Proposed session: Partners in Business. Husbands and wives working together.

Part I: Married couples working together in commerce, 1500-1800
Part II: The division of labour between spouses in industry, 1500-1800

Networks: Economics and Labour

Organizers: Danielle van den Heuvel (IISH) and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (IISH)

In these two sessions the cooperation of spouses in business is the central theme. The activities of women within the family business often remain hidden, but it is usually assumed that the contribution of wives was indispensable for the husband's business or craft. Evidence for this assumption is however scarce and fragmented. A frequently used, but debatable, argument is the relative ease with which widows were able to continue their deceased husbands' trade. With this session we aim to bring together international scholars in order to gain new and broader insights in the economic functioning of early modern families. We hope to find out what activities husbands and wives actually performed, whether or not patterns existed in the allocation of tasks, and how much both spouses contributed to the family income. This will not only tell us about the micro-economic functioning of households, it can also shed light on the added value of married women's labour on a macro-economic level.

The session consists of two parts; one focuses on commerce and one focuses on industry. In the end we hope to come to a comparison both internationally and according to sector. As the registration deadline for the ESSHC 2006 is 1 May 2005, we invite scholars to submit a paper-proposal of maximum 500 words as soon as possible.

For Part I, Commerce, contact: Danielle van den Heuvel, (e mail: dhe@iisg.nl )
For Part II, Industry, contact: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, (e mail address provided below)