Shopping spaces and the urban landscape in early modern Amsterdam, 1550-1850

Abstract

In this study, the appearance and location of shops in Amsterdam during the early modern period is linked to major changes in the urban economy, the size and socio-spatial distribution of its population, and the structure of the urban grid. Not only is there ample attention for the spatial distribution of shops across the urban landscape, but for the first time it is also accurately charted what the exterior and interior of Amsterdam shops actually looked like and how they changed in the course of the centuries. Partly as a result of this, it has proved possible to give an impression of the ways in which retailers and customers interacted.

Contents

Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Shops, markets and the urban landscape in sixteenth-century Amsterdam -- 2. Changing distribution systems : differentiation and specialization in early modern Amsterdam -- 3. Shop location patterns in the age of the great urban expansions -- 4. The retail landscape and the consumer in the seventeenth century -- 5. The location of shops in Amsterdam in the mid-eighteenth century -- 6. Stagnation and modernization in Amsterdam's retail sector, 1700-1850 -- Conclusio n: continuity and change in Amsterdam's retail landscape -- Appendix : sources for the location of shops in Amsterdam and selection of sectors.