Preliminary Programme

This study combines cross-sectional poor relief data collected in the context of the STREAM-project at parish-level in Flanders and Brabant (present-day Belgium) in 1786 and 1807 to analyse both spatial variation and temporal shifts in the geography of rural welfare in a time of regime change. By comparing levels of relief income and spending with demographic data and socio-economic proxies at local level, we aim to evaluate the relative importance of regional economies and local variation in producing spatially distinctive poor relief regimes. By combing data from the end of the ancien régime (1786) on the one hand, and the French period (1807) on the other hand, we will be able to establish the impact and (dis)continuity of French poor relief reforms on both overall levels of spending and geographies of welfare. (Show less)

This paper uses data collected in the context of the STREAM project on population composition and fiscal levies at the local level of villages and cities in the Duchy in Brabant on the basis of the 1702 nominal census. By combining data on land use, occupation and fiscal levies at household and village level, the study allows to explore spatial variations in economic structure and overall wealth between c. 400 local communities, as well as intra-community variations in fiscal inequality between local households. By systematically exploring connections between wealth and landholding and occupational structures at the local level for one of the core regions of the Southern Low Countries at the end of a period of military upheaval and economic malaise, the study will contribute to better insight into determinants of both spatial and household wealth inequality in early modern villages and cities. (Show less)

According to Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), population growth was counteracted throughout early modern times by the positive checks of war, hunger and disease. Although there is an extensive body of early modern research on the burden of famine and epidemics (Alfani and Murphy 2017; Alfani and O Grada 2017), evidence about warfare and its effects on population is scant. Traditionally, the demographic impact of warfare is accounted for by the collapse of nuptiality and fertility, and a massive rise of mortality during the war. Wartime mortality was not necessarily restricted to soldiers, but could also severely affect civilians (Gutmann 1980). Armies plundered, destroyed harvests, left villages ravaged and triggered the spread of diseases and epidemics. Still, as Outram (2002) has rightly argued, these explanations provide little scope for variations in the demographic impact of early modern warfare. In fact, according to Malthus, "Flanders, though so often the seat of the most destructive wars, has always, after the respite of a few years, appeared as rich and populous as ever”.
Flanders is extremely relevant for studying the spatial variations in wartime effects, as it was characterized by highly diversified regional economies (social agro-systems) defined by distinct soil typologies with differing agrarian structures and socio-demographic patterns (Thoen 2001). In a previous paper (Devos, Lambrecht and Winter 2019), marked regional differences were revealed between coastal Flanders with its high pressure demographic regime, commercial capital-intensive agriculture and unhealthy marshland ecology on the one hand, and inland Flanders characterized by a more low pressure demographic regime, small-scale farming and industrial linen manufacturing on the other hand. In this paper we go one step further by addressing the potential differential impact of warfare. We examine Flanders’ acclaimed resilience by examining the demographic impact of warfare across its territory between 1650 and 1800. Particular attention is paid to the demographic effects of the Nine Years’ War (1688-1697) and the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1797), both of which produced severe mortality crises (Devos and Van Rossem 2016). Using data from population listings and parish registers (births, marriages, sex and age-specific deaths) collected by the STREAM project together with its tailored geographical information system, we systematically investigate population developments for the parishes of early modern Flanders. By estimating the components of population growth (nuptiality, fertility, migration and mortality) in the different parishes, we analyse how they dealt with the burden of conflict and war. (Show less)

This paper presents the tools and data collected and realized in the context of the STREAM research infrastructure project (spatiotemporal research infrastructure for early modern Brabant and Flanders) hosted by the University of Ghent and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2015-2020). It presents the key datasets that have been collected in the context of the STREAM project and the main research tools that are being made available for ongoing and prospective research on the social, economic and demographic history of Brabant and Flanders in the early modern Southern Low Countries. Central attention goes to the presentation of the by early 2020 finished digital tool Ferraris light: a vectorized and digitized rendering of the Ferraris map of 1770-1778 for the County of Flanders and Duchy of Flanders, including full details on transport networks and infrastructure, housing and industrial sites, with functionalities equivalent to an early modern Google Maps. (Show less)