The Transformation of an Old Industrial District: Firms, Family, and Mutuality in the Zaanstreek between 1840 and 1920

The Zaanstreek—northwest of Amsterdam, The Netherlands—hasbeen a highly industrialized region for nearly four hundredyears. For most of this period, it showed a strong sense ofcommunity and a high degree of cooperation between firms, whichis usually considered to be typical for an "industrial district."However, between about 1840 and the First World War the characterof this industrial district was dramatically transformed. Inresponse to the rapidly growing integration of markets in thenational and international economies since the 1840s, the Zaanstreekwent through a radical change in energy base, as well as a fundamentalshift in industrial structure. This essay addresses the questionsof what happened to interfirm cooperation in the Zaanstreekwhen this fundamental transition in energy base and shift inindustrial structure came about and how and to what extent entrepreneursin the Zaan district between 1840 and 1920 managed to preservethe sense of community and interfirm cooperation that were thehallmarks of this region since the seventeenth century. It showsthat the principle of mutuality eventually proved no longerstrong enough to keep the actors in these institutions together.Ties between firms within the industrial district were in severalrespects replaced by, or subordinated to, ties between firmsoutside the industrial district. What kept interfirm cooperationin the district nevertheless intact for much of the period after1920 were ties of regional family networks. The essay concludeswith a few observations about the relevance to the study ofindustrial districts in general.