Comparing early trade statistics: The case of Austrian Netherlands and France from 1759 to 1791

Loïc Charles, University of Reims / EconomiX Ann Coenen, University of Antwerp Guillaume Daudin, Lille-I (EQUIPPE) / Sciences Po (OFCE) (This version is unfinished. French and Belgian data are given, but no analysis is conducted yet of their differences)

150 words abstract This paper compares foreign trade data from France and the Austrian Netherlands during the second part of eighteenth-century. The datasets we use were produced by the French and the Austrian Netherlands’s bureaus of balance of trade. First, we want to determine the robustness of both theses sources and their usefulness for the contemporary researcher. Second, we use these data to provide a better understanding of the evolution of the relative positions of France and the Austrian Netherlands’s economies in the international division of labour and their level of economic developments through the second part of the eighteenth century. The first part compares the administrative context in which both set of data were produced. The second part contrasts their construction, and pays particular attention to their trade nomenclatures. The third part studies whether they give comparable pictures of the evolution of the trade of the Austrian Netherlands.

The eighteenth century witnessed the rise of rational policy making in Europe. Trade policy became an important topic for governments wanting to make room or get a decisive edge for their country against political and economic competitors. Accordingly, these governments made significant efforts to gather economic information in particular on their external trade, which was considered as the most strategic economic area. In doing so, they hoped to be able to get a sufficient clear view on the pros and cons of the economy they were managing, to device more efficient regulations and policies. By the end of the eighteenth century most of European states did have some sort statistical office that measured the flows coming and going out of the state. Surprisingly, at the exclusion of English trade statistics these data have been only rarely investigated to account for the evolution of European economies in the second part of the eighteenth century. In this paper, we want to use two set of such external trade statistics to discuss the relative evolution of Austrian Netherlands (the area called Belgium after 1830) and France. The data we use were produced by two public agencies: the French and the Austrian Netherlands’s bureaus of balance of trade. The first aim of the paper is methodological. We want to determine the robustness of both theses sources and their usefulness for the contemporary researcher looking for comparative historical analysis. Here the existence of two sets of data is of special relevance. First it should enable us to control the economic trend provided by one set of data by looking at the other set. The second aim is to use them to give a satisfying sketch of the evolution of the relative positions of France and the Austrian Netherlands’s economies in the international division of labour and their level of economic developments through the second part of the eighteenth century. More specifically, we want to discuss whether the possibility of an early industrial take-off in the Austrian Netherlands in the second

1 part of the eighteenth-century and the part that French colonial trade might have had in spurring Flanders’s industries. Of special relevance is the fact that while Austrian Netherland data do not figure systematically the origins and destination of goods traded whereas the French statistics provide this information. The first part compares the administrative context in which both set of data were produced. The second part contrasts their construction, and pays particular attention to their trade nomenclatures. The third part studies whether they give comparable pictures of the evolution of the trade of the Austrian Netherlands.

The customs administration in eighteenth-century France and the Austrian Netherlands

The customs data were produced by two public agencies: the French and the Austrian Netherlands’s bureaus of trade. Both bureaus of trade are well-documented examples of the interest of national administrations for foreign trade statistics.1 The French royal state had been interested in measuring the trade balance since the middle of the seventeenth century. Still, it was only during the preparation of the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, that the cost of the absence of knowledge on French external trade became obvious to French negotiators and that the relevant administration was created. The Habsburg government of the Netherlands only started to show interest after 1748, when they had finally gained enough political independence from the neighbouring powers to introduce their own cautious but efficient customs policy. In France an administrative entity produced nearly complete data on bilateral French trade from 1713 to 1791. The sources confirm the chronology observed by past historians. A break occurred between the first Bureau of the balance of trade, which was terminated in 1783 when its director Pierre Bruyard was dismissed, and the second Bureau, which was nominally terminated on September, 27th 1791 by a décret of the Assemblée Nationale. The bureau actually continued its work in 1792. The transformation of the Bureau in 1783 had little relation with the quality of Bruyard’s work, which was quite satisfactory considering its very limited budget. The transformation was actually linked to a thorough reorganisation of the finance administration. Necker started this and his successors, hesitantly, continued. The second Bureau of the balance of trade had a much larger budget and a much larger area of expertise than the first one. The task of the first Bureau was mainly the redaction of an annual statistical table including bilateral imports and exports. The second Bureau was trusted with much larger responsibilities requiring economic expertise. While it was still in charge of the annual table, it was also asked to produce detailed reports on specific aspects of the external trade of France, and other economic topics such as the tax system. In the Austrian Netherlands, the idea for the customs statistics was first envisaged by the general treasurer, Patrice de Nény. From 1759 to 1791 the data were collected by the bureau de la régie des droits d’entrée et de sortie. The first secretary of the bureau de la régie – and thus the first to be responsible for the new customs management – was Benoît Dupuy. When Dupuy started to collect data for a general trade record a few years before 1759 he was strongly supported by the minister

1 Herman Coppens, 'Bureau voor het beheer van de douanerechten (1737-1794)', in: Erik Aerts (ed.), De centrale overheidsinstellingen van de Habsburgse Nederlanden (1482-1795) (Brussel 1995) 523- 530; Loïc Charles en Guillaume Daudin, 'Le bureau de la balance du commerce au XVIIIe siècle', Revue d'Histoire moderne et contemporaine (accepted for publication).

2 plenipotentiary Karl von Cobenzl because the customs administration was seen as the cornerstone of a mercantilist economic policy. As a part of this wider commercial policy, the Habsburg government welcomed the compilation of a rélévé général (general inventory) of all the merchandise that crossed the border: imports, exports and transit. However, already in 1757, before a first inventory could be completed, Dupuy fell out of grace and was succeeded by Ferdinand Paradis and later on Henri Delplancq. Especially during Delplancq’s leadership the bureau reached its full potential.2 Like the second Bureau in France, the tasks of the bureau de la régie became larger and larger through time. Delplancq developed an interest in all aspects of trade and fiscal policies. Nonetheless, the Habsburg bureau de la régie never got as far as the second Bureau in transforming into a more general statistical agency. Its focus remained mainly on the refinement of customs policy as a means to boost the domestic industries.

“Objet général” and “rélévé general”

The main French source this paper examines is named the Objet général du commerce de la France. The main source from the Austrian Netherlands is named Relevés généraux des Marchandises, Manufactures et Denrées entrées et sorties par les XXI departemens des Pays-bas Autrichiens.3 The Objet général contains a list of goods imported and exported from between fifteen and twenty-two different geographical entities. It always includes the value of the goods. For some years, it also includes their volumes and, implicitly, their price. On the other hand, the relevé général never includes neither price data (only volumes) nor the origins and destinations of the trade flows. It does however contain abundant data on imports, exports and transit of over a 1000 goods ranging from books, gold and butter to charcoal and grains. It includes the yearly trade totals for each of these products as well as separate data for each of the 21 departments of the Southern Low Countries. It goes without arguing that administrative sources like these need to be handled with the utmost circumspection. We need to be aware of negligence, under- registration, contraband and fraud. For the Southern Netherlands, these weaknesses and others have been recorded by Cécile Douxchamps-Lefèvre and Jules Mees.4 Their main concerns are the following: the heterogeneity of units of measure makes it impossible to compose a unified trade balance, fraud was omnipresent, the values are highly minimal and goods that were free of duties (such as diamonds) were not recorded. These authors are undeniably right that we have to be careful not to compare the statistics with modern customs documents: before 1770 the staff in the regional offices of the departments was not even required to be able to read and write.5 Therefore we need to regard the data from the relevé général as an indication for trade volumes and trends, not as a factual record of the past. And when we do

2 Coppens, 'Bureau '. p. 526. 3 General directory of goods, manufactures and foodstuffs imported and exported by the 21 departments of the Austrian Netherlands 4 Jules Mees, 'La statistique douanière de la Belgique dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle', Revue belge d’histoire 1 (1914) 72-97; Cécile Douxchamps-Lefèvre, 'La statistique douanière des Pays-Bas autrichiens', Annales du congrès de la fédération CAH de Belgique (Brussel 1969) 123-130. 5 Christine Piraux en M. Dorban, Douane, commerce et fraude dans le sud de l'espace belge et grand- ducal au XVIIIe siècle (Louvain-la-neuve 1998). p. 136.

3 make estimations about the actual volume of trade we indeed need to consider them as the bare minimum, because when traders had an opportunity to skip customs control – and in other words: skip paying tariffs – they probably didn’t hesitate to do so. This is the case for both exports and imports however, so it probably does not affect the overall trend. The reliability of a source is also affected by the goal it was created for.6 Since the contextual sources show that the government was sincerely interested in gathering reliable information to base her customs policy on, this source was probably not intentionally corrupted by its commissioners. [Paragraph on flaws in the French source?] (Different subordinate customs bureaus in France were not always equally accurate as well…) Both sources thus have accuracy issues, but these can be enlightened by comparing how they were constructed. Volumes in both countries were collected mainly by local employees of the customs administration. Depending on the period, French prices were given either by the Chambres de commerce or directly by the customs administration. Our knowledge of the organisation of the customs administration in the Netherlands further adds to the belief that the sources were quite reliable. The sources of the bureau de la régie show that a very large staff was assigned to compose the statistics. The customs bureau has left a large archive on the organization of her work in the form of regulations, personnel files, memoirs on her foundation and numerous letters and decrees.7 These show that each of the 21 ‘départements’ had a principal bureau and a variable number of subordinate bureaus.8 Each local customs office was leased out by the central administration. This unfortunately has an impact on the coherence of the customs registers: products are partly noted in monetary values, partly in pounds, in baskets, in sizes… On the other hand, it meant that the staff depended on the thorough collecting of taxes to survive, which was an incentive to be meticulous. Moreover the numerous regulations and inspections indicate the accuracy with which the sources were created.9 The government acknowledged that fraud was a serious problem, but it took several steps to deal with it.10 For example, every department had an auditor and guards that were controlled by the central administration, not by the local customs officers.11 This is not surprising considering the fact that the central government depended on tariffs for at least twenty percent of her gross income.12 All things considered nobody disputes the vital importance of the customs statistics for retrieving information about trends and significance in foreign trade. Moreover, in comparison with the statistical material available to the Dutch

6 J. Thomas Lindblad, Statistiek voor historici (Muiderberg 1984). p. 24. 7 National archive Brussels, Conseil des finances, commerce et douanes. The finance council contains detailed personnel files: nrs. 8563-8576, Tariffs registers: nrs. 8873-8874, a list of bureaus: nr. 4294 and countless other sources on the customs administration which are described in: K. Dries, 'Comité voor de wederzijdse handel tussen de duitse erflanden en de Nederlanden (1768-1777)', in: E. Aerts (ed.), De centrale overheidsinstellingen van de Habsburgse Nederlanden (1482-1795) (Brussel 1994) 793-798; Coppens, 'Bureau '. 8 See map, appendix. 9 Algemeen Rijksarchief, Conseil des finances, nr. 6399. 10 Algemeen Rijksarchief, Conseil des finances, nr. 8576. 11 G. Bigwood, Les impôts généraux dans les Pays-Bas autrichiens. Etude historique de législation financière (Leuven 1900) 280. 12 Ibidem219; Herman Coppens, 'De financiën van de centrale regering van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden aan het einde van het spaanse en onder oostenrijks bewind (ca. 1680-1788)', Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren. Brussel 54:142 (1992), 105.

4 Republic – for example – it is no exaggeration to say that the Habsburg statistics are superior.13 Let us now have a look at the trade nomenclature of both dataset. This is interesting for two reasons. First, it allows us to look at whether the data are comparable or not. Second, it gives a glimpse into the consumption culture of both countries. The existence of precise, well-differentiated, nomenclature of goods suggests a more developed world of consumption compatible with the Industrious Revolution hypothesis by Jan de Vries.14 Despite the mentioned differences between the series of trade registers, they contain nearly the same product categories, over an overlapping time span. Thus, the existence of these two, highly comparable sources opens up a lot of possibilities for cross-border comparative research. Moreover, by comparing French and ‘Belgian’ data we can test the robustness of the trade data. Yet, more sources are available. At this point, we have data ranging from 1716 to 1791 (for France) and 1759 to 1791 (for the Austrian Netherlands), but we hope to be able to add data for the Napoleonic period as well. Likewise, our set of data is at the national level but we hope to get disaggregated data from the Northern province of France to get a better idea of the trade by land, which is both less known and studied and particularly important in the case of the trade between France and the Austrian Netherlands. Similarly, it would be possible to get a clearer idea of the trade partners of the Austrian Netherlands by looking at the data at the level of the local customs bureaus. This obviously opens to other questions.

The trade of the Austrian Netherlands seen from both ends of Quiévrain

In 1716, the volume of exchanges between France and the Austrian Netherlands was thin and mainly conducted by land. It was mostly comprised of raw goods, some wine, a bit of coal and some manufactured goods, mainly textiles. At that time, the Austrian Netherlands were a minor trade partner for France despite its proximity: they represented only 5-6% of French trade in the late 1710s. We can think of several reasons to explain this. First and contrary to Holland, a major trading partner of France, the Austrian Netherlands did not have a major port (due to the closure of the river Scheldt in 1585) and as trade by land was much more expensive, its volume was limited by necessity. A second reason is that the Austrian Netherlands had limited purchasing power at that time due to its small population and a medium wealth level per inhabitant. A third reason was that Flanders belonged to one of France’s traditional enemies and had been one of the main theatres of European imperial wars during the whole reign of Louis XIV. The first two reasons suggest that the Austrian Netherlands were not an important player in European trade. The third reason suggests that maybe its trade with the Northern Netherlands and Germany was large enough to compensate this. The paper discriminates between these hypotheses by looking at data from the rélévé general. The pattern of trade between France and Flanders underwent major changes during the Seven Years war (1756-1763). From this period on, the volume of exchanges grew at a much faster pace. France particularly bought more and more textile goods from Flanders. From the 1760s onwards, imports of textiles from

13 J. De Vries en A. Van der Woude, Nederland 1500-1815. De eerste ronde van moderne economische groei (Amsterdam 1995). 14 J. De Vries, The industrious revolution. Consumer behaviour and the household economy, 1650 to the present (Cambridge 2008).

5 Flanders were becoming an important item. They were partly balanced by re-exports of sugar and other colonial goods (coffee). Another significant fact is that a growing part of this trade was now conducted directly through the main port of the Austrian Netherlands, Ostend instead of Amsterdam and, to a lesser extent, Hamburg. The Austrian Netherlands were now playing a small but significant part in French trade. On the one hand, the region provided basic industrial goods, mostly non-cotton textiles and fabrics, that France used in exchange for slaves in Africa or re-exported to its colonies. On the other hand, France was balancing these imports with growing quantities of wine, colonial goods, luxury goods and, maybe more surprisingly, coal. The paper checks if this growing importance of international trade for the Austrian Netherlands is confirmed by their own data. One of the recurring themes in the discussion on trade history is how to make an acceptable reconstruction of the flows of trade in the past.15 Because of the heterogeneity of the measurements in the Habsburg sources we cannot make a unified estimate of the balance of trade yet. And moreover we do not have separate data on the bilateral trade with France, except for the later years 1792 to 1794, when a new form of statistic was created.16 However, we can use the trends from these later years and data from other sources to choose some goods that were relatively important in the bilateral trade between France and the Southern Netherlands. For these goods we can presume that the general trend in the rélévé is the same as the trend for the trade with France. As mentioned above, possible significant products are wine, colonial goods, silk, cotton fabrics, cloth, coal (imported from France), wool, linen and lace (exported to France).17 Commonly, the bilateral balance of trade was assumed to have been favourable to France. This is not surprising, since France pursued a protectionist policy while the Low Countries were prohibited to raise sufficient tariff barriers during the first half of the eighteenth century. On the other hand a large proportion of French export consisted of foodstuffs and primary resources, since France was primarily an agricultural region. Anyhow, due to a relatively stronger international position after 1749, the Netherlands were able to develop a more efficient customs legislation. This probably caused an improvement in the balance of trade for this region. Nevertheless a deficit to the prejudice of the Netherlands remained, according to Hubert Van Houtte, author of the standard work on the Belgian economy.18 Our trade data makes it possible to test this hypothesis. A noteworthy observation about the French-Belgian trade flows is that most of the French imports entered the Low Countries by sea (in other words through the port of Ostend) while exports were mainly conducted by land routes.19 So far, We have conducted research on cotton, wool, linen, silk and coal, which comprises a substantial part of the bilateral trade flows. This paper gives

15 George Maria Welling, The prize of neutrality. Trade relations between Amsterdam and North America 1771-1817. A study in computational history, onuitgegeven doctoraatsverhandeling (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen 1998). 16 Algemeen Rijksarchief, Conseil des finances, relevés généraux de marchandises entrées, sorties et transitées avec l’indication de la provenance et la destinations des produits. This statistic has not been digitialized yet. 17 H. Van Houtte, Histoire économique de la Belgique à la fin de l'ancien régime (Gent 1920) 275; Luk Corluy, Een metodologische poging tot uitwerking van een ekonomisch model van de buitenlandse handel voor het departement Gent in de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden tijdens de tweede helft van de XVIIIe eeuw, onuitgegeven doctoraatsverhandeling (KUL 1972) 155-175. 18 Van Houtte, Histoire 281. 19 Corluy, Een metodologische poging, 176.

6 preliminary results on the trade flows of these goods and discusses how these have evolved during the period 1759-1791. After describing these evolutions, we can compare them to French data and we may already draw some conclusions on the general impact of international trade (in these cases mostly with France) on the Austrian Netherlands. We will start by discussing the trade in textiles, which was the most important branch for the Southern Low Countries, both in volume and in worth. The most recent element in this industry was cotton. Besides from France, finished cotton fabrics were imported from England and Holland.20 These were also the countries that provided white cotton for the printers. The main foreign consumers of Belgian cotton were France, Spain and Spanish America.21 Cotton fabrics (both white, unfinished cottons and printed ones) were clearly imported far more than they were exported (chart 1). But, starting from the end of the 1770’s there is evidence of a slight case of import substitution. Exports did not truly increase, but the Austrian Netherlands were able to meet domestic needs and prevent growing imports despite the rising demand for cotton. International trade thus had a clear impact on the cotton sector, since it forced the sector to develop faster. Otherwise consumers would have turned to competing suppliers. This might have happened even faster if it was not for the Habsburg industrial policy, which had granted a monopoly to one cotton printer. The administration hoped that this would support the new branch, but the company was never able to produce enough to live up to the needs of consumers. In 1778 the monopoly expired and imports started dropping, since new printing companies popped up all over the country. Even though the take-off of cotton sector was probably delayed by the industrial policy, her achievements on the home market can’t be dismissed as insignificant, since she had to face much stronger international opponents.

Chart 1: The Low Countries’ trade in cotton fabrics, 1759-1791

20 ARA, RvF, nr. 4557, Mémoire sur la necessité d’augmenter la filature de coton aux Pays Bas (s.d.). ARA, RvF, nr. 4558. Ibidem 105, 167. 21 ARA, RvF, nr. 4642, 18 augustus 1779. ARA, Fonds Handschriften, nr. 850 A, Memorie (s.n. en s.d.). ARA, RvF, nr. 4639, 13 februari 1764.

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In the case of the lace trade there was a clear setback in exports. At the beginning of the eighteenth century lace was exported frequently to Spain, the Dutch Republic and to France.22 However, the commodity experienced fierce competition from the British, while French lace too became more and more en vogue.23 In spite of a persistently active balance of trade it is clear that starting from 1770 foreign demand took a nosedive. This was probably due to the French and British opposition.24

Chart 2: The lace trade, 1759-1791

22 The remarkably low figures in the graph up to 1764 are a consequence of the many deficiencies in the statistic during the first years of its construction. Monique Heeren, De kanthandel van de firma reyns te Antwerpen in de 18de eeuw 1966) 95; Karel Degryse, 'De antwerpse fortuinen: Kapitaalsaccumulatie, -investering en -rendement te Antwerpen in de 18de eeuw', Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis 2005:1-4 (2005). 23 Heeren, De kanthandel 166. 24 Ibidem. ARA, Secretarie van State en Oorlog, 2149/1, 1780; ARA, RvF, 4289: Entrecours du Commerce de ces Pays avec les pays étrangers.

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Linen was the most stable positive factor in de Netherlands’ trade balance. Moreover, crude and combed flax were also essential export commodities, especially for the province of Flanders. According to the sources, France was its prime buyer.25 For linen cloth, Spain and its colonies were most likely more important consumers. All flows of flax considered, one may safely assume that the production of flax and linen for export was much larger than that for internal use. The short peak in exports around 1780 can be attributed to the Four Year’s War between France and England, that broadened the scope of the Netherlands on international markets.26

25 ARA, RvF, 5330, 21 januari 1778. 26 Etienne Sabbe, De Belgische vlasnijverheid (Kortrijk 1975); Christiaan Vandenbroeke, 'Sociale en konjuncturele facetten van de linnennijverheid in Vlaanderen (late 14e-midden 19e eeuw)', Handelingen der maatschappij voor geschiedenis en oudheidkunde te Gent 33 (1979) 117-174.

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Chart 3: The trade in linen, 1759-1791

The story for wool and woolen fabrics looks completely different (chart 4 and 5). Exports of crude wool were limited, but this is no surprise since the government often prohibited wool exports.27 Textile producers pleated non-stop for a ban on exports or at least an increase in the export duties. They argued this was necessary because the trade with France rendered wool too expensive.28 Consequently imports – mainly from Spain – were much higher. Inland wool probably could not live up to the quality demands, while Spanish Merino-wool could. Anyway, the high imports combined with diminishing exports suggest increased processing of this resource in the Austrian Netherlands which was, in the end, the goal of government policy. In the case of woolen cloth however, there is no rosy explanation up for grabs. It appears interest for this fabric was declining steadily, both at home and abroad. On the other hand, one may notice a slight recovery in exports at the end of the period.

Chart 4: The wool trade (except for Spanish wool), 1759-1791

27 ARA, RvF, 4874: Brief van 20 november 1765 (ondertekend Paradis); 25 september 1765 (Baudier); brief van 21 september; RvF, 4875 en 4876. 28 ARA, RvF, 4571, 4879 en 4880: Brief van t’Kint over duurte en schaarste van wol, 8 oktober 1771. Volgens Lebrun steeg de wolprijs inderdaad in de tweede helft van de achttiende eeuw: Pierre Lebrun, L'industrie de la laine a verviers pendant le XVIIIe et le début du XIXe siècle (Liège 1948) 301.

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Chart 5: The trade in broadcloth, 1759-1791

For silk, the situation appears equally grim. The Low Countries’ silk producers blamed foreign competition and insufficient trade tariffs for the fact that their companies were struggling.29 An augmentation of the import duties and the exemption from all duties on the import of crude silk had to turn the tide.30 And indeed, imports fell back throughout the 32 years. Unfortunately for the Southern Netherlands France

29 ARA, RvF, 4599: 1 februari 1753. 30 ARA, RvF, 4556: 3 september 1762 en 20 oktober 1762. ARA, RvF, 8874.

11 pursued the same tactic, so that exports dropped as well.31 Silk indeed seemed doomed to disappear or was at least forced to turn back to the local market.

Chart 6: The trade in silk fabrics, 1759-1791

For the textile industry the eighteenth century appeared – based on trade statistics – to have been a period of strong internal change. A large part of the textile manufacturers succeeded to adapt to new fashions and therefore could keep their head above water while faced with heavy competition. However, to claim that international trade was the driving force behind this evolution goes too far. In the case of textiles, the domestic market seemed to be the main engine behind the changes. A second interesting trading good was coal. The study of the international trade flows of coal reveals a number of new insights in the fortune of the coal industry. The coal sector succeeded in keeping imports down, while slightly expanding her foreign market (chart 7). From 1779 onwards the balance of trade was advantageous. In a purely mercantilist vision the coal sector was thus doing well. Still, it is clear that the Southern Netherlands did not become fully autarkic in guaranteeing their own energy supply, in spite of the large domestic coal production.32 But they probably might have been able to do so, if it were not for the location of the coal basins. This made importing coal from England or France a lot more effortless for the Northern parts of the area. What is more important however, is that we could deduct an increase in demand from the trade figures that suggests a rather rosy picture of the rest of the Low Countries’ industry. It required an ever growing amount of coal, which surely arouses suspicion that it was developing, both in terms of innovation and of size. The history of this commodity once again suggests that the Southern Netherlands were capable of realizing a degree of import substitution, following from a growing home market.

31 Hervé Hasquin, 'Nijverheid in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, 1650-1795', Algemene geschiedenis der Nederlanden (Haarlem 1979) 124-159, 147. 32 Ibidem, 137.

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Chart 7: The coal trade, 1759-1791

Our hypothesis so far is that the Austrian Netherlands were able to achieve a high degree of import substitution: exports for manufactures did not rise, but imports dropped during the period. At the same time, imports for primary resources (wool, coal) kept rising, probably to feed the growing industry. So the Customs legislation was able to protect and maybe even boost new industries in the Austrian Netherlands, what made the region more independent. Of course, they also remained dependent on imports for a lot of other foreign resources and especially for colonial goods, such as unfinished cotton. Chart : Number of categories in the Balance du Commerce (by year) and the Relevé Général

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Chart : Number of categories in the Balance du Commerce and the Relevé Général

Conclusion

Using two different sources to look at the same phenomenon makes the analysis all the more robust if the sources provide comparable information. This is what this paper wanted to test…

Appendix

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Table of product categories

Product categories in the Objet général (France) Relevé général (Austrian Netherlands) Steel alum amber starch Trees and plants slate silver and gold weaponry saltpetre Tents and sails baleen Balls (for playing) basine ships cattle “Jews” “nailers” butter beer wood woodwork hosiery buttons cocoa coffee coaches Printing characters Playing cards Ash meat hemp coal wax glue cords coral horns cotton blankets horsehair crystal leather

15 copper fabrics of all qualities drugs ink spices tin small drapery iron yarn cheese fruit manure gum grains Clocks and timepieces oil pictures instruments canes ivory milk wool lanterns vegetables Wine lees cork flax litharge books mattresses haberdashery mirrors honey mats embroidery Clothes and finery Hats, millinery birds straw bread paper parchment Braiding and ribbons pastry skins pearls stones lead

16 feathers Animal hair Fresh fish Salted or dried fish hardware soap salt seeds syrup bellows Shoes. silk sugar tallow tobacco tapestry dyestuffs tea turpentine cloth linen peat vermicelli Glass and glass works wine brandy vinegar Poultry and game Enamel

Map of the Austrian Netherlands

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