Presentation at the 2018 World Economic History Congress

Today we presented the paper ‘Maritime careers in the Dutch Republic: some preliminary findings’ at the 2018 World Economic History Congress (WEHC) in Boston MA. It was great to show our findings to an international audience at the session ‘Factor Costs in the Expansion of Pre-Modern Ocean Shipping: Labor, Capital, and Knowledge Transfer, 1300-1700’, organized by Maryanne Kowaleski (Fordham University).

Good career opportunities for migrant sailors

Based on quantitative analysis of our Dutch East India Company’s sailors’ careers database, we argued that the tightening native labor supply in the 18th-century Dutch Republic necessitated an influx of skilled migrant workers, and that these migrant workers were given equal opportunities compared to natives. Indeed, as shown by the graph on slide 16 (see presentation below), from the mid-18th-century, migrant workers gained (proportionally) more promotions to an officer’s rank than their Dutch counterparts.

Here are the slides we showed at the conference. Unfortunately, the animated map images on slides 6 – 8 have been rendered static when converted to SlideShare; the proper, dynamic images can be found in this blog post.