Preliminary Programme

The transition decades from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century were extremely uncertain because of the political and economic turmoil and changes. This was also the case for economic elites in the commercial cities of the Northern Netherlands who were confronted with processes of political change, industrialization and a reorientation of trading routes on the one hand and with warfare and trade barriers on the other hand. In this paper we want to compare the resilience of business elites in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the ways they reacted upon the turbulent changes. The different strategic choices they made (ranging for instance from redirection, diversification or specialisation to substitution or liquidation) are placed within the specific local setting in which they operated (locational advances, relations with authorities etc.).
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As in many other countries, political and economic turmoil characterized the French period in the Southern Netherlands. Economic elites were confronted with structural processes of political and economic change, but also with warfare and trade impediment which hindered normal trade transactions. While some businessmen tried to continue doing business as usual, others looked for new opportunities and ways to circumvent trade restrictions. This paper will shed light on the ways businessmen in the Southern Netherlands capitalized on the Napoleonic legislature prohibiting the import of British goods and used their international networks to evade trade impediments and develop a well-organised international contraband business. Thanks to the efforts of the ‘Commission de la fraude’, established as an extra-judicial commission in Paris in 1808 to investigate smuggling networks in the Southern Netherlands, we are able to reconstruct the fraud networks but also the ways in which they were organized and managed by the economic elites. (Show less)

In Belgium, industry was largely owned by a limited number of big holding companies, of which the Société Général de la Belgique was by far the largest. Together with some other of such companies linked with the banks, it controlled far over 50% of the industry in this highly industrialized country. In the Netherlands industrial companies were, apart from a limited number of big multinationals like Philips or Unilever, mostly family companies and even Philips was still largely controlled by the Philips family. After they occupied these countries the Germans were confronted in Belgium were confronted with a Committee led by the President of the Société Général Alexandre Galopin, which negotiated what production could go on to keep Belgium going and pay for the necessary imports, and what production should be terminated as it was prohibited for Belgians to help the enemy. In this country, where after 1918 some industrialist were shot because the cooperated too willingly with the enemy, most businessmen were quite aware of the fact that cooperation with the occupier could be dangerous. Nonetheless, after the war, the Galopin Committee was criticized that it had been too cooperative. (Show less)

For businesses each political or economic crisis offers challenges and opportunities. This paper will explore companies’ responses, and in particular to what extent they tackled challenges individually or together with their competitors and others involved in the value chain. I will focus on the Dutch beer industry, during three different periods: the French-Napoleonic period, the First World War and the Second World War. The brewing industry greatly depended on foreign imports, and therefore each war had an disruptive impact. In each period the political circumstances were quite different with regard to national autonomy, but the reaction of Dutch brewers showed consistency in their preference for tackling the war problems in close collaboration. In the associations the larger breweries often dominated, which raises the question whether the larger breweries had an advantage over smaller breweries in defending their position. In any case, in each war the upside potentials were far less than the downsides. This paper will be based on literature as well as the archives of Heineken breweries and the those of the association of Dutch brewers. (Show less)