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  • The Dutch timber trade between the 17th and 19th centuries has already been the subject of many historical studies. However, with the exception of Dietrich Ebeling’s fundamental study and a mere handful of other publications, the relationship between the development of the capital-intensive timber wholesale trade and its protagonists has escaped the focus of scholars of economic history. This is astonishing, as the raising of enormous sums of up to 600.000 Reichstaler were required for the Dutch timber trade; sums hardly invested in any other commercial enterprise in Germany at that time. Therefore, the focus of this article is the wholesale timber traders of the 18th century. It includes a detailed analysis, on the basis of own archival research and previous studies, of how the timber wholesalers organised their business (corporate strategies, business practices etc.) and what long-term significance their revenue possessed for the economic development of the participating economic regions of West and South-West Germany. It is thus demonstrated that by about 1750, German timber wholesalers and the Black Forest timber companies had long since ousted their Dutch competitors, acquiring large fortunes. The Dutch timber trade also saw the spreading of capitalist practices (establishment and management of corporations, book keeping, new methods of credit financing etc.), forming an important building block for the further development of the South-West and West German economy. Undoubtedly most important, however, was the emergence of a risk-loving entrepreneurial class with a sufficient capital base and business acumen, which had long since broken away from the “artisanal” notion of self-rafting. Timber wholesalers often also invested assets acquired in the Dutch timber trade in other branches, and these often formed a focal point for the industrialisation of West and South-West Germany after 1815. It can therefore be said that in the 18th century not only did the Dutch timber trade possess an enormous volume, supporting West German economic growth from 1740 onwards, but that it also made a long-term contribution to the structural changes in economy and society in the 19th century.

Last update from database: 31.10.24, 01:00 (UTC)

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