Politics and commerce: a close marriage? The case of the Ostend Company (1722-1731)
In: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis = The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History. Aksant: Amsterdam. ISSN 1572-1701, more Related to:Baguet, J. (2013). De Oostendse Compagnie, haar directeurs en de Oostenrijkse bewindvoerders: Een casuïstische analyse van hun onderlinge interactie (1722-1731). MA Thesis. Universiteit Gent: Gent. 150 pp., more |   |
| Keywords | Economische geschiedenis > Handel en diensten > Overzeese handel
Institutionele en Politieke Geschiedenis > Internationale aangelegenheden
Oostende
Oostenrijkse Tijd (1713-1789)
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| Abstract | In this article, I explore the way in which the various political elites of the Southern Low Countries were interwoven with the Imperial Ostend Company (1722-1731). By looking at the company’s shareholder registers and correspondence, as well as by reconstructing various informal networks, I will argue that different types of interaction developed between the Ostend Company and the political establishment. The nature of these relations shaped the political elites’ policy vis-à-vis the Ostend Company. The urban political elites of Ostend and Antwerp held close social, financial and political connections with the Ostend Company, causing them to grant various privileges to the enterprise.However, the entanglement with the local nobility and the officials of the imperial administration was rather weak to sustain the Ostend Company’s long-term development. As such, this contribution sheds new light on the dynamics that underpinned the relations between power and capital. |
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