Conducts research and collects data on the global history of labour, workers, and labour relations

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View of Slavery Atlanto-centric? Symposium Slavery in the Dutch Empire
 In the Netherlands slavery is usually associated with Atlantic slavery. The current view of slavery might even be called 'Atlanto-centric'.Wrongly so, was the opinion of the three young researchers... [News]
How much did the Netherlands earn from slavery?
The Netherlands abolished slavery exactly 150 years ago, but controversy continues about how much the country actually earned from slavery and the slave trade. IISH, VU University Amsterdam and... [News]
Exploring Slave Trade in Asia
Exploring Slave Trade in Asia - Towards an Indian Ocean and Maritime Asia Slave Trade DatabaseShifting perspectives Most of today’s 35.8 million people who live in conditions of slavery are located... [Project]
Between local debts and global markets. Explaining slavery in South and Southeast Asia 1600-1800
The project Between local debts and global markets. Explaining slavery in South and Southeast Asia 1600-1800 is funded through a Veni research grant awarded to Matthias van Rossum in 2015 as part of... [Project]
Laborers and enslaved workers
From the middle of the nineteenth century until the 1888 abolition of slavery in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro was home to the largest urban population of enslaved workers anywhere in the Americas. It was... [Publication]
Sugarlandia Revisited
Sugar was the single most valuable bulk commodity traded internationally before oil became the world’s prime resource. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, cane sugar production was pre-... [Publication]
Free and Unfree Labour
Historically, capitalism has always integrated various forms of unfree labour, including chattel slavery, convict labour and debt bondage. Contrary to purported wisdom, these forms of exploitation... [Publication]
Humanitarian Intervention and Changing Labor Relations
In 1807 the British "Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" received the Royal Assent. The Act represented the first significant attempt by a Great Power to exert global influence over the... [Publication]
A Controversial Monument
Emotions ran high when a monument in honour of Anton de Kom was unveiled in Amsterdam. The Surinamese Anton de Kom (1898-1945) was a communist resistance fighter and the author of a book, Wij slaven... [Item of the Day]
Slavery in 2014
Some findings from the Global Slavery Index (November 2014) of the Walk Free Foundation:The west African nation of Mauritania has the highest proportion of people in modern slavery at 4% of its... [Item of the Day]

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