Marital co-operation and economic agency of maritime women: Evidence from the eighteenth-century Southern Netherlands
De Winter, W.; Pannier, S. (2025). Marital co-operation and economic agency of maritime women: Evidence from the eighteenth-century Southern Netherlands. Mar. mirror 111(1): 7-21. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2025.2450956
In: Mariners mirror. Society for Nautical Research: London,. ISSN 0025-3359; e-ISSN 2049-680X
Recent scholarship confirms that early-modern maritime workers were often married, and that sailors’ wives were far from passive economic subjects. They actively developed strategies to augment the family income while playing a role in their husbands’ private trade. Using early eighteenth-century correspondence in a microhistorical approach, this article focuses on women’s economic agency in the coastal Southern Netherlands. Instead of separating household maritime economic activities into a male and female sphere, we examine how marital co-operation functioned by passing on economic information and assembling profitable private cargoes. We conclude that marital co-operation was pivotal for securing a livelihood in maritime communities.
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