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Global Labour Relations

We study all types of work and labour relations. How are they interrelated, how can we explain the changes in labour relations and what are the effects of these changes on workers, their position and social inequality?

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Detail of painting slave trade

The Global Business of Slave Trade

Patterns, Actors and Gains in the Early Modern Dutch and Iberian Slave Trade

Global business slave trade
:A page from one of the ledgers of the Amsterdam Assurantie Compagnie of 1771, in which Dutch merchant Nicolaas Jan van Baggen takes out insurance on the lives of enslaved people.

Slavery insured

A study into the Amsterdam Assurantie Compagnie 1771 and its involvement in slavery, 1771-1873

Slavery Insured
Affiche arbeidsinspectie

History of the Netherlands Labour Authority, 1890-2025

The Netherlands Labour Authority was founded in 1890  to  ensure that conditions in the workplace remained safe and humane. 

Labour Authority
GSHF

Global Slavery History Fellowships

A coalition of Amsterdam based Archives, Museums and Historical institutes with the generous support of the Insinger Foundation has taken the initiative for a five-year programme that offers two-month long fellowships per year for curators, archivists and historians in the field of slavery history.

Global Slavery History Fellowships
IISH Data | Dataverse | History of Labour Relations Dataverse

Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations

Collab
IISH Data | History of work | Photo by IISH

History of Work HISCO

HISCO
Hollandse koopman met slaven in heuvellandschap, anoniem, 1700 - 1725

Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (ESTA)

ESTA

Completed Projects

Albert Cuyp

Between local debts and global markets

Explaining slavery in South and Southeast Asia, 1600-1800

Local debts global markets
De Werf van de Zeeuwse Admirailteit (1776) - source: Rijksmuseum

Naval Shipyards: Laboratories of Capitalism

Naval shipyards in the Atlantic World as centers of innovation in production, administration and labor control (1720-1870)

Naval shipyards
Staat en slavernij cover

Staat en Slavernij

State and Slavery details how the Dutch state and its predecessors were involved in colonial slavery.

Staat en Slavernij
Slaafgemaakte mannen werken op het land, anoniem, ca. 1850

Slaves, commodities, logistics

How important was Atlantic slavery for the Dutch economy in the eighteenth century? 

Slaves, commodities, logistics
Gezicht op de koffieplantage Leeverpoel in Suriname, anoniem, ca. 1700 - ca. 1800, Collectie Rijksmuseum

The slavery history of historical predecessors of ABN AMRO.

An investigation into Hope & Co. and R. Mees & Zoonen. It is the result of historical research commissioned by ABN AMRO and conducted by the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam.

 

ABN AMRO