Bruno Blondé
Biographic Data
| ID | 988348 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bruno Blondé |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bruno |
| FAMILY NAME | Blondé |
| SIGNATURE | BLONDÉ B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Antwerp |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2118-799X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Neither Monotonous nor Meager: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Food Consumption in Delft
Reconstruction of past diets poses significant challenges for historians and archaeologists alike. Archival records from Delft’s orphanage between 1650 and 1725 provide data regarding the number and weight of plant and animal food items purchased. Cesspit evidence offers complementary insights into diet based on the edible plant and animal species present in the fill as well as some insights into the health of the inhabitants based on parasite pr…
Pawning for the poor and the consumer revolution: Venice in the eighteenth century
Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, shifts in consumption patterns gave individuals access to cheaper substitutes for quality goods, which though less expensive were of lower quality. This led to an increased consumption and accumulation of objects, which eventually flooded the second-hand market. While the literature often portrays this trend as ‘luxury for the poor’, emphasising its positive outcomes, it is not yet clear how it af…
An Apology for Unreal Wages: Building Labourers and Living Standards in the Southern Low Countries (1290–1560)
Although real wages have long been a cornerstone of our understanding of the premodern economy, in recent years historians have become sceptical about their usefulness as a proxy for living standards. One of the main concerns is that, before industrialization, most households did not depend on wages but were self-employed. This article therefore proposes a new methodology to test the representativeness of real wage series for the general populati…
The Consumer Revolution Comes Home: Material Inequalities in London’s Eighteenth-Century Polite Society
Urban spaces are often considered nurseries of consumer developments. Focusing on eighteenth-century London, the cradle of the famed nascent consumer society, we employ newspaper advertisements of forthcoming auction sales to map changes in the domestic material culture of the city’s “polite society.” Over the course of the century, British-made products replaced Asian luxuries among the most distinct positional goods promoted in these advertisem…
Pioneers of Capitalism and the Low Countries’ Paradox
In 2013, Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten Van Zanden published an all-encompassing synthesis on the economic history of the Netherlands following the “Polder-model-theory”, in itself a variant of the “Rhineland model”. In their opinion, relatively low levels of inequality, a consensus model, and a strong civil society were cornerstones that accounted for a different pathway to capitalism. This review engages hesitantly with this comparative perspectiv…
Introduction to the Debate on Pioneers of Capitalism
On 30 June 2023, the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp, the Posthumus Institute, and the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality hosted a workshop dedicated to Pioneers of Capitalism. The Netherlands 1000-1800, a book by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden published by Princeton University Press in 2022. Participants in the workshop were challenged to reflect on the broader geographical applicability…
Aesthetics for a polite society: Language and the marketing of second-hand goods in eighteenth-century London
The late early modern period witnessed critical consumer transitions across Europe. Yet, while the explosion of the material world and the transition from an 'old luxury' material culture to a 'new luxury' model is well documented, our understanding of the underlying value systems of consumer goods is still under-developed. Building on a database of eighteenth-century advertisements for household auctions in the London-based Daily Advertiser, thi…
Between aesthetics and a culture of decency. A comparative analysis of the vocabularies of consumption on the secondary markets of eighteenth-century Amsterdam and Antwerp
While detailed accounts of ownership patterns of material culture buttress major narratives on the critical consumer transitions of the late early modern era, still surprisingly little is known about the specific consumer mentalities that went along with the rapidly expanding empire of goods. On the basis of newspaper advertisements for auctions of household estates in Amsterdam and Antwerp, this contribution maps the language of consumption on t…
Languages of consumption in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
The articles in this special issue were written after an International Conference organised by the Universities of Basel and Antwerp in 2022. The conference’s aim was to foster our knowledge of the languages of consumption while using a broad range of sources, languages and regions. The workshop highlighted the importance of various consumption practices, historical actors and their experiences through a myriad of sources and discourses. These va…
City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100–1600
The Low Countries was collectively one of the earliest and most heavily urbanised societies in European history. Present-day Belgium and the Netherlands still share important common features, such as comparatively low income inequalities, high levels of per capita income, a balanced political structure, and a strong 'civil society'. This book traces the origins of this specific social model in medieval patterns of urbanisation, while also searchi…
City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100-1600
Road transport productivity in the sixteenth-century Low Countries: The case of Brabant, 1450-1650
Though there is a consensus that transport plays a central role in economic development, for the period before the eighteenth century there is a lack of strategic information for assessing the importance of road transport productivity changes in economic development. Transport prices in particular are crucial missing pieces of the puzzle. Sources rarely reveal information that meets the standards of reliable price history. However, it is possible…
Neophilia and Old Master paintings: Changes in consumer choice and the evolution of art auctions in the eighteenth century
Over the course of the eighteenth century the Austrian Netherlands witnessed the emergence of specialised art auctions. In this article we argue that both the evolution of the auctions and of the prices paid for works of art at the auctions can only be understood as a response to changes in consumer culture during the eighteenth century. Although auctions rapidly gained in importance as a commercial arena through which Old Masters could be resold…
In ‘splendid isolation'. A comparative perspective on the historiographies of the ‘material renaissance' and the ‘consumer revolution'
Richard Goldthwaite's pioneering work on the material culture of the Italian Renaissance offered many clues for better understanding long-term changes and continuities in European patterns of consumption during the early modern period. Yet the large historiographical body on the subject of the ‘material renaissance’ has largely ignored or rejected these, and has more often than not studied the field in a sort of ‘splendid isolation’. This article…
Selling Textiles in the Long Eighteenth Century
Textiles are a key component of the industrial and consumer revolutions, yet we lack a coherent picture of how the marketing of textiles varied across the long 18th century and between different regio
Selling Textiles in the Long Eighteenth Century: Comparative Perspectives from Western Europe
Against the clock: Time awareness in early modern Antwerp, 1585-1789
Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a 'modern' awareness of time. Yet, little research is available that empirically enables signs of growing time awareness to be linked to the distribution of time-keeping devices. In this article both these phenomena are brought together using two independent sets of evidence that permit the hypothesis that clocks and watches contributed to a heightened…
De culturele constructies voorbij? Prijsevoluties op de veilingmarkten voor schilderijen in de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden (1739-1794)
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 economische geschiedenis
Households as agents of change? Perspectives from the Low Countries, eighteenth-twentieth centuries
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 economische geschiedenis
At the Cradle of the Transport Revolution: Paved Roads, Traffic Flows and Economic Development in Eighteenth-Century Brabant
In recent years the contribution of transport improvements in the period prior to the famous 'transport revolution' has been subjected to re-assessment. Whereas economic historians especially looked for signs of productivity changes and market integration engendered by improvements such as the construction of turnpike roads, this article focuses on the output of the transport sector as measured by traffic volume estimates and their relationship t…
Retail growth and consumer changes in a declining urban economy: Antwerp (1650-1750)
This article examines the interplay between retail changes and transformations in the material culture of Antwerp, a provincial town in the southern Netherlands. We argue that major changes in the eighteenth-century material culture and retail sector were not significantly linked to preconditions of economic growth and urbanization. The Antwerp 'retail paradox' is that of a shrinking economic horizon running parallel to material culture and retai…
Een crisis als uitdaging? Kleinhandelsrevoluties en verbruiksveranderingen te Antwerpen (ca. 1648-ca. 1748)
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 economische geschiedenis
Landtransportprijzen en de economische ontwikkeling van Brabant in de lange zestiende eeuw. Een braakliggend stuk prijzengeschiedenis
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 economische geschiedenis
Retail growth and consumer changes in a declining urban economy: Antwerp (1650-1750)
This article examines the interplay between retail changes and transformations in the material culture of Antwerp, a provincial town in the southern Netherlands. We argue that major changes in the eighteenth-century material culture and retail sector were not significantly linked to preconditions of economic growth and urbanization. The Antwerp 'retail paradox' is that of a shrinking economic horizon running parallel to material culture and retai…
Against the clock: Time awareness in early modern Antwerp, 1585-1789
Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a 'modern' awareness of time. Yet, little research is available that empirically enables signs of growing time awareness to be linked to the distribution of time-keeping devices. In this article both these phenomena are brought together using two independent sets of evidence that permit the hypothesis that clocks and watches contributed to a heightened…
At the Cradle of the Transport Revolution: Paved Roads, Traffic Flows and Economic Development in Eighteenth-Century Brabant
In recent years the contribution of transport improvements in the period prior to the famous 'transport revolution' has been subjected to re-assessment. Whereas economic historians especially looked for signs of productivity changes and market integration engendered by improvements such as the construction of turnpike roads, this article focuses on the output of the transport sector as measured by traffic volume estimates and their relationship t…
Road transport productivity in the sixteenth-century Low Countries: The case of Brabant, 1450-1650
Though there is a consensus that transport plays a central role in economic development, for the period before the eighteenth century there is a lack of strategic information for assessing the importance of road transport productivity changes in economic development. Transport prices in particular are crucial missing pieces of the puzzle. Sources rarely reveal information that meets the standards of reliable price history. However, it is possible…
Neophilia and Old Master paintings: Changes in consumer choice and the evolution of art auctions in the eighteenth century
Over the course of the eighteenth century the Austrian Netherlands witnessed the emergence of specialised art auctions. In this article we argue that both the evolution of the auctions and of the prices paid for works of art at the auctions can only be understood as a response to changes in consumer culture during the eighteenth century. Although auctions rapidly gained in importance as a commercial arena through which Old Masters could be resold…
Landtransportprijzen en de economische ontwikkeling van Brabant in de lange zestiende eeuw. Een braakliggend stuk prijzengeschiedenis
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 economische geschiedenis
Een crisis als uitdaging? Kleinhandelsrevoluties en verbruiksveranderingen te Antwerpen (ca. 1648-ca. 1748)
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 economische geschiedenis
Landtransportprijzen en de economische ontwikkeling van Brabant in de lange zestiende eeuw. Een braakliggend stuk prijzengeschiedenis
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 economische geschiedenis
At the Cradle of the Transport Revolution: Paved Roads, Traffic Flows and Economic Development in Eighteenth-Century Brabant
In recent years the contribution of transport improvements in the period prior to the famous 'transport revolution' has been subjected to re-assessment. Whereas economic historians especially looked for signs of productivity changes and market integration engendered by improvements such as the construction of turnpike roads, this article focuses on the output of the transport sector as measured by traffic volume estimates and their relationship t…
Retail growth and consumer changes in a declining urban economy: Antwerp (1650-1750)
This article examines the interplay between retail changes and transformations in the material culture of Antwerp, a provincial town in the southern Netherlands. We argue that major changes in the eighteenth-century material culture and retail sector were not significantly linked to preconditions of economic growth and urbanization. The Antwerp 'retail paradox' is that of a shrinking economic horizon running parallel to material culture and retai…
Households as agents of change? Perspectives from the Low Countries, eighteenth-twentieth centuries
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 economische geschiedenis
De culturele constructies voorbij? Prijsevoluties op de veilingmarkten voor schilderijen in de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden (1739-1794)
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 economische geschiedenis
Against the clock: Time awareness in early modern Antwerp, 1585-1789
Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a 'modern' awareness of time. Yet, little research is available that empirically enables signs of growing time awareness to be linked to the distribution of time-keeping devices. In this article both these phenomena are brought together using two independent sets of evidence that permit the hypothesis that clocks and watches contributed to a heightened…
Selling Textiles in the Long Eighteenth Century
Textiles are a key component of the industrial and consumer revolutions, yet we lack a coherent picture of how the marketing of textiles varied across the long 18th century and between different regio
Selling Textiles in the Long Eighteenth Century: Comparative Perspectives from Western Europe
In ‘splendid isolation'. A comparative perspective on the historiographies of the ‘material renaissance' and the ‘consumer revolution'
Richard Goldthwaite's pioneering work on the material culture of the Italian Renaissance offered many clues for better understanding long-term changes and continuities in European patterns of consumption during the early modern period. Yet the large historiographical body on the subject of the ‘material renaissance’ has largely ignored or rejected these, and has more often than not studied the field in a sort of ‘splendid isolation’. This article…
Neophilia and Old Master paintings: Changes in consumer choice and the evolution of art auctions in the eighteenth century
Over the course of the eighteenth century the Austrian Netherlands witnessed the emergence of specialised art auctions. In this article we argue that both the evolution of the auctions and of the prices paid for works of art at the auctions can only be understood as a response to changes in consumer culture during the eighteenth century. Although auctions rapidly gained in importance as a commercial arena through which Old Masters could be resold…
City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100–1600
The Low Countries was collectively one of the earliest and most heavily urbanised societies in European history. Present-day Belgium and the Netherlands still share important common features, such as comparatively low income inequalities, high levels of per capita income, a balanced political structure, and a strong 'civil society'. This book traces the origins of this specific social model in medieval patterns of urbanisation, while also searchi…
City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100-1600
Road transport productivity in the sixteenth-century Low Countries: The case of Brabant, 1450-1650
Though there is a consensus that transport plays a central role in economic development, for the period before the eighteenth century there is a lack of strategic information for assessing the importance of road transport productivity changes in economic development. Transport prices in particular are crucial missing pieces of the puzzle. Sources rarely reveal information that meets the standards of reliable price history. However, it is possible…
Between aesthetics and a culture of decency. A comparative analysis of the vocabularies of consumption on the secondary markets of eighteenth-century Amsterdam and Antwerp
While detailed accounts of ownership patterns of material culture buttress major narratives on the critical consumer transitions of the late early modern era, still surprisingly little is known about the specific consumer mentalities that went along with the rapidly expanding empire of goods. On the basis of newspaper advertisements for auctions of household estates in Amsterdam and Antwerp, this contribution maps the language of consumption on t…
Languages of consumption in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
The articles in this special issue were written after an International Conference organised by the Universities of Basel and Antwerp in 2022. The conference’s aim was to foster our knowledge of the languages of consumption while using a broad range of sources, languages and regions. The workshop highlighted the importance of various consumption practices, historical actors and their experiences through a myriad of sources and discourses. These va…
Pioneers of Capitalism and the Low Countries’ Paradox
In 2013, Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten Van Zanden published an all-encompassing synthesis on the economic history of the Netherlands following the “Polder-model-theory”, in itself a variant of the “Rhineland model”. In their opinion, relatively low levels of inequality, a consensus model, and a strong civil society were cornerstones that accounted for a different pathway to capitalism. This review engages hesitantly with this comparative perspectiv…
Introduction to the Debate on Pioneers of Capitalism
On 30 June 2023, the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp, the Posthumus Institute, and the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality hosted a workshop dedicated to Pioneers of Capitalism. The Netherlands 1000-1800, a book by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden published by Princeton University Press in 2022. Participants in the workshop were challenged to reflect on the broader geographical applicability…
Aesthetics for a polite society: Language and the marketing of second-hand goods in eighteenth-century London
The late early modern period witnessed critical consumer transitions across Europe. Yet, while the explosion of the material world and the transition from an 'old luxury' material culture to a 'new luxury' model is well documented, our understanding of the underlying value systems of consumer goods is still under-developed. Building on a database of eighteenth-century advertisements for household auctions in the London-based Daily Advertiser, thi…
An Apology for Unreal Wages: Building Labourers and Living Standards in the Southern Low Countries (1290–1560)
Although real wages have long been a cornerstone of our understanding of the premodern economy, in recent years historians have become sceptical about their usefulness as a proxy for living standards. One of the main concerns is that, before industrialization, most households did not depend on wages but were self-employed. This article therefore proposes a new methodology to test the representativeness of real wage series for the general populati…
The Consumer Revolution Comes Home: Material Inequalities in London’s Eighteenth-Century Polite Society
Urban spaces are often considered nurseries of consumer developments. Focusing on eighteenth-century London, the cradle of the famed nascent consumer society, we employ newspaper advertisements of forthcoming auction sales to map changes in the domestic material culture of the city’s “polite society.” Over the course of the century, British-made products replaced Asian luxuries among the most distinct positional goods promoted in these advertisem…
Neither Monotonous nor Meager: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Food Consumption in Delft
Reconstruction of past diets poses significant challenges for historians and archaeologists alike. Archival records from Delft’s orphanage between 1650 and 1725 provide data regarding the number and weight of plant and animal food items purchased. Cesspit evidence offers complementary insights into diet based on the edible plant and animal species present in the fill as well as some insights into the health of the inhabitants based on parasite pr…
Pawning for the poor and the consumer revolution: Venice in the eighteenth century
Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, shifts in consumption patterns gave individuals access to cheaper substitutes for quality goods, which though less expensive were of lower quality. This led to an increased consumption and accumulation of objects, which eventually flooded the second-hand market. While the literature often portrays this trend as ‘luxury for the poor’, emphasising its positive outcomes, it is not yet clear how it af…
Historical Economic and Social Studies (17 works) · Economics (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Art (8 works) · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century (6 works) · Economy (5 works) · Historical Art and Culture Studies (5 works) · History (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works)