Business History versus Economic History in the Netherlands

Business history is often seen as a subfi eld of economic history. A later addition and, a younger fi eld of research. This chapter will argue the opposite: when economic history developed in the Netherlands as a specialisation within the academic fi eld of history at the start of the twentieth century, it placed great emphasis on business history. As the discipline of economics changed during the twentieth century, so did economic history, with the consequence that interest in business waned. The content of economic history changed, although the name remained the same. As a consequence, business history had to reinvent itself by focusing on the history of individual businesses. In linking up with commissioned history, the fi eld became mostly concentrated on the nineteenth and twentieth century. In the twenty-fi rst century, economic and business history have grown closer again through their shared interest