Thèses sur le sujet « Portugal – Social conditions – 18th century »

White women who inhabited the West Indies in the eighteenth century fascinated the metropole. In popular prints, novels, and serial publications, these women appeared to stray from “proper” British societal norms. Inhabiting a space dominated by a tropical climate and the presence of a large enslaved African population opened white women to censure. Almost from the moment of colonial encounter, they were perceived not as proper British women but as an imperial “other,” inhabiting a middle space between the ideal woman and the supposed indigenous “savage.” Furthermore, white women seemed to be lacking the sensibility prized in eighteenth-century England. However, the correspondence that survives from white women in Jamaica reveals the language of sensibility. “Creolized” in this imperial landscape, sensibility extended beyond written words to the material objects exchanged during their tenure on these sugar plantations. Although many women who lived in the Caribbean island of Jamaica might have fit the model, extant writings from Ann Brodbelt, Sarah Dwarris, Margaret and Mary Cowper, Lady Maria Nugent, and Ann Appleton Storrow, show a longing to remain connected with metropolitan society and their loved ones separated by the Atlantic. This sensibility and awareness of metropolitan material culture masked a lack of empathy towards subordinates, and opened the white women these islands to censure, particularly during the era of the British abolitionist movement. Novels and popular publications portrayed white women in the Caribbean as prone to overconsumption, but these women seem to prize items not for their inherent value. They treasured items most when they came from beloved connections. This colonial interchange forged and preserved bonds with loved ones and comforted the women in the West Indies during their residence in these sugar plantation islands. This dissertation seeks to complicate the stereotype of insensibility and overconsumption that characterized the perception of white women who inhabited the British West Indies in the long eighteenth century.

This study analyzes the impact of eighteenth-century commercialization on the evolution of the English and southern American landed classes with regard to three genteel leadership qualities--education, vocation, and personal characteristics. A simultaneous comparison provides a clearer view of how each adapted, or failed to adapt, to the social and economic change of the period. The analysis demonstrates that the English gentry did not lose a class struggle with the commercial ranks as much as they were overwhelmed by economic changes they could not understand. The southern landed class established an economy based on production of cash crops and thus adapted better to a commercial economy. The work addresses the development of class-consciousness in England and the origins of Virginia's landed class.

This study explores the moral characteristics of late eighteenth-century Scottish culture in order to ascertain both its specific nature and its contribution to modern consciousness. It argues that, while the language of moral discourse in that socio-economic environment remained in large part traditional, containing aspects from both neo-Stoicism and classical humanism, it also incorporated and helped to develop an explicitly modern conceptual network. The language of sensibility as discussed by Adam Smith and adapted by practical Scottish moralists, played a key role in the Scottish assessment of appropriate ethical behaviour In a complex society. The contribution of enlightened Scottish moralists to the language and literature of sensibility has been virtually overlooked, with a corresponding impoverishment of our understanding of some of the most important eighteenth-century social and cultural developments. Both literary scholars and social historians have made the mistake of equating eighteenth century sensibility with the growth of individualism and romanticism. The Scottish contribution to sensibility cannot be appreciated in such terms, but needs to be examined in relation to the stress that its practitioners placed upon man's social nature and the integrity of the moral community. Scottish moralists believed that their traditional ethical community was threatened by the increased selfishness, disparateness, and mobility of an imperial and commercial British society. They turned to the cultivation of the moral sentiments as a primary mechanism for moral preservation and regeneration in a cold and indifferent modern world. What is more their discussion of this cultivation related in significant ways to the development of new perspectives on adolescence, private and domestic life, the concept of the feminine and the literary form of the novel. Scottish moralists made a contribution to sentimental discourse which has been almost completely overlooked. Henry Mackenzie, Hugh Blair and James Fordyce were among the most popular authors of the century and their discussion of the family, the community, education, the young and the conjugal relationship was not only influential per se but also reflected a particularly Scottish moral discourse which stressed the concept of sociability and evidenced concern about the survival of the moral community in a modern society. To the extent that literary scholars and historians have ignored or misread their works, they have obscured rather than enlightened eighteenth-century culture and its relationship with the social base.
Arts, Faculty of
History, Department of
Graduate

Collecting recipes was an established tradition that continued in elite English households throughout the eighteenth century. This thesis is on medical recipes and advice, and it addresses the evolution of recipe collecting from the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. It investigates elite domestic medicine within a cultural history of medicine framework and uses social and material history approaches to reveal why elites continued to collect medical recipes, given the commercialisation of medicine. This thesis contends that the meaning of domestic medicine must be understood within a wider context of elite healthcare in order to appreciate how the recipe collecting tradition evolved alongside cultural shifts, and shifts within the medical economy. My re-appraisal of the meaning of domestic medicine gives elite healthcare a clearer role within the narrative of the social history of medicine. Elite healthcare was about choice. Wealthy individuals had economic agency in consumerism, and recipe compilers interacted with new sources of information and products; recipe books are evidence of this consumer engagement. In addition to being household objects, recipe books had cultural significance as heirlooms, and as objects of literacy, authority, and creativity. A crucial reason for the continuation of the recipe collecting tradition was due to its continued engagement with cultural attitudes towards social obligation, knowledge exchange, taste, and sociability as an intellectual pursuit. Positioning the household as an important space of creativity, experiment, and innovation, this thesis reinforces domestic medicine as an important part of the interconnected histories of science and medicine. This thesis moreover contributes to the social history of eighteenth-century England by demonstrating the central role domestic medicine had in elite healthcare, and reveals the elite reception of the commercialisation of medicine from a consumer perspective through an investigation of personal records of intellectual pastimes and patient experiences.

There has been little interest in eighteenth century urban history in England and particularly in the significance of patterns of urban social structure during the transition from a traditional to a modern society. One reason for this is the intractable and fragmentary nature of the sources for this precensus period. In this study three types of source, a town directory, a Parliamentary Poll Book and the city rate and national tax returns for Bristol in 1774/5, were collated using nominal record linkage techniques to give a body of information which covered 80% of the city's heads of household. With the use of this database and various computer techniques occupation, sex, wealth, place of residence and voting allegiance were analysed. The results suggest that a professional or leisured suburban group was by this date well established in distinct areas of the city. The supremacy of the traditional élite, the overseas merchants, was challenged by this group, although the merchants themselves were in part joining the suburban dwellers. Poorer Bristolians still concentrated in dockside parishes and in parts of the city which were becoming increasingly unfashionable and homogeneous as the richer men moved out, though this process was not very far advanced and there was still a degree of mixing in the older city parishes. The economic structure of the city was changing with increased emphasis on services, professions and distribution. This increased disparities in wealth within the city and between the city and its hinterland and gave the ability to the rich to further their isolation from the poor by moving to the suburbs. The 1774 election pointed to the continuing importance of traditional influences (here of religion) In society, but also confirmed suggestions that the professions and distributors were drawing away from the mass of the populace. A revision of previous interpretations of the nature of Bristol society is necessary to accommodate this growing and important group - the emergent middle class. The thesis shows that a comprehensive computer-based study can make usable dubious sources (in particular fiscal records) and use them to revise interpretations of English urban communities at this date.

Using a combination of public institutional records and private personal records, this thesis explores how a newly emerging America constructed its ideas of physical disability in the era of the War for Independence. In the colonies, physical disability never stood alone as an independent category of difference, but was anchored in discourses of poverty and morality. However, the tumultuous events that occurred during the period 177 5 to 1818 forced this developing nation to confront physical disability to an extent that had not previously been required. The result was a conceptual and legislative shift, which caused the understanding of physical disability to be fundamentally redefined and become something identifiable in its own right. To analyse how, and why, this happened, this thesis looks at the public, cultural discourse of disability through this period, and examines the legal developments and the lived experiences that were occurring alongside it. By considering how disability was used in public commentaries to allegorise the split with Britain, it highlights the complicated environment and conceptual tumult which faced disabled Revolutionary War veterans on their return. Analysis of the trajectory of disability pension legislation suggests an infant nation testing the waters with early welfare programmes, often with limited success. However, these early initiatives were the progenitors of the first. national pension program. These developments created a distinct legal construction of disability that was seemingly at odds with the negative representation of disability in the public arena and, through medical and legal classifications, created a more formal platform for the conceptualisation of disability to emerge. To complement the institutional perspective, this thesis explores the lives of 523 disabled Revolutionary War veterans, using information they gave in their applications for a disability pension. This experiential approach expounds the ways in which disability was managed, how it shaped - and was shaped by - pre-existing expectations of gender roles, and how these experiences were often determined by class. Pertinent topics include family life, work life, and the ways in which veterans understood and employed their identities as disabled pensioners. Unlike the post-Civil War period a Revolutionary War disability never became the symbol of patriotism and bravery that the empty sleeve of the Civil War amputee did. Using the experiences of disabled former Revolutionary servicemen and contrasting this with the public discourse and national memory of the war, this thesis presents the reasons why this was the case.

The thesis challenges popular generalisations about the trades, occupations and locations to which pauper apprentices were consigned, shining the spotlight away from the familiar narrative of factory children, onto the fate of their destitute peers in port towns. A comparative investigation of Liverpool, Bristol and Southampton, it adopts a deliberately broad definition of the term pauper apprenticeship in its multi-sourced approach, using 1710 Poor Law and charity apprenticeship records and previously unexamined New Poor Law and charity correspondence to provide new insight into the chronology, mechanisms and experience of pauper apprenticeship. Not all port children were shipped out. Significantly more children than has hitherto been acknowledged were placed in traditional occupations, the dominant form of apprenticeship for port children. The survival and entrenchment of this type of work is striking, as are the locations in which children were placed; nearly half of those bound to traditional trades remained within the vicinity of the port. The thesis also sheds new light on a largely overlooked aspect of pauper apprenticeship, the binding of boys into the Merchant service. Furthermore, the availability of sea apprenticeships as well as traditional placements caused some children to be shipped in to the ports for apprenticeships. Of those who were still shipped out to the factories, the evidence shows that far from dying out, as previously thought, the practice of batch apprenticeship persisted under the New Poor Law. The most significant finding of the thesis is the survival and endurance of pauper apprenticeship as an institution involving both Poor Law and charity children. Poor children were still being apprenticed late into the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Pauper apprenticeship is shown to have been a robust, resilient and resurgent institution. The evidence from port towns offers significant revision to the existing historiography of pauper apprenticeship.

This study is a cross-examination of the theory of revolution and the historical view of English society and politics in the late eighteenth century. Historical research focused upon the most respected (if not the most recent) works containing theory and information about the effects of the French Revolution on English society and politics. Research into the theory of revolution was basically a selection process whereby a few of the most extensive and reasonable theories were chosen for use.The cross-study of the two fields revealed that, although historians view it as politically conservative and generally complacent, English society, fettered by antiquated political institutions and keenly aware of the recent French Revolution, contained all the elements conducive to rebellion listed by the theorists of revolution. In the final analysis, research indicated revolution did not occur in England because of the confluence of political, military and social events in England and France.
Department of History

Recent research has shown the Canadian peasantry of the eighteenth century to be less homogeneous than was once thought. Beyond the ebb and flow of the family cycle, the striking differences in productive resources from one household to the next can only have furthered accumulation among the peasants. Set in Riviere-du-Sud, a seigneury fifty kilometres downstream from Quebec on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, the present study is concerned with the forms and limits of that process. By 1720, the seigneury had entered what might be called the second phase of colonization; the population had taken root, but throughout the period land for the children who departed would continue to be available farther afield. In this setting, it is suggested, both production and markets were too uncertain to permit even the largest producers to lose their subsistence orientation and break through the traditional limits to scale. At the same time, such peasants had no choice but to invest most of their appreciable surplus in land, which they eventually distributed to their children. A muted differentiation process, in which the most prosperous continually pushed the vulnerable off their valuable land to inferior holdings elsewhere, resulted.

This thesis traces the development of philanthropy as a tradition and movement within the United Kingdom and the British world, with attention to both the inner lives of philanthropists, and the social networks and organizational practices that underpinned the dramatic growth in philanthropic activity between the late 1750s and 1840. In contrast to studies that see philanthropy as primarily responsive to Britain's shifting public culture and imperial fortunes during the period, it argues that philanthropic change was driven by innovations in the internal culture and structures of intersecting commercial and religious networks, that were adapted to philanthropic purposes by philanthropic entrepreneurs. It frames the growth of philanthropy as both a series of experiments in effecting social change, within the United Kingdom and transnationally, and the fostering of a vocationally formative culture across three generations. Chapter one focuses on John Thornton, a prominent merchant and religious patron, reconstructing his correspondence networks and philanthropic practices, and revealing patterns of philanthropic interaction between mercantile and Evangelical clerical networks. Chapter two uses the reports and minutes of representative metropolitan societies and companies to develop a prosopography of more than 4000 philanthropic directors, mapping their nexus of interconnections in 1760, 1788 and 1800, and arguing for the importance of firstly Russia Company networks and later country banking networks for philanthropy. Chapters three and four offer an extended case study of the 'Clapham Sect' as an example of collective agency, reframing their influence within the philanthropic nexus, and, through a close reading of their published works, showing how as intellectual collaborators they developed a unique conception of 'trust' that informed their activism. Chapter five shows how philanthropists extended their reach transnationally, with case studies in Bengal, Sierra Leone and New Zealand, and chapter six addresses multiple paths by which philanthropy became intertwined with Empire and the globalizing world in the British imagination.

An adequate supply of the right kinds of foods is critical to an army's success on the march and on the battlefield. Good food supplies and a dire lack of provisions have profound effects on the regulation, confidence, esprit de corps, and physical state of an army. The American War of Independence (1775-1783) provides a challenging case study of this principle. The relationship between food and troop morale has been previously discussed as just one of many factors that contributed to the success of the Continental Army, but has not been fully explored as a single issue in its own right. I argue that despite the failures of three provisioning system adopted by the Continental Congress - the Commissariat, the state system of specific supplies, and the contract system - the army did keep up its morale and achieve the victory that resulted in independence from Great Britain. The evidence reveals that despite the poor provisioning, the American army was fed in the field for eight years thanks largely to its ability to forage for its food. This foraging system, if it can be called a system, was adequate to sustain morale and perseverance.

L’Allemagne du dix-huitième siècle est composée de plus de 300 petits pays se différenciant en ce qui concerne la politique, la religion et la langue. S’y ajoutent des territoires qui ne sont pas allemands, mais sous influence de la culture germanophone.Cette étude analyse alors un territoire qui s’étend de l’Alsace jusqu’en Russie et des pays scandinaves jusqu’en Suisse. Embourbés dans des guerres territoriales, les souverains ne montrent que peu d’intérêt pour le théâtre, et si oui, uniquement pour l’opéra italien et le théâtre français. Au début du siècle, le théâtre professionnel allemand est surtout influencé par le théâtre anglais et un peu par la comédie italienne.Le statut social des acteurs est très mauvais. C’est surtout la bourgeoisie qui se méfie d’eux. A partir des années 1730, sous influence du théâtre français, le théâtre allemand s’émancipe. Dans la seconde moitié du siècle, il devient le moteur del’embourgeoisement de la société. Les actrices se sont beaucoup investies dans cette évolution, non malgré, mais en raison de leur statut social particulièrement mauvais. Longtemps, seules les gender studies se sont intéressées à cette période de l’histoire théâtrale. Une de leurs théories de base définit l’homme et la femme comme deux groupes sociologiques distincts. Cette théorie a été reprise, sans en questionner lavalidité pour l’histoire théâtrale. C’est le point de départ de cette étude, qui compare les vies de plus de 400 actrices et acteurs de l’époque. De nombreux aspects de la vie privée et professionnelle y sont abordés : famille, carrière, finances, situation juridiqueet fréquentations. Ce mémoire démontre que le milieu théâtral de l’époque peut effectivement être divisé en deux groupes : les comédiens ayant grandi au théâtre et ceux y étant arrivés plus tard. En effet, la distinction générale de l’homme et de la femme ne peut être appliquée au théâtre allemand qu’à partir de la fin du dix-huitième siècle
In the 18th century, Germany was composed of more than 300 small states which differed politically, religiously and linguistically. In addition to these, there were non-German territories which were, however, greatly influenced by German culture. As a result, the notion of “Germany” included a territory from Alsace to Russia and from theScandinavian countries to Switzerland. Their rulers were generally preoccupied with battles over dominance. If they devoted any time to theatre it was most likely Italian opera or French theatre. In the beginning of the century, German professional theatre was mainly influenced by English theatre and Italian theatre. The social position of actors was very poor. The bourgeoisie looked on them with particular suspicion.Starting in the 1730s, under French theatre influence, the German theatre started becoming more independent. In the second half of the century, theatre was the driving force behind the embourgeoisement of society. Driven by the desire to improve their low social status, actresses played a leading role in this revolution. For a long time, only gender studies were interested in this part of theatre history. A prominent gender studies theory suggested that men and women were of two different sociological groups. This theory has been accepted without justifying its concurrence with theatre history. That’s the starting point of this work which compares the lives of more than 400 Germana ctresses and actors of the time. Many facets of private and professional life are analysed: family life, career opportunities, finances, legal status and social life. The dissertation shows that the theatrical milieu was already divided into two groups far into the second half of the century: actors who had grown up in theatre and those who came to it later. In fact, the categorical sociological distinction between men and women in German theatre is only justifiable beginning at the end of the 18th century

Orientador: John Manuel Monteiro
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas.
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Resumo: Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo principal a investigação da aldeia de Barueri ao longo do século XVIII. Baseando-se em pesquisas recentes, a intenção é entender como os índios dessa aldeia se inseriram dentro da sociedade colonial e como transformaram a identidade de índios aldeados em uma forma de lutar pelos direitos que essa condição supostamente lhes garantia. Para fazer isso esses índios tiveram que se inserir no jogo político da capitania de São Paulo e lidar com os problemas e conflitos entre as diversas autoridades que tinham interesses sobre o trabalho deles. Através dessa interação os índios conseguiram garantir formas particulares de ocupar as terras da aldeia e possibilidades de negar serviços que lhes eram ordenados. Essa situação começou a se transformar com o Diretório dos Índios que passou a exigir uma mudança territorial e, consequentemente, uma mudança de comportamento dos índios. Por fim, buscamos mostrar que existia uma população ativa e que formava famílias dentro da aldeia de Barueri, o que contradiz a bibliografia que vê esse lugar como decadente e despovoado ao longo do século XVIII
Abstract: This thesis focuses on the Indian settlement of Barueri, Captaincy of São Paulo, Brazil, during the eighteenth century. Based on recent research, this work seeks to understand how the Indians of this village became part of colonial society and how they used the condition of settled Indians in their struggle for the rights that this condition was supposed to guarantee. In order to do this, these Indians had to take part in the politics of the Captaincy and deal with the problems and conflicts involving different authorities who had an interest in their labor. This involvement allowed the Indians to guarantee specific forms of land tenure and to refuse to comply with work orders. This situation began to change with the introduction of the Indian Directorate, which set in motion territorial changes and consequently changes in the Indians' behavior. Finally, the thesis endeavors to document an active population that constituted families within Barueri, in disagreement with the prevailing bibliography, which sees this settlement as decadent and depopulated during the eighteenth century
Mestrado
Historia Social
Mestre em História

L'objectif de la thèse est de saisir, pour Rome en tant que capitale européenne de la musique, et dans la continuité des récents travaux historiques sur les capitales culturelles, les modalités et les temporalités d'une profonde transformation des milieux musicaux et des conditions sociales et culturelles de l'exercice de la musique au cours du XVIIIe siècle, phénomène qui a accompagné l'évolution des styles et des goûts musicaux en Europe. La recherche est centrée sur l'étude des « métiers de la musique » : elle analyse les lieux et institutions d'exercice, les pratiques observables dans chacun d'eux, en prenant en compte leurs singularités comme leurs imbrications ou porosités, ainsi que le déroulement des carrières, à partir d'évaluations quantitatives comme de la reconstitution de parcours individuels. Elle vise, grâce à des archives variées (archives de la Congrégation de Sainte-Cécile, archives privées des grandes familles aristocratiques, archives notariales, archives paroissiales, archives des chapelles et des théâtres), à appréhender les conditions sociales des musiciens, en s'attachant aux revenus, aux hiérarchies, aux protections et aux mobilités. Au cours du XVIIIe siècle, on assiste à une recomposition du paysage musical romain. Bien que la désaffection pour la musique sacrée fragilise le marché musical urbain, Rome reste l'un des principaux foyers musicaux européens. La ville se convertit progressivement, mais avec succès, à la musique profane, en particulier à l'opéra, ce qui conduit à modifier non seulement l'offre musicale, mais aussi l'organisation de la profession
The aim of this thesis is to catch how and when musical circles as well as social and cultural conditions in musical practice deeply changed in Rome - as the European capital of music- during the 18th century ; and that, as part of the recent historical work on cultural capitals. This phenomenon went hand in hand with the evolution of musical styles and tastes in Europe.The research is based on the study of "musical professions": it is an analysis of the places and institutions in which music was practised, the different practices with their peculiarities as well as their abilities to mingle together. It also analyses how careers develop, using quantitative assessments and records of individual careers.It aims, thanks to various archives (from the Congregation of St Cecily, great aristocratic families, notary offices, parishes, choirs and theatres) at understanding the living conditions of the musicians: incomes, hierarchy, protections, mobility. It has been necessary to study the social network and the family environment of the musicians, as well as their relations with other people, and their professional environment. During the 18th century, a reshaping of the Roman musical landscape can be observed. In spite of the declining interest for sacred music, which weakens the market of music in town, Rome remains one of the most important musical places in Europe. The town slowly but successfully converts itself to secular music, and more especially to opera music; and this leads to a change, not only in musical offers, but also the organization of the profession
Lo scopo della tesi è di capire, per Roma capitale musicale europea, nella continuità dei recenti lavori storici sulle capitale culturali, le modalità e le temporalità di una profonda trasformazione dei “milieux” musicali e delle condizioni sociali e culturali della prassi musicale nel corso del Settecento, fenomeno che ha accompagnato l’evoluzione dei stili e dei gusti musicali in Europa. La ricerca s’incentra sullo studio degli “mestieri della musica”: analizza i luoghi, le istituzioni legate alla musica e la prassi osservabile in ciascuna di loro, tenendo in conto la loro singolarità, i loro intrecci o le loro porosità, lo sviluppo delle carriere, a partire da valutazioni quantitative e dalla ricostituzione di percorsi individuali. Grazie all’analisi di vari archivi (archivi della Congregazione di Santa Cecilia, archivi privati di grandi famiglie aristocratiche, archivi notarili, archivi parocchiali, archivi di cappelle musicali e di teatri), mira a comprendere le condizioni sociali dei musicisti, facendo riferimento ai redditi, alle gerarchie, alle protezioni e alle mobilità. E’ stato necessario interrogare le rete sociali e l’entourage familiale, relazionale e professionale dei musicisti, localizzare i luoghi di residenza nel tessuto urbano e studiare le realtà istituzionali, economiche e sociali che facevano da sfondo alla loro vita professionale. L’adattamento degli individui o delle famiglie di musicisti alle diverse offerte e risorse della città, le dinamiche d’inserimento nel “mercato musicale” e la società urbana, sono stati al cuore di questa riflessione. Il discorso è partito, per quanto possibile, dalle prassi all’interno di questi mestieri, predendo in conto le loro singolarità. E’ quindi stato studiato l’insieme della comunità musicale nelle sue diverse componenti e i suoi multipli aspetti. Nel corso del Settecento, si assiste ad una ricomposizione del paesaggio musicale romano. Anche se la disaffezione per la musica sacra rende fragile il mercato musicale urbano, Roma rimane uno dei principali centri musicali europei. La città si convertì, progressivamente ma con successo, alla musica profana, in particolare all’opera, questo condusse a modificare non soltanto l’offerta musicale ma anche l’organizzazione della professione

Defence date: 6 November 1998
Examining board: Prof. Dr. Carlo Corsini ; Prof. Dr. João de Pina Cabral ; Prof. Dr. Jaime Reis ; Prof. Dr. Robert Rowland (Orientador)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 25 October 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Giulia Calvi (EUI) – Supervisor; Prof. Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla (EUI); Prof. Willem Frijhoff - (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) - External Supervisor; Prof. Jan Lucassen (International Institute of Social History Amsterdam)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This is a thesis on micro-history that has the life-experiences of individual women as its central theme. These women did not live spectacular lives; they were not famous or well known by their contemporaries and hardly any of them are remembered today. What made them remarkable was their migration overseas from their home regions in Norway to the Dutch Republic. This is their contribution to history. The central theme of this book is the Norwegian female migrants in the early modern Dutch Republic in general and, specifically, the Norwegian female migrants in Amsterdam and Hoorn. On an individual level these Norwegian women have been studied and their life-experiences have been analyzed by using numerous different sources, both Dutch and Norwegian. However, though the results are unique, satisfying and will certainly contribute to ongoing research on migrants, there are lacunas in this work which need to be addressed before the results are presented.

Defence date: 16 December 2013
Examining Board: Professor Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, European University Institute, (Supervisor); Professor Hilde Sandvik, University of Oslo (External Supervisor); Professor Ida Bull, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Professor Luca Molà, European University Institute.
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis investigates the relationship between masters and domestic servants in Copenhagen and Christiania between 1750 and 1850. Living and working together, their relationship was structured around a contract between two individuals and at the same time specific norms dictating the master's responsibility for his servant's moral and physical well-being. In turn, the servant was instructed to be deferential and respectful. I examine how the relationship between master and servant was legitimized, enforced and contested in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a time of economic, political and societal change. In the thesis, I argue that the master-servant relationship was transformed during the period 1750 to 1850. Hiring contracts became shorter, preoccupation with family life cast servants as outsiders and an increasing separation of work and home life relegated them to the realm of what came to be categorized as private, while they still continued to be contracted labour. At the same time, servants in Copenhagen and Christiania were waged workers throughout the period 1750 to 1850, and there seem to have been little indication that either masters, mistresses or the servants themselves viewed the servants as integrated members of the family. Yet, throughout the century between 1750 and 1850 there was a continued emphasis on the servant's subordination, and language that stressed their subjugated status in the household persisted in law, in civil lawsuits between masters and servants and in fiction and prose on domestic service throughout the period 1750 to 1850. But while the fact that servants were subordinate members of a household subject to the authority of the master as well as hired help often working on contracts of six months or less was not perceived as contradictory in 1750, it came to be so by 1850. By the late eighteenth century legal minds began to struggle with whether legislation on the master-servant relationship should be classified as a contractual law or family law. It became a problem of taxonomy; a problem that continued to manifest itself during the nineteenth century when work and family came to be perceived as increasingly separate.

Defence date: 13 January 2016
Examining Board: Professor Jorge Flores, European University Institute; Professor Regina Grafe, European University Institute; Professor Leonor Freire Costa, ISEG; Professor Joseph Fradera, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
The dissertation focuses on the political economy of the Portuguese and Spanish empires during the Age of Revolutions, tracing the rise of Rio de Janeiro and Havana as global cities. It examines the political economy of the emergence of two global ports in the LusoHispanic Atlantic and appraises institutional dynamics instead of merely exploring the nature of institutions. This work contributes to the field of global history by offering an Atlantic history in global perspective. It proposes a Hemispherical Atlantic and simultaneously discloses its connections with the Indian Ocean. As a substitute of a local/global dichotomy, the dissertation resorts to the use of three different dimensions (markets, institutions and agents), which do not necessarily follow a path from global to local. The first part analyses the cities’ integration into imperial and global markets as well as their participation into much larger global commodity chains. It considers not only markets’ trends but also the emergence of translocal markets. The financing of Slave trade in the South Atlantic and flour trades in the North Atlantic are thoroughly researched. The second section emphasises on institutions and their impact on agent’s behaviour. It mainly refers to formal institutions as well as their dynamics. It fundamentally focuses on institutions governing exchange: customs houses, taxes and corporations, and carefully integrates emulation in the design, creation and evolution of formal institutions. Finally, the third section explores networks, agency relations and privateorder institutions. Besides trust and reputation, merchants’ status was crucial in the configuration and evolution of networks. Credit, multidirectional capital flows, and the consignment system are studied through the meticulous examination of merchants businesses in Africa, New England and the Peninsula, offering new insights on Asian textiles in the Caribbean markets and the slave traffic in Brazil. This thesis investigates the complexities of governance that took place in the Iberian empires, and revises images of absolutist power, centralization or negotiation. It argues that the empire’s organization was highly hierarchical (which differs from centralization) and claims that such a rigid hierarchical organization prevented to some extend institutional change and innovation. In so doing, it underlines the need for an intermediate approach between “black legend” absolutist versions and revisionist “pink histories” of the Iberian empires.

Defence date: 30 January 2009
Examining board: Prof. Martin van Gelderen (European University Institute)-supervisor ; Prof. Sebastian Conrad (European University Institute) ; Prof. Lucy Riall (Birkbeck College, University of London) ; Prof. Norman Vance (University of Sussex)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
The years between 1850 and 1918 in Britain saw the ascendancy of political Liberalism. The same period in Italy included the central years of the Risorgimento, a process of economic, social and cultural revival during which foreign rulers were expelled from the Italian peninsula, and the various Italian states unified. The aim of the thesis is to trace the Victorian debate on the Italian Question – the question of whether, if and how Italy might be united as a single nation – in order to shed new light on English Liberal culture, understood both as a system of governing values and as the common languages and media through which these were communicated.