WORKSHOP: "Identity, Citizenship and Commerce" (Brussels: VUB, 7-8 NOV 2019)

Conference abstract:

This workshop delves into the theme of identity and citizenship with regard to trade. Legal historians have to date not paid much interest to how commerce had an impact on citizenship and identity. It remains unclear how the rich sets of rules that in the later Middle Ages, the Early Modern period and the nineteenth century were crafted to define citizenship, and political constellations as well, were affected by developments of commerce. Questions that will be answered are the following: Did governments have an immigration policy that was tailored to commercial interests? Did this translate into a broad legal support for residents, not being citizens? How were the interests of visitors valued as compared to those of citizens? Were merchants belonging to a separate legal category? If so, what defined this category? Was there a difference in legal effects of contracts involving citizens or foreigners? To what extent did different types of legal identity (merchant, citizen, member of nationes mercatorum) overlap or come into conflict? Was there an influence from “capitalist” virtues on the legal notions of citizen and resident?

Programme:

7 November 2019, U-Residence, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Zwarte Zaal

14h-14h20 D. De ruysscher (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Tilburg University), Introduction

14h20-14h50 A. Cordes (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Traces of Identity in Medieval Maritime Law
 14h50-15h20 C.M. In’t Veld (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and M. den Hollander (Tilburg University) Citizenship in Early Modern Amsterdam: An Artisanal Identity?

15h20-15h45 coffee break


 15h45-16h30 R. Mooi (Tilburg University) Foreign Creditors in the Early Modern German Territories: Towards a Reciprocal Equal Treatment


16h30-17h15 P. De Reu (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Modifying Procedural Practices, Shaping Economic Identities. An Inquiry into Middling Groups in Financial Distress and Negotiated Debt Adjustment in Commercial Courts in Belgium 1883-1914


19h informal dinner
8 November 2019, room D2.18, Building D, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels

9h coffee


9h30-10h15 G. Martyn (Ghent University), The Portuguese Nations in Bruges and Antwerp


10h15-11h G. Dreijer (University of Exeter, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Legal Strategies, Citizenship and the Development of Commercial Law: the Presence of Spanish Merchants in the Low Countries (15th-16th Centuries)


11h coffee break


11h15-12h J. Possemiers (KU Leuven) Conrad Summenhart’s Writings against Tolerance for ‘Jewish Usurers’ and their Context


12h-12h45 P. Naaktgeboren (Maastricht University), Private Partnerships and Partners’ Entrepreneurial Identity in Early Modern Antwerp


12h45 lunch break


14h15-15h M. Lupi (Tilburg University), The Ban as Deprivation of Citizenship Within Bankruptcy Law of Medieval Florence


15h-15h45 M. Moerman (Maastricht University) Jewish Commercial Associations in the Early Modern Period: The Case of Sephardic Business Partnerships in Amsterdam (17th and 18th centuries)


15h45-16h30 S.Plasschaert (Vrije Universiteit Brussels), Unions and Networks in the 19th-Century Antwerp Marine Insurance Industry


16h30-17h book discussion

19h formal dinner

Practical information:

Register with Dave De ruysscher.

(source: VUB-CORE)