Well-Being in Amsterdam's Golden Age

266 Pages·2009·0.86 MB·English

by  Derek Phillips

As human beings, we have an innate disposition to care about our well-being. (cid:59)
We all care about staying alive, as well as about avoiding disease, physical pain, (cid:72)
(cid:79)
bodily harm, disability, and assaults on our dignity. Adequate nourishment, (cid:79)
(cid:17)
(cid:38)
water, shelter, security, satisfying work, autonomy, and self-esteem are
(cid:72)
everywhere essential to human life and functioning. So, too, are relationships (cid:76)(cid:81)
with others. These include giving and receiving care, loving and being loved. (cid:74)
(cid:4)
(cid:76)
Our well-being matters for its own sake. (cid:81)
(cid:4)
(cid:37)
(cid:80)
The book’s major aim is to compare the well-being of people differing in civic (cid:59)(cid:72)(cid:79)(cid:79)(cid:17)(cid:38)(cid:72)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:4)(cid:76)(cid:81)
(cid:86)
status, economic standing, and gender during Amsterdam’s Golden Age. (cid:87)
(cid:72)
A secondary aim is to identify, describe, and explain the mechanisms linking (cid:85)
(cid:71)
people’s positions in these three systems of inequality to the wellness of (cid:68) (cid:37)(cid:80)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:71)(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:161)(cid:86)(cid:4)(cid:43)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:4)(cid:37)(cid:74)(cid:72)(cid:4)
(cid:80)
their being.
(cid:161)
(cid:86)
(cid:4)
(cid:43)
Utilizing a multidisciplinary perspective, the book draws on studies by
(cid:82)
(cid:79)
historians, economists, demographers, sociologists, epidemiologists, biologists, (cid:71)
(cid:72)
and other scholars in showing how people’s hierarchical positions affected
(cid:81)
(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:78)(cid:4)(cid:83)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:79)(cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:83)(cid:86)
their well-being across the life-span. Their impact is considered during (cid:4)(cid:37)
infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, for the unmarried, the (cid:74)
(cid:72)
never-married, the married, the widowed, and the orphaned. This conceptual (cid:4)
and historical analysis deepens our understanding of the processes linking
(cid:71)
inequality and well-being not only in seventeenth-century Amsterdam but in
(cid:72)
other times and places as well. (cid:85)
(cid:72)
(cid:78)
(cid:4)
(cid:83)
(cid:75)
(cid:76)
(cid:79)
(cid:79)
(cid:76)
(cid:83)
(cid:86)
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WELL-BEING IN AMSTERDAM’S GOLDEN AGE

WELL-BEING IN
AMSTERDAM’S
GOLDEN AGE
Derek Phillips
pallas publications
Cover: Geert de Koning, Ten Post
Lay-out: ProGrafi ci, Goes
isbn 978 90 8555 042 6
nur 685/694
© Derek Phillips / Amsterdam University Press /
Pallas Publications, Amsterdam 2008
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in
or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright
owner and the author of the book.
ONCE AGAIN, FOR KLASKE

CONTENTS
acknowledgements
9
introduction
11
1
chapter
25 In Their Proper Place: The Civic Hierarchy
chapter 2

41 Gradients of Wealth and Income: The Economic Hierarchy
chapter 3

59 At Home in Amsterdam: The Physical Environment and Early
Death
chapter 4
77 Intimate Inferiors: Servants in Amsterdam
chapter 5
97 A Singular State: Unmarried Men and Women
chapter 6

113 The Family Household: Husband, Wife, and Children
chapter 7
131 Parents and Children, Brothers and Sisters
chapter 8
149 Losing a Spouse and a Parent
chapter 9
167 Losing Both Parents: Amsterdam Orphans
7
a summing up
185
notes
191
bibliography
233
the author
255
index
257
8 well-being in amsterdam’s golden age
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A uthors of scholarly books inevitably incur debts, and acknowledge-
ments are regularly made to those who helped them. Various foun-
dations, funding agencies, and academic institutions are thanked
for the fi nancial support which made the study possible. Appreciation is
expressed for leave time, and teachers, students, and research assistants are
thanked as well. There are words of gratitude for scholarly colleagues and
friends who carefully read different versions of various chapters. Thanks
are given to academic audiences to whom portions of the work were pre-
sented in seminars and forums.
Authors nowadays often compete to outdo one another in listing
their accumulated debts. Pulling down a few books from my shelves, I see
that one author lists travels to twenty libraries and archives, and dutifully
thanks staff members in each. Another thanks academic audiences at more
than a dozen distinguished universities for helpful remarks and comments,
and then goes on to expresses gratitude to a long list of hosts and hostesses,
mentioning the food and drink they shared as well.
One author lists eight different sources of fi nancial support. Anoth-
er is eternally grateful for the help of twenty colleagues who read versions
of different chapters, and is especially indebted to the seven scholars who
read the fi nal manuscript. All too often, these acknowledgements strike me
as self-promoting and as offering (perhaps unintentionally) a self-portrait
of the author as a seasoned networker and academic entrepreneur.
Virtually everyone thanks partners and family members. Not only
spouse, children, and parents are mentioned by name, but sometimes
siblings, nieces and nephews, and in-laws as well. So, too, are long-time
friends. Increasingly, gratitude is also expressed to a helpful neighbor, the
guys and gals at the gym, a jogging group, a hairdresser, and even a won-
derful dog, cat, or, in a book I just opened, a parrot. In many books, an
author’s list of effusive acknowledgments seems endless.
This book has been largely a solitary labor, and I have accumulat-
ed few debts. I would like to thank the following persons for helping me:
Lionel Lewis, Robert Loudon, Maurice Punch, and, most especially, my
wife, Klaske Muizelaar.
9