Abstract
The 16th and the 17th centuries are often called an ‘era of the Baltic trade’. The great geographical discoveries at the end of the 15th century changed the network of the main transport routes. Following the big shift in the world trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, the old mediaeval trading centres declined and new ones rapidly developed — among them Amsterdam and Baltic ports. These changes were linked to the extremely rapid population growth in the 16th century Europe as well as to the new forms of international commerce: the low volume and mainly luxury trade of the Middle Ages gave way to a large-scale trading in basic consumer commodities, especially in grain and raw materials. Hence the dependence of many countries on the products of distant regions and the importance of the regular shipping; they became an indispensable condition of existence for many regions drawn into the orbit of international trade.1
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References
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H. Brugmans, Opkomst en bloei van Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1944) p. 24.
See Archivo General de Simancas, Spain (hereinafter AGS) Estado, Legajo 592.
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Especially serious hungers ravaged in 1557–1559, 1562–1564, 1570–1578, 1586–1587, 1590–1591, 1628–1631. See W. Abel, Massenarmut und Hungerkrisen im vorindustriellen Europa (Hamburg, 1974) pp. 43 ff
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Cf. M. Bogucka, Zur Problematik der Profite im Handel zwischen Danzig und Westeuropa (1550–1650), (Hansische Studien V, Weimar, 1981) pp. 41–50.
Ibidem.
Cf. S. Hart, ‘De Handelsbetrekkingen’, pp. 78–79.
M. Bogucka, ‘North European Commerce’, p. 21; see also A. Mączak, Między Gdańskiem a Sundem. Studia nad handlem baltyckim odpolowy XVI do polowy XVII w. (Between Gdańsk and Sund. Studies on the Baltic Trade From the Mid-16th to Mid-17th Centuries) (Warszawa, 1972) pp. 76 ff.
A. Attman, the Struggle for Baltic Markets. Powers in Conflict 1558–1618 (Göteborg, 1978) passim.
Calculated on the basis of price differences between Amsterdam and Gdansk, M. Bogucka, Handel zagraniczny, p. 148. J. A. Faber estimates the average difference between the price of rye at Arnhem and the price of rye at Gdańsk in 1560–1599 at about 514 g of silver, in the years 1600–1649 at 417 g of pure silver, op. cit., p. 5, table I.
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One of the immigrants from Amsterdam, Anthony Cuiper, prepared in the 1630s a project to establish in Gdansk a public bank according to the patterns of Amsterdam’s bank; the project failed because of the resistance of the private local bankers, members of the city council, cf. M. Bogucka, ‘Les lettres de change et le crédit dans les échanges entre Gdańsk et Amsterdam dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle’. In: Actes du Cinquième Congrès International d’Histoire Economique (Leningrad, 1970; Moskwa, 1976) vol. IV, pp. 31–41.
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M. Bogucka, Les relations entre la Pologne et les Pays Bas au XVIe et dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle, To be published in: Cahiers de Clio, Liège.
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Bogucka, M. (1983). The Baltic and Amsterdam in the First Half of the 17th Century. In: Wieringa, W.J. (eds) The Interactions of Amsterdam and Antwerp with the Baltic region, 1400–1800. Werken. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5952-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5952-6_7
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