Nederlands Nieuw-Guinea en de late empire builders
Ulbe Bosma
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Netherlands New Guinea and the late empire builders
After the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in December 1949, Papua West New Guinea remained in Dutch hands. The Dutch government had decided not to hand over New Guinea in order to create the possibility of a Dutch settlers colony, which could become a new homeland for the European Creoles, most of whom were anxious to leave Indonesia after its independence. Years of bickering between Indonesia and the Netherlands followed, resulting in a complete breach of diplomatic relations. There is abundant literature available on the diplomatic aspects of the struggle over New Guinea. This article makes an attempt to explain part of the convoluted history of this last remnant of Dutch colonialism in Asia as an outcome of the tensions and contradictions of late colonial society. On the one hand New Guinea was a project of civil servants to create a colonial development project, on the other hand it was the subject of dreams about a Dutch settlers colony in Asia. This article proposes to consider Dutch New Guinea as an example of late imperialism, comparable to European settlement in East Africa, the Portuguese colonies and Belgian Congo.

Terugkeer van het patriarchaat? Vrije vrouwen in de Republiek
Manon van der Heijden, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk en Ariadne Schmidt
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A return to patriarchy? Independent women in the Dutch Republic
In this article, we aim to show that – in contrast to what some recent historical studies suppose – there was no ‘return to patriarchy’ in the early modern Northern Netherlands. Instead, the freedom and possibilities of Dutch women increased remarkably in the sixteenth through eigtheenth century, with regard to their position in marriage and marital law, their legal status in general, and their activities in the labour market and in the financial market. Although the Protestant values and church law may in theory have been less favourable to women, we argue that exactly the less restrictive legal practice was decisive in creating social and economic opportunities for women, who could profit from and contribute to Dutch early capitalist institutions.

De veerkracht van de zelfstandige ondernemer. Ondernemers en midden- en kleinbedrijf in Nederland, de Verenigde Staten en Groot-Brittannië vanaf 1950
Ferry de Goey, Jacques van Gerwen en Hugo van Driel
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The resilience of the self-employed. The self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises in the Netherlands, United States and Great Britain since 1950
Public opinion in western countries in the 1950s and 1960s favored large, vertically integrated enterprises. After the economic crisis of the 1970s, attitudes towards small business and self-employment changed noticeably. Since the 1980s, the share of self-employed increased, while the share of small business in the total number of businesses remained high: about 96 to 99 percent. Likewise the contribution of small business to employment is still substantial and growing. Despite gloomy predictions about their future, the self-employed thus showed a remarkable resilience in the period after 1950. Our explanation for this development is based on the product life cycle theory.

Een efficiënte pre-industriële kapitaalmarkt? Het vroeg zestiende-eeuwse ’s-Hertogenbosch als voorbeeld
Jord Hanus
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An efficient pre-industrial capital market? The case of early sixteenthcentury ’s-Hertogenbosch
This article presents an in-depth analysis of the annuity market of the early sixteenth-century city of ’s-Hertogenbosch and its surroundings in order to address the question of pre-industrial capital market efficiency. It is argued that this particular capital market was indeed relatively proficient in terms of operational, allocational and pricing efficiency: comparatively large sums were mobilised each year and the social profile of borrowers and lenders was divers. More importantly, the interest rates on annuities were largely indiscriminate to social weaker groups, suggesting the existence of a solid legal and administrative system capable of circumventing problems of asymmetric information which often cripple capital markets.