Ongecategoriseerd Archives - Quetelet Center

The Hidden History of Medical Instrument Makers

DETAILS

Used database:

LOKSTAT

Date:

May 2025

Category:

Research Project

The project Manufacturers of medical instruments, equipment and accessories in Flanders and Brussels by ETWIE and the Industriemuseum systematically mapped, for the first time, which companies were active in the production of medical-technological devices in the period 1830–1960.

Until now, collections had mainly focused on the functioning of the devices, while the stories of the manufacturers themselves often remained unknown. With this broad study, ETWIE and the Industriemuseum filled that gap. They charted who the manufacturers were, what products they developed, and how their activities fitted into broader technological and economic evolutions.

To achieve this, they combined archives, literature and museum collections, supplemented with case studies of notable players. The research looked not only at the technical aspects, but also at production chains, export, and international embedding. This resulted in a unique inventory that provides more insight into the role of Flanders and Brussels within medical technology.

These findings are valuable for heritage preservation and for writing the industrial history of the healthcare sector. The researchers relied on the LOKSTAT database, which allowed them to access company data in a clear and detailed way. Thanks to the 1896 industrial census available through LOKSTAT, manufacturers and producers could be fully mapped.

Discover the project here.

Launch of the S.O.S. Antwerp Database

DETAILS

Used database:

S.O.S. Antwerpen

Date:

April 2025

Category:

Citizen Science project

On April 22, 2025, the festive launch of the S.O.S. Antwerp database took place at the FelixArchief. This unique database provides access to data on more than 480,000 deaths in the city of Antwerp between 1820 and 1946. It represents an exceptional resource, enabling historians, genealogists, and interested citizens to explore the health history of the city from a new perspective.

During the event, Werner Pottier and Sarah Heynssens offered an insight into the origins of the project. Special tribute was paid to the 761 volunteers who helped transcribe thousands of cause-of-death registers. Their efforts, led by the Quetelet Center and in collaboration with the FelixArchief, the Universities of Antwerp, and Histories vzw, made this database possible.

The program continued with three inspiring research lectures. Professor Isabelle Devos highlighted the epidemiological transition through the course of various diseases. Professor Hilde Greefs demonstrated how the data can be mapped and which new patterns become visible. PhD student Tom Hacha presented his research into the exceptionally high child mortality in historical Antwerp. Together, these contributions illustrated how the database provides valuable insights into causes of death, health crises, and social inequalities.

The launch concluded with a warm reception, where volunteers and partners celebrated together. It was not only a moment of gratitude, but also of pride in what had been achieved collectively.

The S.O.S. Antwerp database is now freely accessible and offers a rich source of information for researchers as well as anyone interested in the history of health, disease, and society.

How Trains Shaped Belgium

Ingrid Schepers (UA) recently defended her doctoral dissertation on the impact of railways on labor mobility in Belgium. Her research reveals how the 19th-century, government-led railway infrastructure shaped the relationship between urban and rural areas. Belgium was a pioneer in developing a public railway network and promoting commuting by train. The government sought to ease urban overcrowding by improving connections between rural and urban regions. Affordable railway subscriptions made commuting a viable alternative to migration, but data from 1846-1961 shows that railway accessibility did not automatically lead to increased commuting. Besides transport, labor markets and economic structures played a crucial role. The study emphasizes that commuting policies should first be seen as an economic necessity before being considered a matter of spatial preferences. These findings are based on detailed analyses of railway infrastructure and commuting flows, made possible through extensive census data available via LOKSTAT.

Article:

Ingrid Schepers. “Mobilising labour: a spatial analysis of railway infrastructure, commuting flows and rural-urban relations in Belgium, 1846-1961”. Antwerp, PhD Dissertation, 2024, pp. 1-361.

DETAILS

Database used: LOKSTAT

Date: July 2024

Category: Scientific publication

Ghent’s Lands

Today, Ghent owns approximately 1,800 hectares of rural land, mainly outside the city limits. However, this once totaled 5,000 hectares of fields, meadows, and forests.

The story of Ghent’s agricultural land begins in the 13th century when wealthy city dwellers, abbeys, and hospitals acquired land beyond the city walls. For centuries, hospitals relied on these lands to maintain financial stability and provide food for the city’s poor and sick. In the 20th century, the city expanded with the port and highways, the newly reformed Public Social Welfare Centre (OCMW) changed its social policies and stopped distributing food, and the agricultural sector underwent significant transformation. As a result, some of Ghent’s agricultural lands were sold and fell into oblivion.

The Ghent’s Lands exhibition changes that by shedding light on this intriguing chapter in Ghent’s history, as well as that of other cities, through illustrations, film footage, and remarkable objects. The exhibition also features an impressive overview map of all municipal lands, created with the help of POPPKAD.

Exhibition:

Ghent’s Lands, from March 22 to September 29, 2024, at the Ghent City Museum (STAM).

DETAILS

Database used: POPPKAD

Date: April 2024

Category: Exhibition

Regional Policy Under the Microscope

Every country has regions whose economic development and level of prosperity lag behind compared to other areas. While Flanders became increasingly economically successful from the 1960s onwards, Wallonia fell behind. Even within Flanders, however, regional economic disparities persisted until the late 1990s. Although the call for government intervention arose as early as before the Second World War, it wasn’t until the 1950s that a more structured policy emerged, offering financial and fiscal support to specific regions. This policy aimed to create equal opportunities for all regions and unlock their economic potential.
In a PhD dissertation recently submitted at Ghent University, historian Ophelia Ongena shows that this process was far from straightforward, and was heavily influenced by political circumstances and linguistic-community tensions. From the 1970s onwards, Flanders gained increasing authority over economic policy, which led to new strategies and growing involvement of companies themselves in addressing regional unemployment.
For this research, the 1937 industrial census from LOKSTAT was used as source.

Publication:

Ophelia Ongena. “Werk in eigen streek!” Ontstaan en evolutie van een economisch beleid op maat van streken en regio’s (België, tweede helft van de 20ste eeuw). Ghent, PhD Dissertation, 2024.

DETAILS

Database used: LOKSTAT

Date: February 2024

Category: Scientific publication

From textiles to tobacco: Flemish industry in 1738.

DETAILS

Used Dataset:

STREAM

Date:

December 2023

Category:

Publication

From textiles to tobacco: Flemish industry in 1738

How was industry faring in Flanders in the first half of the 18th century? Wouter Ryckbosch and Anne Winter (VUB) investigated industrial production and labor in nineteen Flemish towns in 1738. Using the industrial survey from that year, the results of which are available in STREAM, they examined the extent and nature of urban industries, the role of craft guilds, and local labor relations.

Their analysis confirms the dominance of textile production and guild crafts in the examined towns. The research also reveals the presence of industries focused on consumption, such as the manufacturing of glass, tobacco, and soap. While these industries were numerically marginal at the time, they would experience significant growth in the second half of the century. The study also indicates that these sectors were less organized on a craft guild basis and had a higher degree of proletarianization.

Article:

Ryckbosch, Wouter and Winter, Anne. “Between corporatism and capitalism? Urban industry and labor in eighteenth-century Flanders”, TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 20 (2023): 37-80.

Interdisciplinary research with COST-Action ‘The Great Leap’

DETAILS

Used Dataset:

HISSTER, S.O.S. Antwerp

Date:

June 2023

Category:

Interdisciplinary collaboration

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH WITH COST ACTION 'THE GREAT LEAP'

Isabelle Devos from the Quetelet Center is the co-supervisor of the COST Action ‘The great leap. Multidisciplinary approaches to health inequalities, 1800-2022 (GREATLEAP)’.

A COST Action is an interdisciplinary research network that brings researchers and innovators together to investigate a topic of their choice for 4 years. COST Actions are typically comprised of researchers from academia, SMEs, public institutions, and other relevant organizations or interested parties.

Embracing the COST Mission, the Great Leap takes a unique, multidisciplinary approach from a historical perspective to understand better the roots and drivers of health inequalities across regions and countries in Europe and beyond. To achieve this mission, the Great Leap creates an international, multidisciplinary network that will bundle expertise, techniques, insights, and data to create

(1) the first international comparable dataset of individual-level historical cause of death data,

(2) innovative analytical tools to analyze it, and

(3) insights into how this information can be used in current public health policy and practice.

The network includes a wide range of academic expertise in history, social sciences, life sciences, and epidemiology and involves university-, research-, government- and (international) health institutes and organizations, including statistical offices and national archives.

By fostering the strengths of this unique, multidisciplinary, and diverse network, the Great Leap aims to generate ground-breaking insights into the historical roots and drivers of health inequalities across regions and countries in Europe and beyond.

Interested parties can apply here to participate in one or more of the five working groups of the Cost-Action.

An award for S.O.S. Antwerpen

DETAILS

Used dataset:

S.O.S. ANTWERP

Date:

14 November 2023

Category:

Database

S.O.S. ANTWERPEN RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS DISTINCTION

Isabelle Devos, Sarah Heynssens and Sven Vrielinck were awarded an Annual Prize for Science Communication by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium (Koninklijke Academie van België) and the Young Academy (Jonge Academie) for the project S.O.S. Antwerp.

In the citizen science project on demography and death in Antwerp, citizens not only participated in data collection and analysis, they were also encouraged to engage in historical research themselves. The jury awarded S.O.S. Antwerp the distinction because, thanks to training, assignments and exchanges with team members, citizens gained real insight into the process of science .

You can learn more about the database that resulted from this project here:

POPPKAD surpasses 10,000 users

DETAILS

Used dataset:

POPPKAD

Date:

September 2023

Category:

Database

POPPKAD surpasses 10,000 users

POPPKAD, the database of the Belgian land registry from the nineteenth century, is gaining popularity among a wide audience. Researchers, local historians, genealogists, and other enthusiasts are increasingly exploring the database, which contains the names of 540,000 property owners from the mid-19th century in over 1,000 Belgian municipalities. According to the latest statistics, 10,000 users have extensively utilized the website. The top 5 most searched terms include (not surprisingly) the names Janssens, Peeters, Willems, Maes, and De Smet. On the project website, you can not only discover the most common surnames but also access scans of the original land registry records. These records provide detailed information about property owners, buildings, and lands from the nineteenth century. Preliminary figures indicate that over 25,000 records have been downloaded from the site after consulting the database.

Explore the rich past via POPPKAD!

The demise of keuter farms in Coastal Flanders

DETAILS

Used dataset:

STREAM

Date:

January 2023

Category:

Scientific publication

The demise of keuter farms in Coastal Flanders

Farms were under tremendous pressure during wars. In addition to the destruction and the diseases spread by the roaming bands of armies, the governments or occupiers also increased the tax burden. This burden was so high that some farms went bankrupt.

In Coastal Flanders, the wars went hand in hand with farm expansion in the 17th and 18th centuries, with large (tenant) farmers gobbling up the downtrodden small- and medium-sized farms. This indicates that large (tenant) farmers were better able to withstand the heavy pressure of rising taxes.

Combining accounting data from farms and tax collector accounts, Sander Berghmans (UGent, Dep. History) shows that taxes played a crucial role in the enlargement of farms in Coastal Flanders. First, his research showed that taxes were a very important expense for farms, especially during wars. Second, he was able to proof that large farms were able to secure payment deferrals.

Although granting payment deferrals was not allowed by local governments, it was found that local tax collectors did so for large farms. Large farms possessed the social and economic power to obtain payment deferrals from the tax collector. Smaller and medium-sized farms did not have this power and were therefore declared bankrupt very rapidly in the event of arrears. Their abandoned farms could then be leased for little money by the large farms. Territorial data from the STREAM-database were used for the spatial representation of data in this study.

Article:

Sander Berghmans. “War, taxation and the enlargement of farms in coastal Flanders (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries)”, In: Agricultural History Review, 70, 2022, pp. 193-218.

The deadliest World War

DETAILS

Used database:

LOKSTAT

Date:

September 2022

Category:

Scientific publication

The deadliest World War

The death toll of both World Wars in Belgium is still unclear and different figures circulate. The uncertainty about the number of military and civilian casualties is due to gaps in source material and the lack of reliable statistics. Bruno De Wever (UGent, Department of History) ventured a calculation by combining and critically evaluating various sources and databases compiled in recent years. In doing so, he used LOKSTAT among others. The results of his research recently appeared in the Liber Amicorum of Piet Chielens.

The author concludes that the death toll of World War I was greater for Belgians both in absolute numbers and in relative terms than World War II (66,000 or 8.86‰ versus 53,000 or 6.42‰). But if we include the foreigners who stayed on Belgian soil during the war years (especially Jewish refugees and migrants), World War II claimed more victims (79,000 dead or 9.57‰ of the population). A detailed statistic distinguishing the size of the different categories of civilian and military victims can be found in the cited contribution.

Publication:

Bruno De Wever, “‘Belgische oorlogsdoden van de wereldoorlogen”, in: Nous irons en Flandres: Festschrift Piet Chielens. Ypres, 2022, 361-365.

Markets in Flanders through the early modern period

MARKETS IN FLANDERS THROUGH THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

DETAILS

Used database:

STREAM

Date:

May 2022

Category:

Blog post

Author: Wouter Ronsijn

The Ghent flower market celebrates its 250th anniversary this year and is probably the oldest flower market in Flanders. Apparently, flowers were first sold on Ghent’s Kouter square by the horticulturalist Toontje Verstuyft in 1772 on the first Sunday in June.

Until the late twentieth century, local weekly markets played a central role in the economic and social life of village and urban dwellers. In those days, people could buy not only flowers but also a wide variety of products. Wouter Ronsijn (UGent) has used the STREAM database to reconstruct the development of weekly markets in the county of Flanders between ca. 1550 and 1800. Where could people go? And on which days?

Weekly, monthly and annual markets

For centuries, local markets played a central role in the economic and social life of village and urban dwellers. We have put together an overview of all the places in the county of Flanders that had an official or unofficial market between 1550 and 1800, based on market applications and rights, official surveys and summaries compiled in the STREAM database. These were physical markets: gatherings of buyers and sellers at specific places and times. The word ‘market’ comes from the Latin mercatus. Male and female farmers came there to sell food (such as grain, potatoes, butter, eggs, poultry) or raw materials (such as flax, kemp, oilseeds). Vendors came to the market with consumer goods (pots, pans and so on), and butchers and fishmongers also often sold their wares there. Weekly markets were more focused on selling goods for daily use (food but also raw materials). Monthly markets often served to sell livestock, while annual markets offered a wider range of consumer goods or hosted large horse markets. Ghent had one of the oldest annual markets, the so-called Bamisfoor, which was held on 1 October to mark the feast of Saint Bavo. This fair is said to go back to the ninth or tenth century. In the Middle Ages, the annual markets of Torhout, Lille, Ypres, Messines and Bruges formed a cycle of successive fairs, with each one lasting a month. In the Duchy of Brabant, the annual markets of Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom were the most important. These physical gatherings at specific places and times provided a practical solution for helping buyers and sellers find each other. Trade always involves two parties, and markets bring those parties together. Moreover, markets made trade more transparent because they offered insights into supply and demand and so influenced prices.

Number of weekly markets

According to some sources, Count Baudouin III established weekly markets in Bruges, Kortrijk, Torhout and Roeselare in 958. This would make them among the oldest markets in Flanders, but today historians doubt whether this claim is correct. The origins of the first markets in Flanders are shrouded in mystery. Nevertheless, it is probably true that several Flemish markets have their roots in the High Middle Ages (1000-1250) or earlier. As the population of Flanders increased and trade grew, so did the number of markets in the long run. According to the historian Peter Stabel, sixteenth-century Flanders was a region with many cities and market centres and several new centres were added in that century.

We have enough sources to follow this evolution numerically, starting from the early modern period. We examined which places had a weekly market for six points in time (1550, 1600, 1650, 1700, 1750 and 1800), and on which day of the week the market (or the main market) took place. This shows that around 1550, with almost 60 markets, Flanders already had a dense market network (see Graph 1). In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, the number of markets declined sharply, in the wake of the economic disruption and demographic losses at the beginning of the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648). Around a quarter of all markets had disappeared by around 1600, and it took until around 1700 for Flanders to once again have about as many markets as it held around 1550. The growth in the number of markets was especially strong after the middle of the eighteenth century. Between 1750 and 1800, more than 20 markets were added, so more than a third of the number of existing markets. In the nineteenth century, this number increased even further. Around 1868, the provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders had no fewer than 110 markets. However, due to the rise of retail trade and supermarkets, most markets disappeared in the course of the twentieth century.

Friday (no) market day?

In the early modern period, the markets were rather evenly spread over the different weekdays, except that there were no markets on Sundays and few on Fridays (see Graph 2). In the Middle Ages, there were still several places with a Sunday market, such as Assenede and Stekene, but they were moved at some point. There were exceptions, such as the markets for birds, flowers and potatoes that were held on Sundays in Ghent ca. 1800. The fact that there were few markets on Fridays may have had to do with the sobriety inspired by the Catholic rule of not eating meat on that day. However, it may also have had to do with the fact that Friday was the main market day in Ghent. The city of Ghent did not tolerate any competing markets on that day and new marketplaces probably did not want to compete with Ghent either. When establishing new markets, people often chose days when there were no other markets being held in the area. As the Flemish market network grew denser, more and more markets were added on Fridays.

Official and unofficial

It is likely that many official markets evolved from older informal markets, established without the impetus of the local government. Local authorities had various reasons for giving such informal markets an official character. Recognition contributed to the security and stability of the market. In this way, the market no longer had to continue hiding in the shadows of public spaces. The safety of market visitors was sometimes explicitly guaranteed in the rights by which they were recognised. In addition, this recognition made it easier for the government to monitor the trade that took place there. Official recognition of markets, and the prohibition of trade outside them, made it possible to inspect the quality of the merchandise, gain a better insight into the supply to towns and villages, take note of (and possibly influence) the prices at which goods were sold, and to control the weights and measures used for making calculations.

Moreover, taxes could then be levied on market trade, which in turn was a reason for buyers and sellers to avoid official markets and meet elsewhere, on the informal circuit. Official recognition was also sought to make it easier for inhabitants to buy raw materials or food, or to sell their products and to support the activities of innkeepers and shopkeepers, who saw a part of the profits made at the market immediately spent at their establishments. In addition, a market also gave a village prestige.

However, economic or fiscal considerations were not the only factors that played a role in the creation of markets. Markets and fairs were not just places where goods were traded or taxes levied. They also provided an opportunity for entertainment, for spreading news or rumours, and for protest and conflicts. For farmers, market day was not only the day on which money could be made from the sale of agricultural products, it was also the day on which people went to town in their Sunday best to hear the latest news or to buy fashionable new items. Notaries were also busier on market days. Many people came together at successful markets, which could pose a threat to public order. Sometimes the somewhat moralising objection was made, especially when fairs were established, that these were days of drunkenness and idleness.

Putting together the above overview was not a straightforward task and what has been presented here cannot claim to be complete. The case of Opbrakel is a good example of the difficulties in constructing the overview. In a survey from the early 1800s, the mayor of Opbrakel stated that his municipality did not have a market. An attempt a few years earlier to establish a market was met with resistance from the neighbouring marketplaces of Nederbrakel and Geraardsbergen, and came to nothing because the central government did not grant permission. This permission had been necessary since the Middle Ages, until it was abolished in 1870. But in fairness, the mayor did admit in the same survey that the inhabitants of his village usually gathered every Thursday, including in inns, to trade small goods among themselves for the needs of their families.

Was this a market then or not? Activities that could be considered markets took place outside officially recognised markets as well. These were sometimes genuinely informal markets that were at times tolerated and at other times opposed. Conversely, some official markets existed only on paper, while in reality they were hardly visited. However, we often know more about these official markets precisely because of their official character. In the next blog post we will show where these markets were located.

Sources

UGent Quetelet Center, STREAM database.

Literature

Blockmans, F., “L’équipement commercial de la Flandre avant 1300”, Annales de la Fédération archéologique et historique de Belgique, 1938, pp. 273-286.
Carlier, J. J., “Origine des foires et des marchés publics en Flandre”, Annales du Comité Flamand de France, 1861-1862, 6, pp. 127-139.
Stabel, Peter. De kleine stad in Vlaanderen. Brussels, Paleis der Academiën: 1995.
Stabel, Peter. Dwarfs among giants. Leuven, Garant: 1997.
Van Damme, Ilya. Verleiden en Verkopen. Amsterdan, Aksant: 2007.
van Bavel, Bas. Manors and Markets. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 2010.
van Houtte, J. A., “Les foires dans la Belgique ancienne”, La foire. Brussels, Éditions de la librairie encyclopédique: 1953, pp. 175-207.
Viaene, Antoon, “Duizend jaar markt te Roeselare”, Biekorf, 1958, 59, pp. 369-372.
Verhulst, Adriaan, “De vroegste geschiedenis en het ontstaan van de stad Gent”, Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent, 1972, 26(1): 5-39.
Ronsijn, Wouter. Commerce and the Countryside. Gent, Academia Press: 2014.
For a recent overview, see www.markten.be and www.belgischemarkten.be

If you want to use one of the dataset mentioned above, do not hesitate to contact queteletcenter@ugent.be.

Always a market nearby? The market network in Flanders through the early modern period and the nineteenth century

ALWAYS A MARKET NEARBY? THE MARKET NETWORK IN FLANDERS THROUGH THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

DETAILS

Used Dataset

STREAM

Datum:

June 2022

Category:

Blog post

Author: Wouter Ronsijn

Nowadays, the flower market of Ghent, the bird market of Antwerp and the antiques market of Tongeren are mainly tourist attractions, but where could one go in the past for the weekly market? In the previous blog post, Wouter Ronsijn (UGent) showed how many markets were held in the county of Flanders during the early modern period. In this month’s contribution we learn where markets used to be organised and how this pattern evolved over time.

Old and new markets

In the previous post we discussed the evolution of the number of markets between ca. 1550 and 1800, and the days on which those markets took place. Besides chronological patterns, there were also geographical patterns in the Flemish market network. The overview of Flemish weekly markets between 1550 and 1800, prepared for the STREAM project, has now been transformed into a map. This was enabled by the historical geographical reference system of the STREAM database.

When we compare the maps, we see a shift from coastal Flanders to inland Flanders over the long term. Several markets in coastal Flanders that disappeared after 1550 did not return and there were few new markets in other places in the coastal region. In contrast, many new markets were established in inland Flanders. This trend is undoubtedly linked to the population stagnation in coastal Flanders and the strong demographic growth in inland Flanders.

The markets that were established between 1550 and 1800 were not always new markets. Sometimes markets lapsed for a period and were then restarted. For example, the application for a market in Sint-Lievens-Houtem in 1783 was supported by the various testimonies of elders from the neighbourhood. They had heard from their parents and grandparents that there used to be a market in this village, which had been brought to an end by war.

In addition to the many wars that disrupted life, fluctuations in the establishment of markets were linked to the economic and demographic situation, to power shifts between urban and rural areas, and between higher and lower levels of government. After all, the functioning of markets also depended on potential rivals who could use political power to prevent competition. It was only after 1870 that it was no longer necessary to obtain permission from higher authorities to establish a market and that municipalities could decide on this themselves.

Based on the Farmers’ Yearbook, we can indicate on a map for the whole of Belgium in 1868 where there were weekly (see map 1) and annual markets (see map 2). As far as we know, this is not possible for earlier periods due to a lack of sources.

Large regional differences

The maps immediately make it clear that there were enormous regional differences in Belgium. This is primarily, but not exclusively, due to settlement patterns and population density. Obviously, more markets can be found in areas where the land is divided into many small villages than in areas with only a few sprawling villages. This was the case, for example, in East Flanders and West Flanders, where there were many weekly markets, but not in Haspengouw, where nevertheless there were also many small municipalities. Furthermore, there were many markets in the densely populated, emerging Walloon industrial areas around Mons, La Louvière, Charleroi and to a lesser extent Liège, though also in the much less densely populated Antwerp Campine almost all municipalities had a market. South of the Sambre and Meuse rivers, where few people lived, there were also few markets.

The map for 1868 further reveals that, in addition to settlement patterns and population density, regional economic differences also played a role. The many weekly markets in the Antwerp Campine mainly served to allow local farmers to sell their butter, destined for the big cities among other places, at advantageous prices, whereas the markets in the Walloon industrial areas were probably mainly intended to ensure supplies to local consumers. Annual markets, which in the nineteenth century still played a role in the cattle trade, were remarkably common in the pasturelands around Liège, among other places.

Finally, there are also traces of the power that cities were long able to exercise over nearby rural areas. For example, there are remarkably few markets in the immediate surroundings of a few large cities such as Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. Nevertheless, there were already markets in some municipalities that bordered on those large cities and which were probably already part of the urban agglomeration, such as Borgerhout near Antwerp as well as Schaarbeek and Sint-Jans-Molenbeek near Brussels.

The struggles, physical and verbal, that have been waged over the centuries in and around markets clearly show the importance of this institution. The right to hold markets was contested between urban and rural areas. Buyers and sellers, men and women, farmers, vendors, craftsmen and shopkeepers all fought for access to markets. Markets provided access to and control over trade flows, a direct source of income for sellers, sometimes indirectly for the shopkeepers and innkeepers who welcomed more people on market days, and for authorities that collected taxes at markets. Knowledge of the development of these specific markets is essential for a good understanding of daily life in the past.

If you want to use one of the dataset mentioned above, do not hesitate to contact queteletcenter@ugent.be.

Sources

UGent Quetelet Center, STREAM database.
Annuaire des agriculteurs pour 1868, Brussels, Tarlier.

Literature

Stabel, Peter. De kleine stad in Vlaanderen. Brussels, Paleis der Academiën: 1995.
Stabel, Peter. Dwarfs among giants. Leuven, Garant: 1997.
Van Damme, Ilya. Verleiden en Verkopen. Amsterdan, Aksant: 2007.
van Bavel, Bas. Manors and Markets. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 2010.
Ronsijn, Wouter. Commerce and the Countryside. Ghent, Academia Press: 2014.
Ronsijn, Wouter. “Het wettelijke land en het werkelijke land: wetgeving en praktijk bij het houden van openbare markten in België, negentiende eeuw”, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Zuidnederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis, 2016, 69, pp. 217-232.
For a recent overview, see www.markten.be and www.belgischemarkten.be

Wind and water power in 1774

DETAILS

Used database:

STREAM

Date:

September 2021

Category:

Scientific publication

WIND AND WATER POWER IN 1774

Before the advent of steam engines, mills were the most ingenious machines in common use. The oldest existing mill in the Low Countries dates from 1183 and was built in Wormhout. Important applications of mills were grinding grain, pumping water and sawing wood.

The Quetelet Center made a detailed survey map of the mill distribution based on the Ferraris map around 1774 (database STREAM) . This map was published in an article by Alain Goublomme (chairman of Molenforum Vlaanderen and Oost-Vlaamse Molens vzw) and Wouter Ronsijn (researcher of the Bocconi University in Milan and UGent) on the occasion of the expo Naar molens kijken (looking at mills) at the heritage site Ename. The red dots are windmills concentrated in the northwest and north. The blue dots represent water mills which were mainly to be found in areas with differences in altitude.

Article:

Alain Goublomme, Wouter Ronsijn. “Kijken naar molenland”. G/oud: geschiedenis van Oudenaarde en Omgeving, 1, (2021): 32-39.

Ostend measured and counted

DETAILS

Used database:

POPPKAD

Date:

October 2021

Category:

Scientific publication

OSTEND MEASURED AND COUNTED

Ostend was an important port that developed into a bustling city and tourist centre in the course of the nineteenth century. A large part of this past is still shrouded in darkness by the disastrous destruction of important archival collections during and after the Second World War. Authors Pieter François (University of Oxford, Centre for Study of Social Cohesion) and Luc François (Professor Emeritus of History UGent) partly fill this gap with a remarkable and rare study of the Ostend land register on the eve of the Belgian revolution. They describe in detail the spatial organisation, the housing, the port buildings, the landowners, the tenants and the distribution of wealth on the basis of the real estate data collected by the cadastre in 1829-1834. The Quetelet Center processed the data at house level in overview maps.

Article:

Luc François en Pieter François. “Oostende gemeten en geteld: het kadaster van net vóór 1830”, in Als spaken van een tredmolen: gedenkwaardige en- of historische feiten, De Plate. Jubileumboek, 36(2021), 81-95.

The impact of Belgian transport policy

DETAILS

Used dataset:

LOKSTAT

Date:

August 2021

Category:

Scientific publication

THE IMPACT OF BELGIAN TRANSPORT POLICY

In the course of the nineteenth century, Belgium underwent a radical transformation in terms of mobility. In barely half a century, mobility increased enormously with the advent of the railways and the expansion of the transport network. The role that the transport policy played in this transition has not yet been sufficiently studied. Historian Ingrid Schepers (University of Antwerp) investigates the connecting function of the Belgian railways by means of relational geography and combined various forms of mobility. She shows how much the transport policy was decisive for labour mobility and the complex relationship between city and countryside. For her research, she used commuter data and census data from LOKSTAT.

Article:

Ingrid Schepers. “Vertrekken, blijven of beide? De invloed van het Belgische transportbeleid op de arbeidsmobiliteit van de plattelandsbevolking tijdens de negentiende eeuw?”, in Stadsgeschiedenis, 16(2021), 1, 3-20.

The 1866 Cholera epidemic in Brussels: a reconstruction

THE 1866 CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN BRUSSELS: A RECONSTRUCTION

DETAILS

Used Datasets:

GIS BRUSSELS, HISSTER, POPPKAD & LOKSTAT

Date

September 2020

Category:

Publication & video

Author: Isabelle Devos

In 1866 a severe cholera epidemic raged in Belgium. The city of Brussels was hit hardest, with 3,469 cholera deaths. During the epidemic, all kinds of statistical data were collected by the city council.

The Quetelet Center has linked these data to some of its databases and so succeeded in reconstructing the course of the epidemic in the capital and determining who the main victims were.

The blue death in Belgium

Belgium was struck by cholera seven times in the nineteenth century. The epidemic of 1866 was the worst, with 43,400 victims. Some 1 million cholera deaths were recorded in Europe at that time.

Cholera entered the country in the month of March from different directions and claimed many victims until early December, peaking in the summer. There were a large number of deaths, especially in the cities and surrounding municipalities (figure 1). The city of Brussels, with 3,469 cholera deaths, was hit hardest.

Cholera is a bacterial infectious disease with an incubation period of a few days. The disease is mainly spread by contaminated water. Until the late nineteenth century, people usually had to rely on (often polluted) wells and waterways for their drinking water. The main symptoms of cholera are severe vomiting, severe diarrhoea and a blue skin tone. For this reason, the disease was also called the ‘blue death’.

Barely half of the patients survived. The real cause of cholera was unknown in 1866, even though the English doctor John Snow had pointed out the dangers of polluted water as early as the 1850s. A breakthrough only came in 1883, when the German Robert Koch discovered the cholera bacterium. Previously, it was thought that the disease was caused by so-called miasmas, foul smells from polluting waterways and street refuse.

The course of the epidemic in Brussels

Specific information on the cholera epidemic of 1866 can be found in the city archives of Brussels, including lists of names of all the people who died of cholera, including personal details such as gender, age, place of birth, occupation and address. The publications of the Brussels doctor Eugène Janssens, who had been in charge of the Brussels cause of death registration since 1862, also provide important information. By linking these data to some of our databases, such as the historical GIS Brussels (the digital map of nineteenth-century Brussels), POPPKAD (the database of the nineteenth-century Belgian cadastre) and LOKSTAT (the historical database of local statistics), we were able to reconstruct a fairly complete picture of the cholera epidemic in Brussels.

The first fatality occurred on 26 May 1866. It was the 66-year-old widow Catherine Ravaiau, a rag worker who lived with her sister on the ground floor of a house in an alley at the Vieux Marché 32. This was a very modest building that was located near the river Senne and contained several dwellings and households. In the following days two more people died of cholera, again at the Vieux Marché 32: on 27 May the four-year-old Antoinette Duval and on 28 May the 16-year-old orphan Barbe De Rauw, a seamstress. Several sick people were also reported in nearby houses, which led the mayor to have all the residents of the alley evacuated.

In the following weeks, the death toll in the city rose rapidly (figure 2): from mid-June there were about 15 cholera deaths a day, a month later this number had already tripled.

At that point, the hospitals in Brussels were even faced with a shortage of staff and the police had to step in to transport sick people and corpses.

The epidemic reached its peak on 25 and 26 August, with 62 deaths each day. The mortality then decreased gradually from early September.

By mid-November, almost half a year after the first death, the epidemic had burned itself out in Brussels.

The final victim was Nathalie Pollenus, the 59-year-old wife of François Lasne, a lawyer and real estate expert; she died on 16 November in their home, a townhouse at the Rue Royal 150.

Care and emergency workers

Healthcare and emergency workers were also hit hard: 7 police officers, 6 nurses, 2 gravediggers and 1 doctor did not survive the epidemic.

In many cities and municipalities, care and emergency workers who deserved recognition for their efforts during the epidemic received a medal or certificate. The Brussels city council honoured 275 people for their courage and self-sacrifice. These included police officers, poor masters who had provided material assistance and information, doctors, hospital staff, city council workers and individuals who had cared for the sick on their own initiative.

In the medical press, these awards were often met with derision. According to the doctors, the government would have done better to act against quacks or abolish the patent tax for physicians.

Criticism that sounds familiar today. For example, the one-off bonus of 300 euros as a reward for the efforts of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 epidemic over the past few months has been much commented on. And now, as then, there are loud calls for more sustainable measures (including wage increases).

Age and gender

Like the current COVID epidemic, the effects of the cholera epidemic of 1866 were strongly dependent on age and gender.

The disease claimed many victims in the age groups 0 to 10 years and 20 to 49 years. However, the number of victims in a certain group can also be higher simply because more people belong to that age category.

When we take into account the age structure (the number of inhabitants per age group) made available through the LOKSTAT database, a specific pattern emerges (figure 3).

For example, it appears that the greatest mortality risks occurred in the first years of life and in later life (60+). The lowest risk was for teenagers. Men appeared to be the most vulnerable, except in the older age groups (60-79-year-olds).

Social class

What is more difficult to determine is whether the effects of the epidemic were also strongly dependent on social class. The occupation of the deceased was mentioned on the death certificate, but this was obviously not the case for children and usually not for elderly people or women either. A good alternative to measure the wealth of the deceased is the cadastral income of the residence of the deceased (the so-called rental value). By linking the home address of the deceased to the POPPKAD database, we were able to trace the cadastral income of the cholera victims in Brussels, as we have the rental value of every house in Brussels for the years 1864-66. The data can be displayed in a historical geographic information system which was set up in the context of the POPPKAD project. This means we can closely follow the course of the cholera epidemic, day after day, since the deadly outbreak in Brussels on 26 May 1866.

As stated, the outbreak started in a working-class neighbourhood at the Vieux Marché. It spread fairly quickly to the immediate surroundings, the south and southwest of Brussels. The working-class areas in the north and around the Chaussée d’Etterbeek in the very eastern part of the city followed in mid-June. In July we also see the disease becoming more prevalent in neighbourhoods with a higher average cadastral income. In fact, it is striking that the epidemic claimed victims in all sections of the population, but that in the more affluent neighbourhoods it took several weeks before the disease hit hard. Of course, we should also take into account that the citizens in houses with a high cadastral income were not all necessarily well-off. After all, many large houses were divided into smaller dwellings and rented out.

Moreover, in order to determine the specific spatial distribution of cholera, it is also important to take into account the composition and density of the population in the different streets and neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the historical sources do not allow us to go down to that level of detail, but we do have the number of inhabitants per street. This means we can better examine the extent to which different neighbourhoods were affected.

For example, we can say that the cholera epidemic manifested itself very selectively in spatial terms. Figure 4 shows that cholera wreaked havoc (red and orange areas) in the lower-lying working-class neighbourhoods in the south (Marolles), southwest (Vieux Marché) and north (harbour area and Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges) of the city.

In addition, there were many deaths in the rural area to the east of the Chaussée d’Etterbeek, where likewise numerous workers were housed in small dwellings. Most of the higher-lying neighbourhoods, on the other hand, were relatively mildly affected (green areas). This is true of the commercial districts in the city centre, the residential areas around the Royal Park and the Leopold Quarter with its numerous embassies and consulates.

Now that we know who the main victims of the cholera epidemic were, it is also important to gain a good insight into its causes. Access to clean drinking water played a central role here. Incidentally, in 1858 Brussels became the first Belgian city to have a public water supply. The city council tried to get as many people as possible to connect to the network. To that end, a number of fountains and public water pumps were even closed or removed, much to the dismay of a large section of the (poor) Brussels residents who saw this move as robbing them of their only source of water. The question is therefore whether or not the stance of the Brussels city council made the cholera epidemic of 1866 worse, but more on this in a future blog …

If you want to use one of the datasets above, do not hesitate to contact queteletcenter@ugent.be.
Or would you like to lend a hand to our new citizen science project www.sosantwerpen.be in which we, together with volunteers, will study the social inequalities in causes-of-death in the city of Antwerp (1820-1946)?
Do you want to know who were the victims of the cholera epidemic in Antwerp? Then register via sosantwerpen@ugent.be!

Sources

Stadsarchief Brussel, politiearchief, dossiers cholera 1866.
UGent Queteletcenter, HISSTER database 1866.
UGent Queteletcenter, GIS Brussels 1865.
UGent Queteletcenter, LOKSTAT database 1866.
UGent Queteletcenter, POPPKAD database Brussels 1865.

Literature

Département de l’Intérieur. Documents statistiques de la Belgique, 1868.
Janssens, Eugène. Recherches statistiques sur la a mortalité dans la ville de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1868.
Falise, Claudine. “Le cholera à Bruxelles en 1866”, Annales de la Société belge d’histoire des hôpitaux, 17(1979): 81-104.
Viré, Louis. La distribution publique d’eau à Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1973.

Welcome to Antwerp ?

DETAILS

Used database:

LOKSTAT

Date:

March 2021

Category:

Scientific publication

Welcome to Antwerp? The immigration policy in Antwerp, 1830-1880

In the nineteenth century, the immigration policy underwent major changes. Journalist and historian Ellen Debackere studied the policy in the city of Antwerp from 1830 to 1880. She shows how the priorities of the local policy differed from those of the national state. The city applied the general policy towards foreign newcomers selectively. The studies carried out so far on the history of Belgian migration policy in the nineteenth century have been mainly limited to the national level with an emphasis on legislation. The implementation of the regulations in a political system characterized by a strong municipal autonomy have so far been little studied. Ellen Debackere’s research fills this gap. It was carried out as part of a doctoral thesis (UA-VUB) and is based in part on census data from LOKSTAT.

Book:

Ellen Debackere, Welkom in Antwerpen? Het Antwerpse vreemdelingenbeleid, 1830-1880. Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 2020, 1-280.

Like mother, like daughter ?

DETAILS

Used database:

LOKSTAT

Date:

April 2021

Category:

Scientific publication

Like mother, like daughter ?

For a long time, research into the practice of professions has been limited to sons, despite the great importance of female employment in the past. Vincent Delabastita and Erik Buyst (Department of Economics KULeuven) used marriage certificates in nineteenth-century West Flanders to investigate not only the economic activities of fathers and sons, but also those of mothers and daughters. To what extent did these children exercise the same profession of the parents? Analysis of numerous marriage certificates show that daughters were more mobile than sons. However, daughters saw less growth in intergenerational mobility during the province’s gradual industrialization. The researchers used LOKSTAT to map the general population trend.

Article:

Vincent Delabastita en Erik Buyst . “Intergenerational mobility of sons and daughters: evidence from nineteenth-century West Flanders”, in European Review of Economic History, 2021, 1-28.

More than 600 volunteers at work!

DETAILS

Used database:

Date:

26 February 2021

Category:

Citizen science project

More than 600 volunteers at work!

At the end of October 2020, the Quetelet Center launched the citizen science project S.O.S. Antwerp (Social Inequalities at Death (1820-1946). What did the people of Antwerp die of?). In this project, the data of the unique handwritten cause-of-death register of the city of Antwerp are entered into a digital database by volunteers working at home.

In that register, the cause of death of each person deceased between 1820 and 1946 is mentioned, together with the date of death, age, profession, marital status and all kinds of other personal information. It contains the data of almost 500,000 people!

By the end of February 2021, after four months, no less than 600 volunteers from Belgium and the Netherlands are involved in the project and more than half of the data has been entered twice. As such, this has become the largest historical academic crowdsourcing project in Belgium!

With S.O.S. Antwerp, the Quetelet Center will study causes of death and epidemics in the past two centuries: the differences between men and women, young and old, rich and poor, etc. The research will not only provide a good picture of public health in the past but will also have important implications for our understanding of health developments today. How did epidemics such as the Spanish Flu, the smallpox outbreak of 1870-71 and that of cholera in 1866 spread among the various population groups? When did the registration of cancers and cardiovascular diseases first start to increase, and in which groups?

Are you looking for an instructive activity that you can do indoors? Register at www.sosantwerpen.be and find out who the victims of epidemics were!