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Labour Conflicts and Working-Class Culture in Early Modern Holland1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Rudolf Dekker
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From the 15th to the 18th century Holland, the most urbanized part of the northern Netherlands, had a tradition of labour action. In this article the informal workers' organizations which existed especially within the textile industry are described. In the 17th century the action forms adjusted themselves to the better coordinated activities of the authorities and employers. After about 1750 this protest tradition disappeared, along with the economic recession which especially struck the traditional industries. Because of this the continuity of the transition from the ancien régime to the modern era which may be discerned in the labour movements of countries like France and England, cannot be found in Holland.

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Survey
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International Review of Social History , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , December 1990 , pp. 377 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1990

References

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137 Sewell, , Work and Revolution in FranceGoogle Scholar, and Hunt, Lynn and Sheridan, George, “Corporatism, Association and the Language of Labor in France, 1750–1850”, Journal of Modern History, 58 (1986), pp. 813–844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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140 The province of Zeeland offers a unique example of a conflict which was fought out in pamphlets. Cateau, Benjamin, Goede raad aan Jan Poley (Vlissingen, 1786).Google Scholar The pamphlets are not preserved, but the case is mentioned in the Nieuw Nederlandsch Bio-grafisch Woordenboek, 10 vols (Leiden, 1911–1937), VII, p. 284.Google Scholar

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