of coffee, sugar and tobacco that went through Dutch ports represented 120,000 work-years in bondage on plantations in the Atlantic world. At this time, the total working population of the Netherlands was not larger than one million people. The growth of this trade opened up the Rhine for trade with the German hinterland and supported Holland in the economically difficult second half of the eighteenth century. Shipbuilding and processing industries profited from this. As much as 40 percent of all the growth of the economy of Holland in the decades around 1770 can be traced back to slavery.
Translated title of the contribution | The significance of Atlantic slavery for the Dutch economy in the second half of the eighteenth century |
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Original language | Dutch |
Pages (from-to) | 5-46, i-xxx |
Number of pages | 72 |
Journal | Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2019 |
Bibliographical note
With annexes p. i-xxxKeywords
- Slavery
- Netherlands
- Economy