Sedert die stigting van Stellenbosch en sy distrik in 1679, het slawerny 'n integrale rol in die ekonomiese en sosiale ontwikkeling van die gemeenskap gespeel. Op 1 Desember 1834 is hierdie stelsel, soos in die res van die Britse koloniale ryk, afgeskaf. Die afskaffing van slawerny het egter geen onmiddellike gelykstelling met die middelklas beteken nie - die gewese slawe moes tot 1 Desember 1838 steeds as 'ingeboekte vakleerlinge' (apprentices) in die diens van hul voormalige eienaars bly. Gedurende die vier jaar het daar min opleiding plaasgevind wat hulle werklik vir arbeid in die ope mark sou bekwaam. Ook na Desember 1838 het die Britse owerheid sy plig versaak om op daadwerklike wyse by te dra tot die opheffing en verbetering van die nagenoeg 36 000 individue se lewensomstandighede. Hierdie taak is deur verskillende sendinggenootskappe met beperkte finansiele bronne, verrig. Enkele slawe het wel die voorreg gehad om in daardie tyd skoolopleiding te ontvang. Dit was egter nie onderwys en geletterdheid wat aanvanklik tot ekonomiese vooruitgang gelei het nie, maar eerder die beoefening van ambagte soos messelary, smidswerk en wamakery.In Amsterdam tot Zeeland word die unieke genealogiese afkoms van die Stellenbosse slawe en die oorsprong van die bruin gemeenskap bestudeer. Die menings hierin opgeneem word gerugsteun deur die verwerking van oorspronklike dokumente uit die Kaapse Argief wat op die ingeslote kompakskyf gelees kan word.

Most scholars agree that during the sixteenth century, the centre of European international trade shifted from Antwerp to Amsterdam, presaging the economic rise of the Dutch Republic in the following century. Traditionally this shift has been accepted as the natural consequence of a dynamic and progressive city, such as Amsterdam, taking advantage of expanding commercial opportunities at the expense of a more conservative rival hampered by outmoded medieval practices. Yet, whilst this theory is widely accepted, is it accurate? In this groundbreaking study, Clé Lesger argues that the shift of commercial power from Antwerp to Amsterdam was by no means inevitable, and that the highly specialized economy of the Low Countries was more than capable of adapting to the changing needs of international trade. It was only when the Dutch Revolt and military campaigns literally divided the Low Countries into separate states that the existing stable spatial economy and port system fell apart, and a restructuring was needed. Within this process of restructuring the port of Amsterdam acquired a function radically different to the one it had prior to the division of the Netherlands. Before the Revolt it had served as the northern outport in a gateway system centred on Antwerp, but with access of that port now denied to the new republic, Amsterdam developed as the main centre for Dutch shipping, trade and - crucially - the exchange of information. Drawing on a wide variety of neglected archival collections (including those of the Bank of Amsterdam), this study not only addresses specific historical questions concerning the commercial life of the Low Countries, but through the case study of Amsterdam, also explores wider issues of early modern European commercial trade and economic development.

Institutions that allow for the accumulation of capital were as crucial to economic growth throughout history as they are today. But whereas historians often focus on the precursors of modern banking institutions, little is known of any alternatives that may have served similar purposes prior to their rise. This study focuses on the institutional framework of markets for 'renten', a type of long-term debt that enabled economic development in much of Northwest Europe in the late Middle Ages. In the county of Holland, these markets allowed large segments of the public and private sectors to reallocate capital. This study thus uncovers the medieval capital markets in the region that was to become the core of the Dutch Republic.

The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company) was the largest of the early modern European trading companies operating in Asia. Its operations produced not only warehouses packed with spices, coffee, tea, textiles, porcelain and silk, but also shiploads of documents. Data on political, economic, cultural, religious, and social conditions spread over an enormous area circulated between the VOC establishments, the administrative centre of the trade in Batavia, now the city of Jakarta, and the Board of Directors in the Netherlands. The co-operation between the National Archives of Indonesia and the Netherlands resulted in this extensive catalogue of fifteen archives of VOC institutions in Jakarta. The VOC records are included in UNESCO ́s Memory of the World Register.

Awarded with the 15th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography 2010. This classic can be ranked among the well-known international standard works on the subject of bookbinding. The author, Dr. Jan Storm van Leeuwen, gives in this work an elaborate general historical introduction to his subject. It also contains a general introduction to each province, as they were known in the eigteenth century, and an extensive overall picture of the towns where luxury bindings were manufactured, describing the bookbinder's workshops and binderies of each town. The historical introduction is completed with a catalogue of the approximately 2000 relevant bindings in the collections of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) and its sister institution the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum. About 1500 other bindings that the author studied over time in other collections are also described. But the most important feature of this work is that all (nearly 10.000) stamps on these bindings are represented by a picture. Never before so many bindings (3500) have been recorded, described and discussed in such detail and with the benefit of an established model and terminology. The print edition is available as a set of four volumes (9789061943693).