Dutch Deltas: Emergence, Functions and Structure of the Low Countries' Maritime Transport System, ca. 1300-1850

摘要

Some books should be obligatory reading for historians in general. This one fits into this category, with its highly original methodology, its questions that are related to various academic (sub)disciplines (including geography, transport history, maritime history, migration and labour history), and the author's provocative style of writing. In the Preface Scheltjens clearly tells readers that he focuses not on the Dutch maritime trade per se, but on the carriers that made trade possible - the shipmasters that constituted the Dutch mercantile fleet. Scheltjens sets their collective course by introducing his main questions: 'when and why did a maritime transport sector emerge in the Low Countries? What was its structure? How did it evolve? And, finally, how can the emergence, functions and structure of the Low Countries' maritime transport system be explained?' (p. ⅶ).