Davids, Karel, The Rise and Decline of Dutch
by 1800. To make sense of his endeavour, it helps
Technological Leadership: Technology,
to begin by reviewing definitions. Davids defines
Economy and Culture in the Netherlands,
technology in terms of the ‘abilities of people to
1350-1800 ((History of Science and Medicine
control or transform nature for productive ends’,
Library 7, Knowledge Infrastructure and
which leads him to focus on subjects that range
Knowledge Economy 1; Leiden, Boston: Brill,
from ‘agrarian practices and seafaring skills to
2008, 2 volumes, xx, ix + 633 blz., isbn 978 90
industrial processes and building techniques’. This
04 16865 7).
is a precise definition that some might find too
narrow, passing over, for example, as it does ‘skills
that relate to the manipulation of money or people
up everywhere like mushrooms in a damp forest.
(such as financial techniques, military tactics or
A major push behind this development is the view
the practice of administration)’. Given Davids’
that the stimulation and governance of innovation
interest in economy and culture, as signalled by
is a key to achieving technological leadership
his title, one might expect attention to areas such
and economic growth on a national or regional
as these in which they and technology so clearly
scale. But are the policy makers and university
interpenetrate. But all should be grateful for the
administrators behind this trend right to forefront
richly detailed history he does provide, which
innovation as a way to attain leadership and
will surely make this work a standard resource for
‘grow the economy’? Maverick historians such as
people interested in the history of technology in
David Edgerton have offered counter-evidence
the Netherlands during this extended period.
by drawing our attention to the fact that most of
what ought to be called the history of technology,
is likewise precise, taken ‘to mean that a given
but also its present and future, has much less
country, region, town or cluster of towns plays an
to do with technological innovation and much
initiating role in the new technologies in a wide
more to do with using and maintaining extant
variety of fields’. Historians will appreciate that he
technology. One consequence is that the current
examines the history of this phenomenon both by
stress on the emerging, highly competitive, realms
considering his own findings and what historical
of nano-technology and bio-engineering needs
actors wrote on the subject. His attention to the
at least to be augmented by attention to less sexy
eye-witness accounts by travellers is especially
but certainly more widely employed (especially
welcome along these lines as they help to bring
in developing economies) technologies whose
extra historical depth to his analysis and life to
manufacture, modification and maintenance
his prose. Leadership is clearly tied to innovation
continue to offer opportunities for employment
for Davids (one could imagine other definitions,
and economic growth. In the two volumes of
it must be said), which leads him to investigate
his impressively encyclopaedic study The Rise
the flow of knowledge both into and out of the
and Decline of Dutch Technological Leadership:
Northern Netherlands as an important contributor
Technology, Economy and Culture in the Netherlands,
to technological leadership. Recognizing that
1350-1800, Karel Davids also examines the links
technological knowledge is sometimes embodied
between technological innovation and economic
in skilled individuals (he also looks at the flow and
growth with interesting results. Along the way,
collection of texts, models, etc.), Davids includes
he offers a tour de force overview of the history
an analysis of key migration patterns. In answer
of technology in the Northern Netherlands as he
to traditional claims that the Dutch benefited
traces its rise to ‘technological leadership’ and
especially during the seventeenth century from
subsequent decline and eclipse by Great Britain
immigrants fleeing French and Spanish Catholicism
Davids’ definition of technological leadership
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Innovation Studies Programs seem to be cropping
recensies
(Huguenots, along with Flemish and Sephardic
does it mean ultimately to talk about ‘Dutch’
refugees), he shows both that significant levels of
technological leadership or ‘British’ industrial
technological knowledge entered the Northern
superiority, when both rest so firmly on the global
Netherlands between the mid-fourteenth century
circulation of knowledge, skill, travellers, goods
and 1580 – thus prior to the influx of these
and trade? (See, for example, Christine MacLeod,
immigrants – and that this post 1580 immigration
‘The European Origins of British Technological
wave actually coincided with a century that saw a
Predominance’, in: L.P. de la Escosura (ed.),
decline in the import of knowledge and a rise in its
Exceptionalism and Industrialism: Britain and its
export.
European Rivals 1688-1815 (Cambridge 2004) 111-126;
Maxine Berg, ‘In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History
More fundamentally, though, Davids wields
his evidence to weaken another popularly held
and British Consumer Goods in the Eighteenth
view. Against those who insist on coupling
Century’, Past and Present 182 (2004) 85-142.) One
technological innovation with economic growth,
hopes that studies like this one by Karel Davids
he demonstrates that Dutch leadership followed
can help sensitive readers find a salutary balance
a somewhat different pattern than that of its
between the search for local uniqueness and global
economic development. For it was while the Dutch
interconnexions.
economy was beginning its relative decline during
the late seventeenth century that the Northern
said about the poor editing job done by Brill Press
Netherlands established itself as a technological
on a serious study for which they are charging
leader. Only in the late eighteenth century did the
€ 149. Surely the publishers could have hired a
Dutch really begin to give way to the English, while
copy editor to review a manuscript written by
concerns with Dutch technological prowess were
a scholar who, after all, was not writing in his
still being voiced by well informed Europeans such
primary language. The text abounds with awkward
as Jean-Antoine Chaptal in the early nineteenth
sentences, typographic and spelling errors, poor
century. This leaves open, then, the question of
punctuation and the like. The author, who has done
how to account for what Davids paints as (the
a commendable job of marshalling a huge amount
Northern Netherlands’) technological leadership
of empirical evidence and clearly explicating (in
and decline. Here he sides with those such as
principle) numerous theoretical positions related
Joel Mokyr who call on us to buttress analyses
to the topics of technological leadership and
of market forces with increased consideration of
economic growth, should not be blamed for this
cultural and institutional factors. How pluriform
situation; it is the publisher’s job to see to it that an
is the ambient political system, for example? Do
author’s hard work is not marred by such things.
socio-cultural organisations and mechanisms exist
As the co-editor of the series in which this study
to encourage the collection, demonstration and
appears, Davids will certainly have much to say to
discussion of knowledge?
Brill about their current practices.
Finally a less pleasurable word needs to be
These two volumes have much to teach us
about the intricacies of technological development
lissa roberts,
and the crowded roads and waterways along
university of twente
which knowledge and opportunities – embodied
likewise in people, texts, tools and commodities
– travelled to, through and from the Northern
Netherlands. Indeed the heaviness of this traffic
might give us pause before we launch further into
tales of national advance and superiority. What
Janssen, Jette, De deugd van broederschap.
omdat sommige gilden heel goed voor hun archief
Sociaal kapitaal van gildebroeders in de
gezorgd hebben, maar andere daarentegen bijna
Noord-Brabantse schuttersgilden, 1600-2000
alles hebben weggegooid. De uitslag bevestigt
(Dissertatie Tilburg 2009, Bijdragen tot de
grotendeels het beeld wat kenners al hadden:
geschiedenis van het Zuiden van Nederland.
verreweg de meeste leden kwamen uit de plaats
Derde reeks 36; Tilburg: Stichting Zuidelijk
waar het gilde gevestigd was of uit de directe
Historisch Contact, 2009, 330 blz., isbn 978 90
omgeving. Alle leden waren katholiek of gaven
70641 88 7).
voor dat te zijn. Zoons volgden hun vader op,
maar wel meestal nadat deze was overleden, of
Noord-Brabant kent heden ten dage 200
meldden zich als lid aan op aanraden van broers
actieve schuttersgilden die met kleurrijke
of schoonvaders. Overigens waren de gilden geen
kledij, vendelzwaaien en op buitenstaanders
besloten clubs en het aandeel van uitheemse leden
indruk makende tradities een levend en vaak
wisselde in de loop der tijd sterk.
gefotografeerd element in de samenleving
zijn. Over de geschiedenis van deze gilden,
gediscussieerd, maar wel is duidelijk dat de oudste
die wel onderscheiden moeten worden van
schuttersgilden ontstonden in de steden en
ambachtsgilden en religieuze broederschappen, is
dat het platteland vanaf de late middeleeuwen
sinds 1933 veel gepubliceerd. Vermeldenswaardig is
volgde. De meeste gilden in Noord-Brabant zijn
het in 1993 verschenen boek van E. van Autenboer
na 1550 opgericht. De kern van het takenpakket
over de gilden in het hele vroegere hertogdom
bestond uit verdediging van het eigen dorp
Brabant tussen 1300 en 1800. Het proefschrift van
tegen van buiten komend gevaar, bewaking en
Jette Janssen (promotoren waren de Tilburgse
beveiliging, socialisatie, en deelname aan religieuze
hoogleraren A.J. Bijsterveld, P. Nissen en W.
plechtigheden zoals processies, uitvaarten en
Arts) is niet bedoeld als dé geschiedenis van de
bruiloften. Zeer onderscheidend was het schieten
schuttersgilden, maar zoomt in op de geschiedenis
met voet- of kruisboog of geweer op de vogel.
van de leden, de broeders. Centraal staan de
Wie de vogel eraf schoot werd koning, wie dat
vragen: wie waren zij, waarom werden zij lid en
driemaal achtereen voor elkaar kreeg keizer. Of
hoe beleefden en realiseerden ze het lidmaatschap
de gilden als defensieorganisaties werkelijk iets
met als essentiële elementen verwantschap,
betekend hebben is nog maar de vraag. De meeste
broederschap, traditie, eer en prestige. Het
gilden waren te klein om een heel dorp afdoende
onderzoek nam bijna negen jaar (2000-2009) in
te kunnen beveiligen. Toch organiseerden veel
beslag.
dorpen in dit door oorlogen geteisterde gebied
een nachtwacht bestaande uit volwassen mannen
Over de oorsprong van de gilden is veel
van Janssens onderzoek is een prosopografie
die gewapend met een roer of ander schiettuig
van een dubbel gestratificeerde steekproef
’s nachts de ronde maakten. Toen noordelijk
uit de leden. De eerste selectie bestond uit 18
Brabant na 1648 voorgoed deel ging uitmaken van
gilden verspreid over de hele provincie, zowel
de Republiek leek het er even op dat de Staten-
stedelijke als plattelandsgilden. Van hen konden
Generaal onder druk van de gereformeerde kerk
voor de periode 1600-2000 in totaal 9.118 leden
de gilden wilden verbieden, maar na 1678 ontstond
worden opgespoord. Daaruit werd een aselecte
er in Staats-Brabant een klimaat van leven en laten
steekproef van 578 leden getrokken. Voor deze
leven. De gilden werden niet langer gehinderd en
groep werden zo veel mogelijk gegevens over
enkele malen gaven de Staten-Generaal en de prins
familierelaties, beroep, functies, geboorte- en
van Oranje, die in dit gebied zeer veel bezittingen
woonplaats verzameld. Dit was niet zo eenvoudig
had, zelfs nieuwe caerten uit.
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Een belangrijk en zeer bewerkelijk onderdeel
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