Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T06:33:47.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Determinants of International Migration in Early Modern Europe: Evidence from the Maritime Sector, c. 1700–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2020

Alexander Klein
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Jelle van Lottum
Affiliation:
Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

This article offers the first multivariate regression study of international migration in early modern Europe. Using unique eighteenth-century data about maritime workers, we created a data set of migration flows among European countries to examine the role of factors related to geography, population, language, the market, and chain migration in explaining the migration of these workers across countries. We show that among all factors considered in our multivariate analysis, the geographical characteristics of the destination countries, size of port towns, and past migrations are among the most robust and quantitatively the most important factors influencing cross-country migration flows.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Social Science History Association, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. A. (2005) “The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change and economic growth.American Economic Review 95 (3): 546–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adserà, A. (2015) “Language and culture as drivers of migration.” IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics: 164. https://wol.iza.org/articles/language-and-culture-as-drivers-of-migration/long.Google Scholar
Adserà, A., and Pytliková, M.. (2015) “The role of language in shaping international migration.” The Economic Journal 125 (586): F49F81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Artuc, E., Docquier, F., Özden, Ç, and Parsons, C. (2015) “A global assessment of human capital mobility: The role of non-OECD destinations.” World Development (65): 626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bade, K. J. (2003) Migration in European History. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bade, K. J., Emmer, P. C., Lucassen, L., and Oltmer, J., eds. (2011) The Encyclopedia of European Migration and Minorities: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baines, D. (1994) “European emigration, 1815–1930: Looking at the emigration decision again.” Economic History Review 47 (3): 525–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakemore, R. J. (2017) “Pieces of eight, pieces of eight: Seamen’s earnings and the venture economy of early modern seafaring.” Economic History Review 70 (4): 1153–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borjas, J. G. (1989) “Economic theory and international migration.” International Migration Review 23 (3): 457–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruijn, J. R. (1997) “Career patterns,” in Royen, P. C., Bruijn, J. R., and Lucassen, J. (eds.) “Those Emblems of Hell”? European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570–1870. St. John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association: 2534.Google Scholar
Cottret, B. J. (1992) The Huguenots in England: Immigration and Settlement c. 1550–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crozet, M. (2004) “Do migrants follow market potentials? An estimation of a new economic geography model.” Journal of Economic Geography 4 (4): 439–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, J. (1984) European Urbanization (1500–1800). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gelderblom, O. (2000) Zuid-Nederlandse kooplieden en de opkomst van de Amsterdamse stapelmarkt (1578–1630). Hilversum: Verloren.Google Scholar
Greenwood, M. (1975) “Research on internal migration in the United States: A survey.Journal of Economic Literature 13 (2): 397433.Google Scholar
Grubb, F. (2011) German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709–1920. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hatton, T. J., and Williamson, J. G. (1998) The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hatton, T. J., and Williamson, J. G. (2008) Global Migrations and the World Economy: Two Centuries of Policy and Performance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Heerma van Voss, L. (1996) “North Sea culture,” in Roding, J. and Heerma van Voss, L. (eds.) The North Sea and Culture (1550–1800). Hilversum: Verloren: 2140.Google Scholar
Helliwell, J. F. (1997) “National borders, trade and migration.Pacific Economic Review 2 (3): 165–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helliwell, J. F. (1998) How Much Do National Borders Matter? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Hoerder, D. (2002) Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, J. I. (1985) European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janssen, G. (2016) The Dutch Revolt and Catholic Exile in Reformation Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuijpers, E. (2005) Migrantenstad. Immigranten en sociale verhoudingen in 17e-eeuws Amsterdam. Hilversum: Verloren.Google Scholar
Lesger, C., Lucassen, L., and Schrover, M. (2002) “Is there life outside the migrant network? German immigrants in XIXth century Netherlands and the need for a more balanced migration typology.” Annales de démographie historique (2): 2950.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewer, J., and van den Berg, H. (2007) “A gravity model of immigration.” Economics Letters (99): 164–67.Google Scholar
Lucassen, J. (1987) Migrant Labour in Europe, 1600–1900: The Drift to the North Sea. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Lucassen, J. (1997) “The international maritime labour market (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries),” in Royen, P. C., Bruijn, J. R., and Lucassen, J. (eds.) Those Emblems of Hell? European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570–1870. St. John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association.Google Scholar
Lucassen, J. (2002) “Immigranten in Holland, 1600–1800 een kwantitatieve benadering.” CGM Working Paper (3).Google Scholar
Lucassen, J., and Lucassen, L. (2009) “The mobility transition revisited, 1500–1900: What the case of Europe can offer to global history.” Journal of Global History (4): 347–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucassen, J., and Lucassen, L. (2010) “The mobility transition in Europe revisited, 1500–1900: Sources and methods.” IISH Research paper (46).Google Scholar
Lucassen, J., and Lucassen, L. (2017) “Theorizing cross-cultural migrations: The case of Eurasia since 1500.” Social Science History (41): 445475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucassen, J., and Unger, R. W. (2011) “Shipping, productivity and economic growth,” in Unger, R. W. (ed.) Shipping and Economic Growth, 1350–1850. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill: 184.Google Scholar
Lucassen, L. (2012) “Cities, states and migration control in Western Europe: Comparing then and now,” in de Munck, B. and Winter, A. (eds.) Gated Communities? Regulating Migration in Early Modern Cities. Farnham, UK: Ashgate: 217–40.Google Scholar
Manning, P. (2005) Migration in World History. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mayda, A. M. (2010) “International migration: A panel data analysis of the determinants of bilateral flows.Journal of Population Economics 23 (4): 1249–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page Moch, L. (2003) Moving Europeans: Migration in Western Europe since 1650. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Pettegree, A. (1986) Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Rahn Phillips, C. (1997) “The labor market for sailors in Spain, 1570–1870,” in Royen, P. C., Bruijn, J. R., and Lucassen, J. (eds.) Those Emblems of Hell? European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570–1870. St. John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association.Google Scholar
Ravenstein, E. G. (1885) “The laws of migration.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 48 (2): 167227.Google Scholar
Ravenstein, E. G. (1889) “The laws of migration: Second paper.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 52 (2): 241305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rediker, M. (1989) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ruderman, D. B. (2010) Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilling, H. (1983) “Innovation through migration: The settlements of Calvinistic Netherlanders in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Central and Western Europe.” Histoire Sociale (16): 733.Google Scholar
Schrover, M., van der Leun, J., and Quispel, C. (2007) “Niches, labour market segregation and gender.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33 (4): 529540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sogner, S., (1993) “Young in Europe: Norwegian sailors and servant-girls seeking employment in Amsterdam,” in Bardet, J. P., Lebrun, F., and Dupâquier, J. (eds.) Mesurer et comprendre. Mélanges offerts a Jacques Dupâquier. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France: 515–32.Google Scholar
Sogner, S., and van Lottum, J. (2007) “An immigrant community? Norwegian Sailor Families in Amsterdam in the 17th Century.” History of the Family 12 (3): 153168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Lottum, J. (2007) Across the North Sea: The Impact of the Dutch Republic on International Labour Migration, c. 1550–1850. Amsterdam: Aksant.Google Scholar
Van Lottum, J. (2011) “Labour migration and economic performance: London and the Randstad, c. 1600-1800.” Economic History Review 64 (2): 531570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Lottum, J. (2015) “Some thoughts about migration of maritime workers in the eighteenth-century North Sea Region.” The International Journal of Maritime History 27: 647661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Lottum, J., van Voss, L. H., and Lucassen, J. (2011) “Sailors, national and international labour markets and national identity, 1600-1850,” in Unger, R. (ed.) Shipping and Economic Growth 1350-1800. Leiden and Boston: Brill: 309–52.Google Scholar
Van Lottum, J., and van Zanden, J. L. (2014) “Labour productivity and human capital in the European maritime sector of the eighteenth century.” Explorations in Economic History 53 (2014): 83100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Royen, P. C., Bruijn, J. R., and Lucassen, J., eds. (1997) “Those emblems of hell”? European sailors and the maritime labour market, 1570–1870. St. John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association.Google Scholar
Wegge, S. A. (1998) “Chain migration and information networks: Evidence from nineteenth-century Hesse-Cassel.” Journal of Economic History (58): 957–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegge, S. A. (1999) “To part or not to part? Emigration and inheritance institutions in nineteenth-century Hesse-Cassel.” Explorations in Economic History (36): 3355.Google ScholarPubMed
Wegge, S. A. (2017) “Different profiles, different choices: Mid-nineteenth century Hessians who emigrated to the Southern Hemisphere.Social Science History 41 (3): 415–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegge, S. A. (2018) “Eighteenth-century German emigrants from Hanau-Hesse: Who went east and who went west.Continuity and Change (33) 2: 225–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wokeck, M. S. (1999) Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America. University Park: Penn State University Press.Google Scholar