Before banks rose to dominate credit markets, ordinary people raised credit themselves or through alternative intermediaries. However, obtaining a comprehensive overview of the size and functioning of the non-bank segments within the credit market has been a great challenge for historians. Notarial deeds are widely available, but typically shed light on the borrowing of relatively well-to-do members of society. Probate inventories and insolvency records do provide insight into the modest loans of ordinary people, but only haphazardly and not for the overall stock of loans. This article exploits an exogenous shock, the Discipline Act introduced in the Netherlands in 1856, which forced lenders to record all unredeemed loans they had provided to a particular group of borrowers: seafarers. The c.14,000 loans that were recorded, in combination with several additional sources, provide a unique insight into the overall size, composition and functioning of a particular segment of the non-bank credit market.

Merchant diasporas have long attracted the attention of scholars through the narrow prisms of ‘nations’ and states. The history of Amsterdam's Greek Orthodox merchants, together with the other cases—who left the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century and established a seemingly controversial range of networks involving the Dutch, Russian, Ottoman and Greek states there—is an oft-quoted example. This article draws attention to some of the problematic aspects of these perceptions of the relations between states and diaspora merchants. The main tenet of the article is that nation- and state-centred perspectives are limited in explaining the full scope of flexibility and pragmatism displayed by the diaspora merchants.

Amsterdam is situated on the coastal-deltaic plain of the western Netherlands. Its geographical position brought the city prosperity, but also created huge challenges associated with heterogeneous and often adverse ground conditions. This paper explores the geology of Amsterdam to a depth of c. 100 m, based on the output of the 3D geological subsurface models DGM and GeoTOP. The model results are used to create a geological map of the area, to determine the extent and depth of the foundation levels that are in use for buildings in the city centre and to detect the source of filling sand on which part of the more recent expansion of the city was founded. It is shown that subsurface conditions have had a profound effect on both landscape development and historical city growth. Geomodels like DGM and GeoTOP provide an easily accessible way to obtain a better understanding of the shallow subsurface.

Since 2003 extensive archaeological research has been conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, connected with the initial phase of the new underground system (Noord/Zuidlijn). Research has mainly focused on two locations, Damrak and Rokin, in the centre of Medieval Amsterdam. Both sites are situated around the (former) River Amstel, which is of vital importance for the origin and development of the city of Amsterdam. Information on the Holocene evolution of the river, however, is relatively sparse. This project has provided new evidence combining archaeological and geological data, and allowed the reconstruction of six consecutive landscape phases associated with the development of the River Amstel. The course of the present-day Amstel is the result of a complex interaction of processes that started with an early prehistoric tidal gully within the Wormer Member of the Naaldwijk Formation, including Late Neolithic (2400–2000 BC) occupation debris in its fill that was subsequently eroded. Next, this system developed into a later prehistoric Amstel river course that was part of the Angstel–Vecht–Oer-IJ system (1020–350 BC), meandering through a peat-dominated landscape. Later on the processes included intensive reclamation of land, drainage and canalisation, although the Amstel was also strongly influenced by natural storm tides. After intense land reclamation, starting around 1200 AD, the meandering Amstel from Nes to Kalverstraat, which was originally 150 m wide, became the rather straight 20–50 m wide tamed, canalised river of today.

The Amstel river is located in the peat-covered coastal plain of the Netherlands and gives Amsterdam its name (Amstel dam). It is a small secondary branch of the repeatedly bifurcating Rhine delta system. Historically, the Amstel debouched into the peat-fringed former Oer-IJ estuary, which was connected to the North Sea, but after the closure of this inlet the estuary was transformed into an inland sea (IJ) due to erosion of the adjacent peat. The Amstel river was active between 3000 BP and 1122 AD after which time the supply water from the Rhine was stopped due to the construction of a dam far upstream near Wijk bij Duurstede. On the basis of borehole data from various sources, four cross-sections were constructed in the Amstel branch to study the unknown lithology and lithostratigraphy of the Amstel sediments in the Amsterdam area. The deposits show the Amstel was a low-energy river which carried mainly clay. The cross-sections reveal that the Amstel in its downstream part was flanked by two lithologically identical layers of overbank clay, intercalated by a peat layer. The lowermost overbank clay was deposited from 3000 BP to about 1000 AD. The intercalated peat layer is estimated to have developed between the 11th and 12th centuries AD, indicating a decreased sediment supply in the Amstel, and rise of water level in the downstream river caused by Zuiderzee influences such as storms and tide. The uppermost overbank clay was deposited during major storm surges such as those documented in 1164 and 1170 AD, and was derived from the brackish Zuiderzee; it has been traced upstream along the Amstel for over 10 km. Near the mouth of the Amstel channel in the Oer-IJ estuary its bottom has been scoured by estuarine processes to a lower level. On the basis of archaeological and geological data it is argued that the Amstel channel of medieval Amsterdam had a water depth of about 6 m before the construction of a dam in the 13th century. Soil scientists, historical geographers and historians have argued that the Amstel once consisted of two separate rivers: a northern Oer-IJ connected channel draining from the Amsterdam Stopera to the north, and a southern peat draining channel draining from the Amsterdam-Watergraafsmeer to the south. The relatively straight stretch of the present-day Amstel now positioned within the urban area has been hypothesised to be man-made between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. In this paper, on the basis of geological arguments such as channel depths, overbank clays, peat composition and other characteristics, it is concluded that the Amstel had a natural channel in the Amsterdam area.

The share of older migrants in Dutch cities is increasing. However, only limited knowledge has been gained about the urban conditions that older migrants live in and how these compare to those of their native Dutch counterparts. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap using detailed information on residential patterns, housing conditions and levels of neighbourhood deprivation in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and links this information to data about housing and neighbourhood satisfaction and perceived safety. Empirical evidence demonstrates that there is strong path dependence with regard to the places in which one finds different groups of older non-Western migrants. Older non-Western migrants in Amsterdam are highly concentrated in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The number of concentrations has increased significantly over the past decade, as well as the concentration levels. Nevertheless, we did not find indications of social isolation. With regard to housing conditions, we found better conditions for socio-economically similar groups of native Dutch and Surinamese 55+ residents, compared to Turkish and Moroccan 55+ residents. These conditions correspond with levels of housing satisfaction. Surinamese older people are more positive about their neighbourhoods. We hypothesise that this is related to the restructuring of neighbourhoods where Surinamese 55+ residents are concentrated. Although the immediate environment of older non-Western people is characterised by high levels of social deprivation, this does not translate into dissatisfaction with social relations or feelings of lack of safety. This suggests that their residential concentration in particular urban neighbourhoods may also bring significant opportunities.

The population trend over the last decade for subantarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus tropicalis) on Amsterdam and St. Paul islands and on Possession Island (Crozet Archipelago) and Antarctic fur seals (A. gazella) on Possession Island are analysed. At Amsterdam Island, based on pup counts, the subantarctic fur seal population appears to have stabilized after a period of rapid growth. At Possession Island subantarctic fur seal and Antarctic fur seal, with respective annual growth rates of 19.2 and 17.4%, are reaching the maximum growth rate for the genus Arctocephalus. Annual pup censuses at Possession Island since 1978 indicate important variations from year to year with pup production for A. gazella significantly lower the year after an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event, but with no such relationship for A. tropicalis. Several other long term demographic studies of seabirds and marine mammals at different breeding locations in the Southern Ocean indicate that the breeding success of several of these predators appears to be widely affected in years which appear to be related to the ENSO events. To clarify this, it is necessary to analyse in more detail the demographic data obtained for the different subantarctic and Antarctic locations where long term monitoring programmes are conducted.