Learning from shortages: Amsterdam's grain reserve, 1540-1700

Abstract

During the greater part of the seventeenth century Amsterdam maintained a permanent grain reserve in order to protect the poor from the consequences of grain shortages. This article investigates the introduction, subsequent functioning, and the later abolition of this reserve as an example of institutional learning and unlearning from disasters. The establishment of the permanent reserve around 1600 is shown to have been a reaction to recurring problems both with food supply itself and with the financing of emergency purchases during crises. In the seventeenth century the benefits of the reserve were extended to the entire urban population via the introduction of general subsidization of bread prices, but this adaptation turned out to be untenable. The abolition of the permanent reserve in 1680 is interpreted as a case of unlearning prompted by financial problems.