Dutch Deltas - by Werner Scheltjens (Hardcover)

About the Book

Dutch Deltas offers the first comprehensive study of the economic geography of the Low Countries' maritime transport sector and its long-term development between 1300 and 1850.

Book Synopsis

In Dutch Deltas, Werner Scheltjens examines the emergence, functions and structure of the Low Countries' maritime transport system between ca. 1300 and 1850. Scheltjens introduces the delta as a suitable geographical unit of analysis for understanding the regional economic origins of communities of maritime transporters. The author proves that changes in maritime trade networks and in the structure of regional economies entailed a process of specialisation, which led to the emergence of 'professional' maritime transport communities and the development of an integrated maritime transport market with Amsterdam and Rotterdam as its main centres.

Dutch Deltas offers the first comprehensive study of the economic geography of the Low Countries' maritime transport sector and its long-term development between 1300 and 1850.

Review Quotes

'[The book] is a valuable and original complement to the well-known discourse on Dutch involvement in early modern seaborne trade.'
Tijl Vanneste (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), in: Renaissance Quarterly, Volume LXX, No. 2, p. 745-747.

About the Author

Werner Scheltjens, Ph.D. (2009), is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Social and Economic History at the University of Leipzig. He has published several peer-reviewed articles on maritime history and is project member at Sound Toll Registers Online.