3.1 Amsterdam: staple market of the world

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Goals

This week's goal is in Teams. You have to download the file to your laptop!

Golden Age / Republic?

Amsterdam

The Republic in the Golden Age

3.1 Amsterdam: staple market of the world

VOC huis 17e eeuw

VOC huis nu

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you can explain how Amsterdam became the staple market of Europe and what impact it had on agriculture in the Republic.

What do you think of when you think of Amsterdam?

We're moving!

• Amsterdam was a small rectangular port on the Amstel river until the early 17th century
• Amsterdam became too smal -->city expansion: Between 1610 and 1620
• Canals surround the city centre (Singel, Herengracht, Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht)
• Rich and poor live and work separately

Golden Turn 

Heerengracht

Goudsbloemgracht

Jordaan

City residents and staple market

•  Dutch economy of trade and industry.
• Farmers could no longer provide inhabitants with enough food --> grain imported from the Baltic Sea
• Stored in grain warehouses
• Amsterdam sold this when there was a shortage to other countries.
• With grain from east, immediately iron/wood from Sweden.

Baltic Sea Trade

• Wine from France
• Cloths from Flanders and Spices from Asia
• Everything was piled up in warehouses --> staple market of Europe

• Grain was the main trade product: first and most important international trade of the Dutch around the East Sea for centuries. 

Amsterdam is growing tremendously!

• Before Amsterdam, Antwerp was the most important trading city in Europe. Their capital was growing and that's what merchant capitalism was all about.
• When Spanish troops invaded Antwerp in 1585, that changed. Many Antwerp merchants fled to Amsterdam.
• Because of the Antwerp refugees, refugees from other areas and the growth of the birth rate, Amsterdam grew enormously.

Specialisation and commercial agriculture

• People started specialising in crafts: Leiden (Lakenhal) + Haarlem became textile city. Delft = Delft-blue

Golden Age

Name for the long period of prosperity and welfare for the Republic in the seventeenth century. 

What about slave trade? Is the name 'Golden Age' still fitting knowing that a part of the wealth was possible through slavery?

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you can explain how Amsterdam became the staple market of Europe and what impact it had on agriculture in the Republic.