Global Labour Relations

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

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

The Zaan region can be regarded as the cradle of Dutch industry.  Timber and ships were produced here from an early stage, laying the foundation for Dutch colonial expansion and the transatlantic slave trade. In addition, numerous colonial goods were processed and further traded in the region.

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, European slave traders forcibly and violently shipped more than 12.5 million men, women and children from the coast of West Africa to North and South America. Who invested in this slave trade, in Europe and beyond? How did they influence European economy, politics and culture? 

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.

Explaining slavery in South and Southeast Asia, 1600-1800

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

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

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

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.

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