The capitalist gate to the world: trade relations between Western Germany and the Netherlands, 1740-1806

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Werner Plumpe
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277441302

In our project, we put into context the economic development and growth in the West German region stretching from the Lower Rhine to the Rhine-Main-area in the period 1740-1806 with the trade relations of Western Germany and the Netherlands. We hypothesize that Western Germany's economic upturn and modernization process beginning about 1740 was prompted mainly by the region being integrated into the emerging Atlantic world economy and the concurrent spread of capitalist practices. The increase in trade with the Netherlands, which served as the gate to world trade, lead to the emergence of a German wholesale trade as well as it stimulated the abundant growth of numerous manufacturing branches. Only this expansion of trade made standardized mass production and division of labour in many industries possible. Presumably, the new mercantile practices fostered the advance of capitalism in Western Germany even before 1800. Manufactured goods usually were sent to distant markets via Dutch port cities, where German merchants benefited from the well-developed and modern infrastructure for trade and financial operations that the first modern economy provided. In consequence, an asymmetric complementary relation emerged between Dutch trade and German manufacture. We suppose that West German merchants became acquainted with progressive Dutch capitalist methods while conduction business, and that these methods spread swiftly in West Germany. The Netherlands were significant for German imports, too, as the West German regions bought large amounts of colonial goods for consumption there. The import of the new colonial consumption goods and raw materials was often handled by the same merchant houses that exported manufactured goods. Apart from determining the total volume of trade, our study of German imports and exports is to answer the question what significance the new possibilities to consume had for the emergence of capitalist structures. Was the availability of colonial goods a sufficient incentive for an intensification of labour and the implementation of the market principle in everyday life? Altogether, these deliberations lead to a number of research questions: How did the trade relations between Western Germany and the Netherlands develop during the 18th century, and which goods were traded in which volumes? Which actors conducted the trade, and how did mercantile practices develop in West Germany? In how far was the integration into the Atlantic world economy significant for the economic growth, and later industrialization, of Western Germany? These questions are to be researched on a micro-level by using serial sources as well as business ledgers and correspondence of diverse merchant houses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants