Jessica Dijkman

• Utrecht University
  E-mail: jessica.dijkman@let.uu.nl

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• PhD Project
  • The development and organisation of commodity markets in late medieval Holland
    In the late Middle Ages Holland developed from a peripheral, mainly agrarian region to a highly urbanized country with a flourishing trade. This implies that between the early 13th and the late 15th century the network of commodity markets experienced a series of important changes. The project wants to bring these changes, their origins and their contribution to the economic development of Holland to light. The project departs from a neo-institutional approach: the notion that market performance is determined by institutions (rules, customs and mechanisms to enforce their compliance), which in turn are closely related to groups of people, their interests and their position in society. Can we find support for the hypothesis that in late medieval Holland a relatively efficient system of institutions developed which exerted a favourable influence on the functioning of commodity markets? The research will pay attention to institutions themselves, but also to the interests and convictions of individuals and groups in society that shaped them: the ruler, urban elites, local lords and rural communities. It will also include a quantitative test of market performance. The research is part of the larger project 'Power, markets and economic development: rise, organisation and institutional framework of markets in Holland, 11th to 16th centuries'. This project also includes research on the development and organisation of the markets for land, capital and labour.
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• Selected Publications
  • 'Medieval fairs in Holland'. Presentation at the ESG-seminar, UU (April 10, 2005).
  • 'Dordrecht and its neighbours. A survey of the origins and effects of the 14th-century Dordrecht staple market'. Presentation at Posthumus masterclass (November 25, 2005).
  • 'Markets and power; medieval market institutions in charters of urban liberties in Holland, c. 1200 - c. 1350'. Presentation at the Second Flemish-Dutch Conference on the Economic History of the Low Countries before 1850, April 20-21, 2006, Antwerp, and at the NEHA studiedag 'Macht, markt en economische ontwikkeling', June 16, 2006, Amsterdam.
  • 'Dorpswagen in noordelijk Holland, ca. 1400'. Presentation at the AIO-conference, Posthumus institute, May 12, 2006, Amsterdam.
  • 'Village scales and beach markets. The rise of rural trade venues in medieval Holland, c. 1350 - c. 1440'. Presentation at the Centre for English Local History, May 3, 2007, Leicester (UK).
  • 'Debt litigation in Holland, c. 1200 - c. 1350'. Presentation at the GEHN-conference 'Law and Economic Development', September 20-22, 2007, Utrecht.