1.
Weber, Klaus
Germany and the Early Modern Atlantic World: Economic Involvement and Historiography Book Chapter
In: von Mallinckrodt, Rebekka; Köstlbauer, Josef; Lentz, Sarah (Ed.): Beyond Exceptionalism Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650-1850, 2021.
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Germany and the Early Modern Atlantic World: Economic Involvement and Historiography},
author = {Klaus Weber},
editor = {Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Josef Köstlbauer and Sarah Lentz },
year = {2021},
date = {2021-01-01},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
booktitle = {Beyond Exceptionalism Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650-1850},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
2.
Kaarsholm, Preben
From Abolition of the Slave Trade to Protection of Immigrants: Danish Colonialism, German Missionaries, and the Development of Ideas of Humanitarian Governance from the Early Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century Journal Article
In: Atlantic Studies, vol. 17, iss. 3, pp. 348-374, 2020.
@article{nokey,
title = {From Abolition of the Slave Trade to Protection of Immigrants: Danish Colonialism, German Missionaries, and the Development of Ideas of Humanitarian Governance from the Early Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century},
author = {Preben Kaarsholm},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
journal = {Atlantic Studies},
volume = {17},
issue = {3},
pages = {348-374},
abstract = {The focus of the essay is the emergence in the eighteenth century of discourses of abolition in the context of bonded labour and the trade in slaves from India. It relates this to the development in forms of unfree labour from slavery to indenture, and to the travels of abolitionism from the Indian Ocean world into that of the Atlantic. The study examines multinational dimensions of this early history of abolition and discusses more particularly how missionary enterprises based in Danish colonies in India contributed to the development of ideas of education, enlightenment, and natural rights that fed into emerging discourses of abolitionism. Further, the essay links eighteenth-century debates around abolition to discourses of protection and humanitarianism that became prominent in the last half of the nineteenth century in the context of imperialist competition and campaigns against the illegal slave trade.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The focus of the essay is the emergence in the eighteenth century of discourses of abolition in the context of bonded labour and the trade in slaves from India. It relates this to the development in forms of unfree labour from slavery to indenture, and to the travels of abolitionism from the Indian Ocean world into that of the Atlantic. The study examines multinational dimensions of this early history of abolition and discusses more particularly how missionary enterprises based in Danish colonies in India contributed to the development of ideas of education, enlightenment, and natural rights that fed into emerging discourses of abolitionism. Further, the essay links eighteenth-century debates around abolition to discourses of protection and humanitarianism that became prominent in the last half of the nineteenth century in the context of imperialist competition and campaigns against the illegal slave trade.
3.
Piqueras, José Antonio
The End of the legal Slave Trade in Cuba and the Second Slavery Book Chapter
In: Tomich, Dale (Ed.): Atlantic transformations: Politics, Economy, and the Second Slavery, pp. 79-103, 2020.
@inbook{nokey,
title = {The End of the legal Slave Trade in Cuba and the Second Slavery},
author = {José Antonio Piqueras},
editor = {Dale Tomich},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {Atlantic transformations: Politics, Economy, and the Second Slavery},
pages = {79-103},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
4.
Rydén, Göran; Evans, Chris
Stocktaking at Christiansborg: Metals and Slaves in the Danish Atlantic Trade at the Mid-Eighteenth Century Book Chapter
In: Weiss, Holger (Ed.): Locating the Global. Spaces, Networks and Interactions from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, pp. 117-146, 2020.
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Stocktaking at Christiansborg: Metals and Slaves in the Danish Atlantic Trade at the Mid-Eighteenth Century},
author = {Göran Rydén and Chris Evans},
editor = {Holger Weiss},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {Locating the Global. Spaces, Networks and Interactions from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century},
pages = {117-146},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
5.
Evans, Chris; Rydén, Göran
‘Voyage Iron’: An Atlantic Slave Trade Currency, its European Origins, and West African Impact Journal Article
In: Past & Present, vol. 239, iss. 1, 2018.
@article{nokey,
title = {‘Voyage Iron’: An Atlantic Slave Trade Currency, its European Origins, and West African Impact},
author = {Chris Evans and Göran Rydén},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
journal = {Past & Present},
volume = {239},
issue = {1},
abstract = {An array of goods was traded to Africa in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Many were eye-catching consumer goods; others were far more mundane, including ‘voyage iron’, a metal forged in northern Europe, bars of which acted as a currency along the West African coast. This article examines the geography of voyage iron production, showing that it originated in places – primarily Sweden – that are not often thought of as being connected to Atlantic commerce. It then considers the impact that European iron had on West Africa, where iron smelting was very well-established locally. The vibrancy of African metallurgy has led some distinguished Africanists to dismiss voyage iron as marginal to African needs. By contrast, it is contended here that European iron underpinned an agro-environmental transformation of the coastal forests in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and played a major role in the spread of New World crops in West Africa. Voyage iron was a superficially unremarkable producer good but it contributed to a profound reshaping of the economic geography of West Africa.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
An array of goods was traded to Africa in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Many were eye-catching consumer goods; others were far more mundane, including ‘voyage iron’, a metal forged in northern Europe, bars of which acted as a currency along the West African coast. This article examines the geography of voyage iron production, showing that it originated in places – primarily Sweden – that are not often thought of as being connected to Atlantic commerce. It then considers the impact that European iron had on West Africa, where iron smelting was very well-established locally. The vibrancy of African metallurgy has led some distinguished Africanists to dismiss voyage iron as marginal to African needs. By contrast, it is contended here that European iron underpinned an agro-environmental transformation of the coastal forests in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and played a major role in the spread of New World crops in West Africa. Voyage iron was a superficially unremarkable producer good but it contributed to a profound reshaping of the economic geography of West Africa.
6.
Heinsen, Johan
Mutiny in the Danish Atlantic World: Convicts, Sailors and a Dissonant Empire Book
2017.
@book{nokey,
title = {Mutiny in the Danish Atlantic World: Convicts, Sailors and a Dissonant Empire},
author = {Johan Heinsen},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
abstract = {A study of the conflict and resistance across the early modern Danish Atlantic world, explored through the lens of a singular event: The mutiny on the ship Havmanden which in early 1683 was taken over by a coalition of convicts and sailors in an act that was one part escape and one part piracy. The book pays special attention to the acts of storytelling and traditions of resistance that preceded and influenced the mutiny and its social world.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
A study of the conflict and resistance across the early modern Danish Atlantic world, explored through the lens of a singular event: The mutiny on the ship Havmanden which in early 1683 was taken over by a coalition of convicts and sailors in an act that was one part escape and one part piracy. The book pays special attention to the acts of storytelling and traditions of resistance that preceded and influenced the mutiny and its social world.
7.
Weber, Klaus; Steffen, Anka
Spinning and Weaving for the Slave Trade: Proto-industry in Eighteenth-Century Silesia Book Chapter
In: Brahm, Felix; Rosenhaft, Eve (Ed.): Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850, pp. 87-107, 2016.
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Spinning and Weaving for the Slave Trade: Proto-industry in Eighteenth-Century Silesia},
author = {Klaus Weber and Anka Steffen},
editor = {Felix Brahm and Eve Rosenhaft },
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
urldate = {2016-01-01},
booktitle = {Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850},
pages = {87-107},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
8.
Spicksley, Judith
Contested enslavement: the Portuguese in Angola and the problem of debt, c. 1600-1800 Journal Article
In: Itinerario , vol. 39, iss. 2, pp. 247-275, 2015.
@article{nokey,
title = {Contested enslavement: the Portuguese in Angola and the problem of debt, c. 1600-1800},
author = {Judith Spicksley},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-02},
urldate = {2015-01-02},
journal = {Itinerario },
volume = {39},
issue = {2},
pages = {247-275},
abstract = {This article explores the contested legitimacy of enslavement for debt in the context of the transatlantic slave trade.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article explores the contested legitimacy of enslavement for debt in the context of the transatlantic slave trade.
9.
Weber, Klaus
Mitteleuropa und der transatlantische Sklavenhandel: eine lange Geschichte [Central Europe and the trans-atlantic slave trade: a long (hi)story] Journal Article
In: WerkstattGeschichte, iss. 66-67, pp. 7-30, 2015.
@article{nokey,
title = {Mitteleuropa und der transatlantische Sklavenhandel: eine lange Geschichte [Central Europe and the trans-atlantic slave trade: a long (hi)story]},
author = {Klaus Weber},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
urldate = {2015-01-01},
issuetitle = {Europas Sklaven [Europe's Slaves]},
journal = {WerkstattGeschichte},
issue = {66-67},
pages = {7-30},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
10.
Weber, Klaus
Linen, Silver, Slaves, and Coffee: A Spatial Approach to Central Europe’s Entanglements with the Atlantic Economy Journal Article
In: Culture & History Digital Journal, vol. 4, iss. 2, 2015.
@article{nokey,
title = {Linen, Silver, Slaves, and Coffee: A Spatial Approach to Central Europe’s Entanglements with the Atlantic Economy},
author = {Klaus Weber},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
urldate = {2015-01-01},
journal = {Culture & History Digital Journal},
volume = {4},
issue = {2},
abstract = {In German scholarship of the post-war period, the category of space was regarded as discredited, because of its abuse during the Nazi period. This applies in particular to the 1970s and 80s, when novel approaches in social and economic history were developed. Research on proto-industrialisation, broadly examining its internal structures, did not take into account the export orientation of Central Europe’s early modern commodity production. At the same time, the expanding research on Europe’s Atlantic empires, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, did hardly take notice of the manufactures from the Holy Roman Empire, distributed all around the Atlantic basin. This paper examines those conditions favouring German proto-industries which are relevant for a ‘spatial approach’ to the phenomenon. It also covers the late medieval beginnings of this process, in order to demonstrate the continuity of Central Europe’s entanglement with the Atlantic world. The paper further emphasises that any future research using spatial categories must be aware of the ideological contamination of the German term ‘Raum’ during the 19th and 20th century. The interlace of economic and social history with historiography demands a compilation from current and older research literature, some of it on different regions and subjects.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In German scholarship of the post-war period, the category of space was regarded as discredited, because of its abuse during the Nazi period. This applies in particular to the 1970s and 80s, when novel approaches in social and economic history were developed. Research on proto-industrialisation, broadly examining its internal structures, did not take into account the export orientation of Central Europe’s early modern commodity production. At the same time, the expanding research on Europe’s Atlantic empires, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, did hardly take notice of the manufactures from the Holy Roman Empire, distributed all around the Atlantic basin. This paper examines those conditions favouring German proto-industries which are relevant for a ‘spatial approach’ to the phenomenon. It also covers the late medieval beginnings of this process, in order to demonstrate the continuity of Central Europe’s entanglement with the Atlantic world. The paper further emphasises that any future research using spatial categories must be aware of the ideological contamination of the German term ‘Raum’ during the 19th and 20th century. The interlace of economic and social history with historiography demands a compilation from current and older research literature, some of it on different regions and subjects.
2021
Weber, Klaus
Germany and the Early Modern Atlantic World: Economic Involvement and Historiography Book Chapter
In: von Mallinckrodt, Rebekka; Köstlbauer, Josef; Lentz, Sarah (Ed.): Beyond Exceptionalism Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650-1850, 2021.
Tags: atlanic, early modern history, germany, historiography, slavery
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Germany and the Early Modern Atlantic World: Economic Involvement and Historiography},
author = {Klaus Weber},
editor = {Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Josef Köstlbauer and Sarah Lentz },
year = {2021},
date = {2021-01-01},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
booktitle = {Beyond Exceptionalism Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650-1850},
keywords = {atlanic, early modern history, germany, historiography, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
2020
Kaarsholm, Preben
From Abolition of the Slave Trade to Protection of Immigrants: Danish Colonialism, German Missionaries, and the Development of Ideas of Humanitarian Governance from the Early Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century Journal Article
In: Atlantic Studies, vol. 17, iss. 3, pp. 348-374, 2020.
Abstract | Tags: 19th century, abolition, atlanic, bonded labour, denmark, early modern history, humanitarianism, indian ocean, slavery
@article{nokey,
title = {From Abolition of the Slave Trade to Protection of Immigrants: Danish Colonialism, German Missionaries, and the Development of Ideas of Humanitarian Governance from the Early Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century},
author = {Preben Kaarsholm},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
journal = {Atlantic Studies},
volume = {17},
issue = {3},
pages = {348-374},
abstract = {The focus of the essay is the emergence in the eighteenth century of discourses of abolition in the context of bonded labour and the trade in slaves from India. It relates this to the development in forms of unfree labour from slavery to indenture, and to the travels of abolitionism from the Indian Ocean world into that of the Atlantic. The study examines multinational dimensions of this early history of abolition and discusses more particularly how missionary enterprises based in Danish colonies in India contributed to the development of ideas of education, enlightenment, and natural rights that fed into emerging discourses of abolitionism. Further, the essay links eighteenth-century debates around abolition to discourses of protection and humanitarianism that became prominent in the last half of the nineteenth century in the context of imperialist competition and campaigns against the illegal slave trade.
},
keywords = {19th century, abolition, atlanic, bonded labour, denmark, early modern history, humanitarianism, indian ocean, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The focus of the essay is the emergence in the eighteenth century of discourses of abolition in the context of bonded labour and the trade in slaves from India. It relates this to the development in forms of unfree labour from slavery to indenture, and to the travels of abolitionism from the Indian Ocean world into that of the Atlantic. The study examines multinational dimensions of this early history of abolition and discusses more particularly how missionary enterprises based in Danish colonies in India contributed to the development of ideas of education, enlightenment, and natural rights that fed into emerging discourses of abolitionism. Further, the essay links eighteenth-century debates around abolition to discourses of protection and humanitarianism that became prominent in the last half of the nineteenth century in the context of imperialist competition and campaigns against the illegal slave trade.
Piqueras, José Antonio
The End of the legal Slave Trade in Cuba and the Second Slavery Book Chapter
In: Tomich, Dale (Ed.): Atlantic transformations: Politics, Economy, and the Second Slavery, pp. 79-103, 2020.
Tags: 19th century, abolition, atlanic, caribbean, latin america, slavery
@inbook{nokey,
title = {The End of the legal Slave Trade in Cuba and the Second Slavery},
author = {José Antonio Piqueras},
editor = {Dale Tomich},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {Atlantic transformations: Politics, Economy, and the Second Slavery},
pages = {79-103},
keywords = {19th century, abolition, atlanic, caribbean, latin america, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
Rydén, Göran; Evans, Chris
Stocktaking at Christiansborg: Metals and Slaves in the Danish Atlantic Trade at the Mid-Eighteenth Century Book Chapter
In: Weiss, Holger (Ed.): Locating the Global. Spaces, Networks and Interactions from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, pp. 117-146, 2020.
Tags: atlanic, denmark, early modern history, scandinavia, slavery
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Stocktaking at Christiansborg: Metals and Slaves in the Danish Atlantic Trade at the Mid-Eighteenth Century},
author = {Göran Rydén and Chris Evans},
editor = {Holger Weiss},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {Locating the Global. Spaces, Networks and Interactions from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century},
pages = {117-146},
keywords = {atlanic, denmark, early modern history, scandinavia, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
2018
Evans, Chris; Rydén, Göran
‘Voyage Iron’: An Atlantic Slave Trade Currency, its European Origins, and West African Impact Journal Article
In: Past & Present, vol. 239, iss. 1, 2018.
Abstract | Tags: 19th century, africa, atlanic, commodity chains, early modern history, slavery, sweden
@article{nokey,
title = {‘Voyage Iron’: An Atlantic Slave Trade Currency, its European Origins, and West African Impact},
author = {Chris Evans and Göran Rydén},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
journal = {Past & Present},
volume = {239},
issue = {1},
abstract = {An array of goods was traded to Africa in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Many were eye-catching consumer goods; others were far more mundane, including ‘voyage iron’, a metal forged in northern Europe, bars of which acted as a currency along the West African coast. This article examines the geography of voyage iron production, showing that it originated in places – primarily Sweden – that are not often thought of as being connected to Atlantic commerce. It then considers the impact that European iron had on West Africa, where iron smelting was very well-established locally. The vibrancy of African metallurgy has led some distinguished Africanists to dismiss voyage iron as marginal to African needs. By contrast, it is contended here that European iron underpinned an agro-environmental transformation of the coastal forests in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and played a major role in the spread of New World crops in West Africa. Voyage iron was a superficially unremarkable producer good but it contributed to a profound reshaping of the economic geography of West Africa.
},
keywords = {19th century, africa, atlanic, commodity chains, early modern history, slavery, sweden},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
An array of goods was traded to Africa in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Many were eye-catching consumer goods; others were far more mundane, including ‘voyage iron’, a metal forged in northern Europe, bars of which acted as a currency along the West African coast. This article examines the geography of voyage iron production, showing that it originated in places – primarily Sweden – that are not often thought of as being connected to Atlantic commerce. It then considers the impact that European iron had on West Africa, where iron smelting was very well-established locally. The vibrancy of African metallurgy has led some distinguished Africanists to dismiss voyage iron as marginal to African needs. By contrast, it is contended here that European iron underpinned an agro-environmental transformation of the coastal forests in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and played a major role in the spread of New World crops in West Africa. Voyage iron was a superficially unremarkable producer good but it contributed to a profound reshaping of the economic geography of West Africa.
2017
Heinsen, Johan
Mutiny in the Danish Atlantic World: Convicts, Sailors and a Dissonant Empire Book
2017.
Abstract | Tags: atlanic, convict labour, denmark, scandinavia
@book{nokey,
title = {Mutiny in the Danish Atlantic World: Convicts, Sailors and a Dissonant Empire},
author = {Johan Heinsen},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
abstract = {A study of the conflict and resistance across the early modern Danish Atlantic world, explored through the lens of a singular event: The mutiny on the ship Havmanden which in early 1683 was taken over by a coalition of convicts and sailors in an act that was one part escape and one part piracy. The book pays special attention to the acts of storytelling and traditions of resistance that preceded and influenced the mutiny and its social world.
},
keywords = {atlanic, convict labour, denmark, scandinavia},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
A study of the conflict and resistance across the early modern Danish Atlantic world, explored through the lens of a singular event: The mutiny on the ship Havmanden which in early 1683 was taken over by a coalition of convicts and sailors in an act that was one part escape and one part piracy. The book pays special attention to the acts of storytelling and traditions of resistance that preceded and influenced the mutiny and its social world.
2016
Weber, Klaus; Steffen, Anka
Spinning and Weaving for the Slave Trade: Proto-industry in Eighteenth-Century Silesia Book Chapter
In: Brahm, Felix; Rosenhaft, Eve (Ed.): Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850, pp. 87-107, 2016.
Tags: atlanic, early modern history, germany, proto-industry, slavery, textile industry
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Spinning and Weaving for the Slave Trade: Proto-industry in Eighteenth-Century Silesia},
author = {Klaus Weber and Anka Steffen},
editor = {Felix Brahm and Eve Rosenhaft },
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
urldate = {2016-01-01},
booktitle = {Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850},
pages = {87-107},
keywords = {atlanic, early modern history, germany, proto-industry, slavery, textile industry},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
2015
Spicksley, Judith
Contested enslavement: the Portuguese in Angola and the problem of debt, c. 1600-1800 Journal Article
In: Itinerario , vol. 39, iss. 2, pp. 247-275, 2015.
Abstract | Tags: africa, angola, atlanic, debt, early modern history, slavery
@article{nokey,
title = {Contested enslavement: the Portuguese in Angola and the problem of debt, c. 1600-1800},
author = {Judith Spicksley},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-02},
urldate = {2015-01-02},
journal = {Itinerario },
volume = {39},
issue = {2},
pages = {247-275},
abstract = {This article explores the contested legitimacy of enslavement for debt in the context of the transatlantic slave trade.
},
keywords = {africa, angola, atlanic, debt, early modern history, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article explores the contested legitimacy of enslavement for debt in the context of the transatlantic slave trade.
Weber, Klaus
Mitteleuropa und der transatlantische Sklavenhandel: eine lange Geschichte [Central Europe and the trans-atlantic slave trade: a long (hi)story] Journal Article
In: WerkstattGeschichte, iss. 66-67, pp. 7-30, 2015.
Tags: atlanic, central and eastern europe, slavery
@article{nokey,
title = {Mitteleuropa und der transatlantische Sklavenhandel: eine lange Geschichte [Central Europe and the trans-atlantic slave trade: a long (hi)story]},
author = {Klaus Weber},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
urldate = {2015-01-01},
issuetitle = {Europas Sklaven [Europe's Slaves]},
journal = {WerkstattGeschichte},
issue = {66-67},
pages = {7-30},
keywords = {atlanic, central and eastern europe, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Weber, Klaus
Linen, Silver, Slaves, and Coffee: A Spatial Approach to Central Europe’s Entanglements with the Atlantic Economy Journal Article
In: Culture & History Digital Journal, vol. 4, iss. 2, 2015.
Abstract | Tags: atlanic, central and eastern europe, commodity chains, slavery, spatial history, textile industry
@article{nokey,
title = {Linen, Silver, Slaves, and Coffee: A Spatial Approach to Central Europe’s Entanglements with the Atlantic Economy},
author = {Klaus Weber},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
urldate = {2015-01-01},
journal = {Culture & History Digital Journal},
volume = {4},
issue = {2},
abstract = {In German scholarship of the post-war period, the category of space was regarded as discredited, because of its abuse during the Nazi period. This applies in particular to the 1970s and 80s, when novel approaches in social and economic history were developed. Research on proto-industrialisation, broadly examining its internal structures, did not take into account the export orientation of Central Europe’s early modern commodity production. At the same time, the expanding research on Europe’s Atlantic empires, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, did hardly take notice of the manufactures from the Holy Roman Empire, distributed all around the Atlantic basin. This paper examines those conditions favouring German proto-industries which are relevant for a ‘spatial approach’ to the phenomenon. It also covers the late medieval beginnings of this process, in order to demonstrate the continuity of Central Europe’s entanglement with the Atlantic world. The paper further emphasises that any future research using spatial categories must be aware of the ideological contamination of the German term ‘Raum’ during the 19th and 20th century. The interlace of economic and social history with historiography demands a compilation from current and older research literature, some of it on different regions and subjects.},
keywords = {atlanic, central and eastern europe, commodity chains, slavery, spatial history, textile industry},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In German scholarship of the post-war period, the category of space was regarded as discredited, because of its abuse during the Nazi period. This applies in particular to the 1970s and 80s, when novel approaches in social and economic history were developed. Research on proto-industrialisation, broadly examining its internal structures, did not take into account the export orientation of Central Europe’s early modern commodity production. At the same time, the expanding research on Europe’s Atlantic empires, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, did hardly take notice of the manufactures from the Holy Roman Empire, distributed all around the Atlantic basin. This paper examines those conditions favouring German proto-industries which are relevant for a ‘spatial approach’ to the phenomenon. It also covers the late medieval beginnings of this process, in order to demonstrate the continuity of Central Europe’s entanglement with the Atlantic world. The paper further emphasises that any future research using spatial categories must be aware of the ideological contamination of the German term ‘Raum’ during the 19th and 20th century. The interlace of economic and social history with historiography demands a compilation from current and older research literature, some of it on different regions and subjects.