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Publications
Publications (116)
This report provides an overview of the final project results. With the international collaboration, three high quality courses were developed and piloted in three Higher Education Institutions (Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Université Paris-Dauphine, Gdańsk University of Technology) in close collaboration with non-academic fashion partners.
National competitiveness has become a misnomer, as competitiveness is increasingly understood as a regional phenomenon and regions are not confined to the boundaries of the nation state. This book focuses on the Port of Rotterdam and its hinterland – i.e. the Lower Rhine and the Ruhr area. A transnational perspective is imperative to understand the...
This book is based on a research project funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) entitled Outport and Hinterland. Rotterdam Business and the Ruhr Industry, 1870-2000 (NWO Humanities; Project number 360-53-120). The project aimed to explore the development of the economic links between, on the one hand, the Dutch Port of...
The electronics industry is often regarded by scholars as an example of a sector driven by endless technological innovation and major competition between a few large companies, thus embodying the common view whereby the free market leads firms to innovate. On the other hand, some business historians have also emphasised that, since the beginning of...
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526122100/
The fashion business has been collecting and analyzing information about colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and styles since the 18th century - activities that have long been shrouded in mystery. The Fashion Forecasters is the first book to reveal the hidden history of color and trend forecasting and to explore its relevance to the fashion business of t...
The fashion business has been collecting and analyzing information about colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and styles since the 18th century - activities that have long been shrouded in mystery. The Fashion Forecasters is the first book to reveal the hidden history of color and trend forecasting and to explore its relevance to the fashion business of t...
The fashion business has been collecting and analyzing information about colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and styles since the 18th century - activities that have long been shrouded in mystery. The Fashion Forecasters is the first book to reveal the hidden history of color and trend forecasting and to explore its relevance to the fashion business of t...
An interesting perspective on Bretton Woods is the input of nations other than the USA or Britain. A good example is the input of the Dutch delegation, in particular its leader Jan Willem Beyen, the Former President of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He was actively engaged in many discussions during the conference. Coming from the wo...
Nationalistic Nazi politics created huge problems for foreign multinational firms in Germany. Business during the Nazi period has been characterised as either state controlled, complacent or complicit. Yet, some cases show that local management had considerable room for manoeuvre and acted primarily with the integrity and long-term interest of the...
In the last decades, a number of economists came to the conclusion that ‘…large-scale regions are more significant economic units than nation-states.’ In other words, there is no reason to believe that the economic geography is just a mirror of political structures and that political and economic borders are falling together. In the USA, where such...
Interstoff (launched in 1959 by Messe Frankfurt) and Première Vision (launched in 1972 in Lyon) became “information dissemination gathering locations” for the fashion and textile industries all over the world. The two events mobilized the fashion prediction methodology as a key tool to impose themselves as the favorite information gatekeeper for th...
The article addresses the question to what extent American antitrust policy in Germany and Italy during the 1950s, was a success or not. Did these nations adopt this policy, did they adapt themselves to it, or did they completely reject it? By a detailed comparison of these two big European nations, Germany and Italy—both defeated powers of the Sec...
The Transnational Rhine Project focuses on long-term economic development in Europe’s prime economic region. Although the idea is accepted that the Rhine region – with the Ruhr area as its centre and Rotterdam as its port – was and is a major, during a substantial part of the last 150 years even the principal centre of economic activity in Europe,...
At the end of the 1960s a statistical survey run by the Bundesbank, revealed that the Netherlands was the second largest foreign direct investor in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Only the American multinationals, which had become the world’s most important foreign direct investors after the war, had invested more in the FRG at that time. Ho...
At the end of the 1960s a statistical survey run by the Bundesbank, revealed that the Netherlands was the second largest foreign direct investor in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Only the American multinationals, which had become the world's most important foreign direct investors after the war, had invested more in the FRG at that time. Ho...
Schweitzer Aluminium für Hitlers Krieg? Zur Geschichte der “Alusuisse,” 1918–1950 [Swiss Aluminum for Hitler's War? Toward a History of “Alusuisse,” 1918–1950]. ByRauhCornelia. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2009. 384 pp. Illustrations, tables, bibliography, notes, index. Paper, €58.00. ISBN: 978-3-406-52201-7. - Volume 85 Issue 3 - Ben Wubs
The impact of the strategies of multinational companies on the Dutch business system during the twentieth century is described in relation to two firms. The first case examines the attitude of the Dutch (in this example, Anglo-Dutch) parent company Royal Dutch Shell toward its international subsidiaries. The second looks at the approach taken by th...
This book deals with the activities of the Anglo-Dutch multinational during the war. Given the various threats faced by Unilever during the Nazi period, Ben Wubs argues that it was not self evident that the company would survive the war. Based on research into company sources which were hitherto unavailable, he shows the effect of the war on Unilev...
This article examines the effects of Germany's occupation of the Netherlands on the corporate governance structure of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever company, which had huge interests on both sides ofWorld War II. It focuses on the continental side of the business, in particular on the Netherlands and Germany, at the highest corporate level. I argue here...
Projects
Projects (3)
When discussing the political relations between the Netherlands and Germany in the 19th and 20th century, the extremely close economic relations are always mentioned. It is often said that these economic relations were of major influence on political relations, but it is seldom specified what influence these had. It is the target of this project to find out.
This project led by Prof. Klemann and Dr. Ben Wubs included three PhD-project. These are finished by now. The resulting theses are:
1 Joep Schenk, Havenbaronnen en Ruhrbonzen. Oorsprong van een wederzijdse afhankelijkheidsrelatie tussen Rotterdam en het Ruhrgebied 1870-1914
2 Marten Boon, Oil Pipelines Politics and International Business. The Rotterdam Oil Port, Royal Dutch Shell and the German Hinterland, 1945-1975
3 Klara Paardenkooper, The Port of Rotterdam and the Maritime container. The rise and fall of Rotterdam's hinterland (1966-2010)
A final publication giving an overviw of this project will be published next year (2017) by Routledge.
For more than a century there was a close link between the German and Dutch economies. Since the 1990s, however, as a result of major structural changes in the Ruhr district this narrow link has become difficult to prove statistically. Between the 1870s and 1990s the two countries often seemed a union in economic matters, which does not mean that the smaller Netherlands was unilaterally dependent on its bigger neighbour however.
The German interests in the Netherlands were also enormous, and its dependency on Dutch services was significant. By its political unification in 1871, Germany had become the major power of the continent, while the Ruhr-industry evolved into the industrial heart of Germany. Simultaneously, the Netherlands became economically vital for Germany because the most important industrial centre of North-Western Europe, the Ruhr district, lay immediately over the Dutch border and Rotterdam and its harbours at the Rhine mouth developed into the outports of this most powerful industrial centre.
In the late 19th century Germany’s heavy industry became increasingly dependent on foreign raw materials, in particular iron ore. The Germany heavy industry at the river Rhine became highly competitive as freight costs over water declined in comparison to freight costs by railway. As a result, it concentrated more and more around the river Rhine. Simultaneously, the RuhrRotterdamRhine industry. In addition, the growing population of workers needed cheap grain from abroad. Location and facilities made Rotterdam into the most economic harbour for its German hinterland. Transport via the largest Dutch harbour skyrocketed and turned into a vital condition for Germany’s trade and traffic. industry and mines needed an outlet for its finished products and coal. Therefore, Rotterdam evolved into the most important outport of the Rhine industry. In addition, the growing population of workers needed cheap grain from abroad. Location and facilities made Rotterdam into the most economic harbour for its German hinterland. Transport via the largest Dutch harbour skyrocketed and turned into a vital condition for Germany’s trade and traffic.
Objective
Because Rotterdam has played a key role in the development of the economic Dutch-German dyad over the last one and a half century a closer investigation into the specific role of Rotterdam business and its harbours seems opportune. For the city, the harbour and businesses in and around Rotterdam a historical research project into the origins, the growth and results of recent structural changes of the Dutch-German economic relations – in particular the relations with Ruhr district – is highly recommended. This research therefore aims to explore the development of the economic links between Rotterdam, Rotterdam business and the Rhine mouth harbours on the one hand, and the Ruhr district and Ruhr industry on the other in the course of the 1870-2000 period.
Subprojects
The project is divided in three subprojects:
Coal, Iron Ore and Steel; Rotterdam Business and the German ‘Montan’ Industry, 1870-1940 (Joep Schenk, PhD student);
Opting for Oil; Rotterdam’s Oil Harbour and the Move from Coal to Petrochemical Feedstock of the Rhine Industry, 1945-1970 (Marten Boon, Phd student);
The Box and Rotterdam’s New Hinterland; The Rise of Container Transport and Globalisation, 1970-2000 (Klara Paardenkooper, Phd student)
