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Wed 12 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
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Thu 13 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
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Sat 15 April
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Thursday 13 April 2023 16.30 - 18.30
P-8 MAT05 The Old German Empire in 18th Century Global Trade
E44
Network: Material and Consumer Culture Chair: Ilja Van Damme
Organizer: Christine Fertig Discussants: -
Christine Fertig : Exotic Substances in Northwest Germany. Trade and Knowledge Production in the 18th Century
One of the consequences of European expansion was a growing trade in new luxury and consumer goods. In addition to goods such as coffee, cotton or porcelain, a whole range of exotic substances arrived in Europe, which were perceived either as new remedies or as strange spices. During the long ... (Show more)
One of the consequences of European expansion was a growing trade in new luxury and consumer goods. In addition to goods such as coffee, cotton or porcelain, a whole range of exotic substances arrived in Europe, which were perceived either as new remedies or as strange spices. During the long 18th century, a body of commercial knowledge about these substances developed in the German-speaking world that was indispensable for trading, evaluating and marketing these exotica. At the same time, merchants in Germany could hardly fall back on direct contacts in the regions of origin, as they were essentially dependent on imports from the Atlantic trading centres. The production of knowledge took place in specialised publications such as handbooks, practical books, but also encyclopaedias and dictionaries, which were also aimed at the general public. The paper elaborates the development and systematisation of this knowledge on the basis of digitised source collections. (Show less)

Felicia Gottmann : “Prussians” Trading to the East Indies in the 1750s
This paper explores the various networks of Dutch, British, Flemish, Frisian, Prussian and other Germanophone merchants involved in the short-lived Prussian Asiatic Companies trading to China and Bengal in the 1750s that operated out of the Prussian port of Emden located on what is now the German-Dutch border. Carefully ... (Show more)
This paper explores the various networks of Dutch, British, Flemish, Frisian, Prussian and other Germanophone merchants involved in the short-lived Prussian Asiatic Companies trading to China and Bengal in the 1750s that operated out of the Prussian port of Emden located on what is now the German-Dutch border. Carefully tracing their activities across local and national archives in Britain, Germany, Belgium, the US, and the Netherlands, this paper analyses the mobility of these merchants across national and monopoly-company boundaries. The resulting picture strengthens the case of recent scholarship that challenges the persistent image of chartered monopoly companies – and by extension European commercial and imperial expansion – as purely national enterprises, and instead demonstrates not only the pan-European nature of ‘national’ imperial and commercial projects, but particularly the central role of German actors within these. However, it also demonstrates that the pervasive assumption that ‘merchants have no country’ did not hold either. Instead, a close study of the networks that intersected in the 1750s Emden Companies’ operations in Europe, India, and Canton in China reveals the complex interplay between commercial interests and identity politics. (Show less)

Magnus Ressel : A Colonial History of Provincial Germany from Below: a Value Chain Analysis of Colonial Products from Bordeaux into Central Europe
One of the foremost colonial entrepreneurs of the Old Empire was Frederik Romberg (1729-1819), whose impressive career in Brussels from 1755 to his death seems emblematic of the potential of this political entity within the colonial trades. Via an analysis of Romberg’s dealings in colonial products with German, Swiss and ... (Show more)
One of the foremost colonial entrepreneurs of the Old Empire was Frederik Romberg (1729-1819), whose impressive career in Brussels from 1755 to his death seems emblematic of the potential of this political entity within the colonial trades. Via an analysis of Romberg’s dealings in colonial products with German, Swiss and Italian business partners, I intend to delineate the day-to-day practices, potentials and problems of a distribution of such products onto the continent. The picture that emerges is one of a surprisingly “latent” day-to-day business despite the substantial values of the products being handled. From the correspondences, it even seems as if the high values of the transactions “disciplined” business partners to be especially precise and attentive in these dealings, which in turn eased the distribution of such products into European markets. (Show less)

Jutta Wimmler : Berlin goes Global: Insights from the Dyestuffs Trade, c. 1720-1760
Few would associate the famous rise of Brandenburg-Prussia’s army in the eighteenth century with the kingdom’s access to the global dyestuffs market. But: google what a typical Prussian uniform looked like at the time and ask yourself: how did it receive its bright and durable colors? This is not a ... (Show more)
Few would associate the famous rise of Brandenburg-Prussia’s army in the eighteenth century with the kingdom’s access to the global dyestuffs market. But: google what a typical Prussian uniform looked like at the time and ask yourself: how did it receive its bright and durable colors? This is not a minor question. Standardized and very colorful uniforms had only recently appeared on the European scene – they allowed soldiers to immediately distinguish friend from foe, encouraged a feeling of belonging, and at the same time marked status through slight variations in style and quality. To produce these colorful textiles, artisans not only needed to possess specialized knowledge of dyeing techniques – they also needed large amounts of materials, especially dyestuffs, that could not be produced on Prussian territory. Indeed, many of them originated overseas – especially in the Americas. This presentation explores how the state sought to increase Berlin’s access to such materials through fiscal reforms and infrastructure projects and confronts these attempts with a concrete case study: The Königliches Lagerhaus Berlin, one of Prussia’s largest textile manufacturers that also produced uniforms for the army. (Show less)



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