30/04/2026
Recently, our SHOC colleague Brent Huygh published his first academic article, titled "Commercialisation from below: the Brussels gateway roads in the eighteenth century", in the journal "History of Retailing and Consumption". In this article, Brent sets out to answer the question: what role did traffic flows in eighteenth-century Brussels play in shaping the urban (retail) landscape?
During the early modern period, consumer behaviour significantly changed in many parts of Western Europe. Rural populations increasingly consumed urban goods, while also producing in an increasingly market-oriented manner. As such, they were important drivers of urban expansion, notably strengthening middle groups like craftsmen and retailers. However, the spatial effects of this so-called ‘urbanization from below’ remain unstudied. By comparing the 1702 and 1802 censuses in Brussels, this article reveals how gateway roads, linking city gates to the centre, accommodated a significantly larger share of urban commerce by the start of the nineteenth century than a century before. On these gateway roads, increasingly busy traffic displaced poorer crafts such as textile production, while attracting merchants and retailers. These mainly sold non-durable, colonial goods, like tea, spices and to***co, which, not coincidentally, fulfilled a prominent role in rural consumption patterns as well. Similarly, consistent differences in the degree of commercialization between the gateway roads can be linked to the extent of the urban hinterland in the corresponding direction. Importantly, by pointing to external consumers as a key factor in reshaping the urban fabric, this article also adds to existing literature on retail locations in the early modern city.
Article link: https://lnkd.in/erEd7GU2
Image: Hendrik van Wel, view on the Halle Gate and Brussels, ca. 1700.
