The Dutch Paper Industry from 1580 to the Present

“The Dutch Paper Industry from 1580 to the Present is not your typical history book. Adopting a historical materialist perspective, Ehrich’s work exposes the complicity between capitalism and networks and significantly enriches contemporary economic history scholarship by providing essential insights for those intrigued by critical analyses of the paper industry and the broader history of capitalist development.”

—Professor Steffen Boehm, Professor in Organisation and Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, UK


This open access book is the first to provide an analysis of the Dutch paper industry over a period encompassing six centuries. Responding to a trend of renewed scholarly interest in paper industries and production, the book seeks to illuminate the factors behind this relatively small national industry’s centuries-long survival.

Previous historical research has shown that sets of colonial, trade, merchant and family networks, tightly interwoven through a dense web of capital, were crucial for paper production and trade in early modern Europe. This book situates the Dutch paper industry within these overlapping contexts and their shifting dynamics over time, and historicizes the challenges and obstacles it had to overcome through four phases of capitalism: the rise of Dutch capitalism (1580–1815), Dutch monarchic liberalism (1815–1914), Fordism (1914–1980), and post-Fordism (1980 until now). Each chapter covers not only technological advancements in the industry, but its development alongside further determining dimensions, such as state-industry relations (industry policies), labour-capital relations (unions) and competition and cooperation, overall painting a picture of how the industry adapted to and endured changes in national and global networks surrounding the industry. This book will be of broad interest to scholars of economic and business history, as well as industrial history, political economy, and management studies.


Martha Emilie Ehrich is a postdoctoral researcher at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Germany, researching gender equity policies in the film industry. Having completed a PhD at Radboud University in the Netherlands, Ehrich’s primary research interests span network research, economic history and political economy.