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Bram Hilkens

@bramhilkens.bsky.social

87 followers 120 following 32 posts

Economic history - Preindustrial inequality - Early modern Holland - Unrelated near-dangerous music obsession

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Sep 6

Excellent work by Marcus, super interesting for historians working on wealth, consumption, and living standards!

Marcus Falk (She/They) @attusfalk.bsky.social · Sep 5

The database from my PhD-dissertation is finally publicly available! Detailed data from 3250 south-Swedish probate records, both urban and rural, from between 1570 and the 1860s, free for anyone to use for your own projects.

www.lusem.lu.se/organisation...

South-Sweden Probate Inventory Database, 1570–1860

Lund University. Both labourers and farmers improved their material living standards – as measured by the contents of probate inventories – but the labouring households’ ownership of means of producti...

www.lusem.lu.se

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Aug 26

Many thanks to @timriswick.bsky.social for great editorial work!

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Aug 26

It contains six diverse contributions, on topics varying from urban-rural flight during plague outbreaks in 18thC Transylvania to effects on purchasing power in 14thC Flanders to urban recovery in the aftermath of cholera epidemics in 19thC Prussia. Check it out if you're interested!

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Aug 26

Our special issue of the History of the Family is out!

Recent literature has stressed the various long-term impacts (or lack thereof) of epidemics in history. While new work on this is still welcome, we suggest that the direct costs associated with epidemics deserve additional scholarly attention.

The History of the Family

Household Family and the Community Response to the Direct Costs of Epidemics. Volume 30, Issue 3 of The History of the Family

www.tandfonline.com

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Aug 6

Can’t wait to see you and Jakob rocking one of those covers

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Aug 4

Super interesting paper by @oana-sorsk-id.bsky.social on urban-rural flight, population turnover, and wealth-holding after two eighteenth-century plague outbreaks in Transylvania!

Part of our special issue on the direct costs of epidemic mortality, which should be out very soon.

Oana Sorescu-Iudean @oana-sorsk-id.bsky.social · Aug 4

Finally out, on the economic impact of plague on remaining households (wealth& income) in early 18thC Hermannstadt(Transylvania). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #econhist #skystorians

Bearing the costs of epidemics: remaining households in Hermannstadt/Sibiu during the 1719–1720 and 1738–1739 plague outbreaks

The present study explores the converging levels at which the direct costs of plague were incurred during the first half of the eighteenth century in Hermannstadt (nowadays Sibiu), the second large...

www.tandfonline.com

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 18

Very much looking forward!

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 12

Thanks Jaco!

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

This paper is part of a special issue, edited by Daniel Curtis, Bram van Besouw, and myself. More interesting stuff coming up soon, stay tuned! (12/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

In short, the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude was unable to redistribute property more equally; but it was also unable to do so more unequally. Inheritance and (re-)marriage played a major role in balancing the distribution, even if the market did respond to the increased land supply. (11/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

Therefore, marginal returns likely played a role in the decision to take to the market. It was not always lucrative to expand a small peat farm, but it was almost always beneficial to expand a large cattle farm. These differences are not straightforwardly captured by inequality figures. (10/12)

Marginal returns to land per soil type. Most soil types saw declining marginal returns which stabilized at larger plot sizes, while returns to grassland ('weiland') declined less steeply and actually increased at larger sizes.

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

There was no discernible lasting effect on land prices. Prices had already declined by over 20 percent before the epidemic struck, and this trend continued in the succeeding years. Cheap land could have drawn households to the market, but it also made land less valuable. (9/12)

Land price index with 95% confidence intervals in Hazerswoude between 1651-1660. Base land prices declined by over 50 percent in a timespan of ten years.

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

The market was not left untouched, though. Average annual market turnover increased from 2.0 to 2.4 percent due to increased activity of small to middling owners. It is argued that by bestowing land on previously propertyless households, the epidemic increased both land supply and demand. (8/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

Of total post-epidemic turnover, almost three quarters was achieved outside of the market, compared to half of total turnover in the preceding years. Distributional changes were thus mostly informed by non-market institutions, like (re-)marriage and inheritance, more than the market. (7/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

Instead, the distribution 'balanced' itself by boosting the holdings of middling owners, which on average more than doubled after the epidemic. Not all of this was due to accumulation of established owners; over 70 percent of total turnover post-epidemic was due to entry of new owners. (6/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

The number of landowners increased by 13.9 percent, the largest increases of which can be seen at the bottom. Simultaneously, the number of large landowners increased. With these changes, the distribution should have become more unequal on aggregate, but it did not. (5/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

I find that in a comparable case, the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude (a peat village in Holland), aggregate land distribution as measured by the Gini coefficient indeed remained stable around 0.55. The distribution, however, did change considerably. (4/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

It has been argued that elites learned from the BD. They skewed institutions to prevent property from leaving the family and entering the market. This phenomenon, however, is relatively sparsely understood, as it heavily relies on a single case study in Italy (Alfani 2010). (3/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

The literature suggests that the Black Death (1347-52) narrowed economic disparities by destroying human lives while leaving capital intact, lowering the cost of capital while increasing wages. The plague waves of the seventeenth century, however, were seemingly unable to do so. (2/12)

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Jul 10

Happy to share that my article on the redistributive effects of epidemic mortality is now published in The History of the Family!

It adds to the literature on preindustrial inequality by investigating redistribution of land in the wake of the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude, Holland. (1/12)

Mortality, morcellation, and the market: the impact of epidemic disease mortality on land distribution in a seventeenth-century-Holland village

The current article aims to explain the distributional consequences of epidemic mortality by assessing the relationship between post-epidemic land redistribution and land market exchange for one vi...

www.tandfonline.com

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · May 27

Wie ons niet op ons woord durft te geloven, kan het boek altijd zelf bestellen via Boom uitgevers.

Oorlog en ongelijkheid

De glorie kent vele schaduwzijden Alle oorlogen in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw leidden tot economische neergang, behalve de Tachtigjarige Oorlog. Deze leidde juist tot een periode van enorme bloe...

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · May 27

Lees het hele discussiedossier hier. Met bijdragen van Maarten Prak, Alberto Feenstra, Erik Odegard, Marion Pluskota en een reactie van de auteur zelf.

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2025): TSEG | TSEG - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History

TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economi...

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · May 27

Vond Hollands 'Gouden Eeuw' plaats ondanks, of dankzij de Tachtigjarige Oorlog? Wie profiteerde daarvan? Wat voor gevolgen heeft dat voor ons begrip van economische ongelijkheid in het verleden? Zie mijn discussiestuk over Marjolein 't Harts Oorlog en ongelijkheid in @tseglowcountries.bsky.social.

Verschillende ongelijkheden? The new history of old inequality en Oorlog en ongelijkheid | TSEG - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History

TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economi...

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · May 16

Congrats Marcus, very happy for you!

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · Apr 22

Congrats, Marcus!