Summary
history of migration: a complete summary of the lectures
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this is a summary of all the lessons in Prof. Lambert's year.
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History of migrationPart 2: Centres of a globalising economy in late medieval Bruges & 16th century
Antwerp
1. Historical context Bruges
The reason that Bruges comes so important economically has a lot to do with macro-
economic development to all of Europe.
Before the end of the 13th century there are long distance trades that happens over land. The
merchants travel with their goods over land. But at the end of the 13th century there will be a
change.
A disruption of those overland trade routes. Because for a number of reasons. Ex.
There is an international warfare between England and France. So travelling
overland with all your goods would be a risk. There is also less protection by
government over those trade routes.
The focus of trade is moving from land routes and meeting points to Bruges.
Because Bruges is ideally situated and perfectly accessible for the majority of
traders in Europe. It is situated between the northern Europe were Baltic trading
towns are important but also near to England and the Mediterranean important
cities like Venice etc. Then Bruges was still a seaport and was directly connected
to the sea.
At the end of 15th century this will end because of a combination of political, instability and
environmental problems. the water ways will silted up and ship cant enter Bruges
anymore. Bruges will lose the role they had in the 14th and 15th centuries and Antwerp will
take it over in the 16th century.
1. Historical context Antwerp
Antwerp had also a good accessibility and was situated at the river Scheldt. The difference
was that it remains accessible in comparing with Bruges and Antwerp was stable. They
weren’t included in the revolts with the prince.
From the second half of the 16th century there will be more problems.
An increasing impact of the religious warfare between the Catholics and
protestants. Antwerp lays near at the frontline of that religious warfare. The
Spanish princes will rule the southern low countries and the protestant forces will
retreat to the northern countries.
o The consequence is that many of those merchants were happy but will
stop because the warfare is devastating for their business.
1585: It is the year that we associate the fall of Antwerp with. The Catholics conquered
Antwerp. All the protestant including many of those merchants move to Amsterdam and
Amsterdam will take over the role from Bruges and Antwerp. Until Londen takes the ruling
place.
,1. Migration circuit merchants
Migration circuit = is a context in which people move to a certain place with specific push
and pull factors and a specific social group. In that certain place you can have various groups
of migration.
There are no consistent recording of numbers for this period.
Because merchants were privileged that’s why the authorities didn’t recorded
their presence in the same way as they do for other immigrants.
Bruges 1440
There is a number of festivities of procession in Bruges when de new prince visits
the city. It is so that in a procession everyone takes a part of it also the
merchants. So there are descriptions were they tell how many merchants were at
those festivities.
In a procession of 1440
o There are 136 merchants from German Hansa
German hansa = a trade alliance of cities and towns that are
located in the north of German. They manly deal in bulk goods ex.
Beeswax and fur. They have a monopoly position in those goods.
o Merchants from Italian cities. They are more divided. The Italians are
important because they trade in more high value goods from Asia because
they are a bridge between Europa and Asia. Ex. Silk and precious stones.
They also supply financial services like money transfers etc.
40 Milanese, 40 Venetians, 38 Genoese, 22 Florentines and 12
Lucchese
o Merchants from the Iberian peninsula
40 Castilians and an unspecified number of Catalans and
Portuguese.
o There were not mentioned but there are a certain amount of Scots for the
wool because it was for the Flemish cloth industries and a few French and
English merchants.
Remarkable is that the merchants are a group that is very well wealthy and very
important but it is in fact a small group of the total population of Bruges
Antwerp 1500-1520
In Antwerp there will be more merchants and different groups then in Bruges because it is a
century later.
o 1227 Germans but more from the Southern part
o 261 Italians
o 247 French
o 216 English
o 171 Castilians
o 72 Portuguese
Numbers are higher here because Antwerp was larger then Bruges but still the
merchants where high profile individuals and weren’t with that much in the
community?
,1. Types of migration
Most of the immigrants are temporary migration. These people will leave again.
Ex. Seasonal migration = the immigrants are there for a part of a year but not the
whole year. Most of the time the merchants come for the trading season and
trading season is in spring, summer and the beginning of fall. Why?
o It is a sea trade and in the winter the cities are difficult to enter because of
the formation of ice. so in winter limited commercial activity.
Many of the merchants stays at inn’s or hostels were they can do there commercial business
because they can rent their offices there.
There are merchant companies but they aren’t just based in Bruges. The companies have a
whole network over Europe.
Career migration = move to a certain place for your career
o Ex. Tommaso Portinari works for the Medici company. He starts his career
with them and works himself up and was placed as a manager in Bruges
for the Medici.
The merchants are exclusively men as specially young single men. They start at 14 years for a
career. First as a arrand boy and then they are promoted to factor it is a sort of assistant.
The pull factors from the place of destination are really strong because they can make a
career there.
Migration information is the knowledge that you have of the place of destination that can
help for settling there.
The merchant companies will have merchant manuals for their members. It is not
only technical information but also where you can sleep or how to meet women.
It makes the social life at the place of destination a bit easier.
1. Longer term integration
There are a few who married local Flemish women and will stay permanently at their
destination. specific for certain groups. Ex. Italians from Genoa are more likely to integrate
and marry local women then other Italians.
Ex. Adornes family in Bruges. Even became important politically locally and left
their marks on the city: Jerusalem church in Bruges.
The economic situation in their hometown is important. Because if the local government
can’t support these merchants if there are abroad then they need to do it all by themselves
Genoa trade
the venetian trade they have a very strong state. So the trade abroad is completely organised
by the state. They built the merchants ships etc. In the city of destination like Bruges or
Antwerp they have agencies. The agencies that do the business so they don’t need to be
there all the time. the reason why they don’t stay in long term.
, Venetian trade
1. Attitudes of local authorities an population.
There is a very favourable attitude from to locals to the merchants because of very strong
bargaining position. They bring something to Bruges that they don’t have.
Treated very respectfully. The local government had a lot of power but every
decision that they make was “ in the interest of the good course of trade”. There
was an awareness that the local trade in the city was good.
The merchants get a kind of privileges they were agreements about rights and
responsibilities.
Ex. Paying less taxes if they come to the city.
The rights to organise themselves in groups.
o Nations = are groups with merchants that come from the same place. They
can build their own nation house where they can meet and stock their
goods. They even had chapels in city churches for religious services separ-
ated from the local ones.
Other groups needed to be recorded but with the merchants there wasn’t need for registra-
tion.
There were only a few traces of popular hostility.
1. Migration circuit craftspeople
Not people who trade products but who make them ex. gold smiths
Their presence was recorded more consistently and that has to do with how these European
cities function.
Most of the cities originate as communities of people that lives together and
those communities at one point self-governance. They are allowed to organise
themselves. Ex. They can make laws and degrees by themselves.
There is a kind of membership for these communities and they are compared with
a few rules to become a member of the community of the city.
o You need to have citizenship because of that you can live permanently in
the city and engage in all occupations that there are in the city.
o Most of the time the occupations are organised by the guilds.
Guilds = professional organizations of people involved in the same
profession. They organise economic life in the cities.
o If you are a member of the community and have citizenship then you can
be judged only by court of the city political rights. With citizenship you
have also political rights and can take part in the elections.
How do you get that citizenship of a city?
If you are born in a city then you have automatically a citizenship.
Marry a local women and after a few years you will become a citizen.
You can purchase citizenship.
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