In dienst van de stad - Vrouwen in stedelijke ambten, Holland 1500-1800
Manon van der Heijden en Ariadne Schmidt
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Women’s work in public services in early modern towns in Holland
This article analyses the influence of professionalization and the broader process of bureaucratization on female labour participation in the public service sector in early modern towns in Holland. Contrary to what is suggested in literature, women could be found in a broad range of public offices and developments in the sector did not lead to the exclusion of women in the course of the early modern period. Women occupied mainly jobs in the lowest ranges of the sector and performed work which was barely affected by professionalization. The strong gender division of labour furthermore prevented the exclusion of women. Instead, specialization and diversification of tasks resulted in a broadening of work opportunities, not only for men, but for women as well.

De locatie van het Amsterdamse winkelbedrijf in de achttiende eeuw
Clé Lesger
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Patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century
In this paper location theory and Nelson’s distinction between general, arterial and special accessibility is used to map and analyze the patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century. In accordance with theory the main shopping streets were located in the city center, which was highly accessible to all residents and to consumers from the surrounding countryside and small cities. In the city center as well as along the main axes to markets and the city gates the retailing of shopping goods (textiles, consumer durables) was much more prominent than elsewhere in the city. In contrast, shops selling convenience goods (foodstuffs etc) were scattered all over the city. The correspondence of empirical data and location theory suggests that the urban government and institutions like guilds did not interfere with the location preferences of shopkeepers. An analysis of local acts and guild regulations corroborated this assumption. What did affect the location patterns of shops was history, or, to put it more precisely, the morphological and socio-economic structure of Amsterdam as it came about in the preceding centuries. This legacy of the past acted as an intermediary between general location principles and the implantation of shops in the urban landscape.

De hoofdelijke beschikbaarheid van voedsel en de levensstandaard in Nederland, 1807-1913
Merijn T. Knibbe
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The per capita availability of food and the standard of living in the Netherlands, 1807-1913
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the population of the Netherlands was reasonable well fed. Per capita availability of food, measured in calories, was quite high. Over 40 per cent of calories originated from animal sources, especially dairy. Up to about 1870, the amount of food as well as the share originating from animal sources deteriorated. Despite this decrease in volume, rising relative prices of food caused the share of food in the budget to increase. After about 1870, massive imports of grains from the New World caused a swift improvement in the diet. Within years, the consumption of calories surpassed the relatively high levels of the beginning of the century and availability of calories kept improving until 1895. Availability of protein increased less and stayed well below the levels of the beginning of the century. Until about 1850, harvest failures had limited influence on availability of food. In 1830, 1838, 1841 and 1846-1847 harvest failures were mitigated by massive increases in net imports of grains. When, in the fifties, harvest failures coincided with the Crimean War and imports became more expensive, availability of food (especially protein) reached the lowest level of the entire period. Up to about 1898, changes in the biological standard of living were closely related to changes in the availability of food. After 1898, the biological standard showed a sustained improvement independent of changes in food supply. This development still has to be explained.

Lichaamslengte en biologische levensstandaard van meisjes en jonge vrouwen in Nederland, 1815-1865
Hans de Beer
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Stature and biological standard of living of girls and young females in the Netherlands, 1815-1865
This is the first study in Dutch anthropometric historiography that describes and analyzes the development of the biological standard of living of girls and young women from the perspective of female adult stature. It is shown that adult stature of women, imprisoned in the second half of the nineteenth century and born between 1815 and 1865, slightly increased, approximately one cm. From 1850 onwards stature of women born in the cities notably increased. Development of female adult stature was compared to that of male stature; both were quite similar. No circumstantial evidence was found that girls or young women were on a disadvantage with respect to nutrition and (medical) care.

Modellen van onderzoek - De oprichting van TNO, 1920-1940
Arjan van Rooij
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Models of research: The establishment of TNO, 1920-1940
This article investigates the establishment of TNO (Applied Science in the Netherlands), a Dutch research organization intended to boost industrial development. The article opens an integrated perspective on research laboratories. The early history of TNO is typically understood as a story of government: particularly the ministry of Economic Affairs, which was responsible for industry policy, is supposed to have obstructed science. This article designs a typology of research laboratories that sheds new light on this story. In this perspective, the ministry did not play an obstructive role but preferred a different model of organizing research than TNO. TNO itself, moreover, consisted of diffuse models of research combining different characteristics.

De maakbaarheid van boer en gezin - Streekverbetering in Nederland 1956-1970
Erwin H. Karel
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Modelling the farmers family. A Dutch rural development program (1956-1970)
Modelling society is often seen as a ‘political and intellectual project of the enlightenment’. Since the end of the eighteenth century many governments tried to change parts of society into a more or less utopian community. Nowadays these ‘blueprint’ projects are rejected as theoretical failures. Were these projects only guided by a theory or was the influence during the practical realisation important too? This article describes the relation between a modernization theory, the political support for it and the actual realisation of a social-engineering program in the Dutch post war society. It turns out that the program is much more than the execution of just a theory.