The world's richest socioeconomic history collection is at your disposal, either online or in our well-equipped reading room overlooking the former harbour area in East Amsterdam. The Institute holds nearly 5,000 archives, more than 1,000,000 printed volumes and an equivalent number of audio-visual items including many posters.

Read about our paradigm-changing research program on the long-term development of global inequality and labour relations. Learn about our research staff, their projects and publications. In 2018 our research quality was rated world class/excellent by an international peer review committee from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Browse through thousands of our datasets with millions of records on demographics, inequality, prices, wages, national accounts, labour relations etc. The IISH is one of the worlds main data hubs on socioeconomic history.

Join our events and enlighten yourself with the latest developments in historical research on global inequality, labour relations, slavery, migration or other present day discussion topics within historical studies. Come and get acquainted with our world-renowned collection.