Goal 1 Amsterdam: staple market of the world (3.2)

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Golden Age / Republic?

The Republic in the Golden Age

Amsterdam: staple market of the world

Do we recognise this building?

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.

We're moving!

-Amsterdam was a small rectangular port on the Amstel river until the early 17th century

-Amsterdam became too small

-->city expansion

Between 1610 and 1620

Canals surround the city centre (Singel, Herengracht, Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht)

Rich and poor live and work separately

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, later coined for the long period of prosperity and welfare for the Republic in the seventeenth century. 

What about slave trade?