The Straatvaart

The Oude Doelenkade is the main street in the port of Hoorn in Northern Holland. Most of its warehouses, as well as many other buildings along the old harbour, were built during the seventeenth century. A large number of houses along that street have what the Dutch call Gevelsteenen (“gable-stones”) in their facades. These stones usually have inscribed on them a motto, a date, or an allegorical figure whose main purpose was to publicize some information about the dwellers and/or characteristics of the building. In Number 21 of that street a curious gable-stone displays the image of a ship on the water, the inscription IN THE STRETSVARER (“sailing through the Straits”), and the date 1618

By that time the Dutch had mastered trade in the Baltic, broken the Spanish and Portuguese monopolies in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, and started to display many of the practices that allowed them temporarily to dominate world trade. Another region where Dutch trade and shipping made its presence felt was beyond the Iberian Peninsula and the Straits of Gibraltar (the so-called straatvaart) in the Mediterranean. This aspect of Dutch trade has usually been regarded as a marginal topic among early modern historians, even for those whose main focus is Dutch economic history […].

In this site you will find soon information about the characteristics and evolution of Dutch Mediterranean trade between 1574 and 1621. The result of years of historical research and archival evidences on this topic will be presented in a totally new way to the academic and non-academic community.

Among other features:

1) one fully searchable bibliographical database on the topic (ca. 2.000 records)

2) Several databases on Dutch shipping (ca 6.000 records) displaying freight contracts, departures and arrivals, crew, routes and cargo as well as main the names of the principal merchants involved in that trade.

For the moment the skipper has ordered to drop anchor, but soon you’ll be sailing. In the meanwhile have a view at the exclusive straatvaart picture gallery. All pictures and maps are related to Dutch presence in the Mediterranean.