In October 1994 in The Hague, the Institute for Maritime History of the Naval Staff (Royal Netherlands Navy), the International Institute for Social History, and the Department of Maritime History of the University of Leiden hosted a conference on “European Sailors, 1570-1870.” This meeting was organized to bring together experts on seafaring labour and the (inter)national labour market for seamen in Europe in the age of sail. The reason for this was our belief that research, particularly comparative research, into maritime labour has been hampered by the absence of an up-to-date overview in the various European countries of the labour market for seafarers. It should be stressed, however, that the organisers were well aware that they were not the first to attempt to get such an overview, as the proceedings of the 1980 International Congress of Maritime History meeting in Bucharest, Seamen in Society, show.

In recent years, as studies based upon vague concepts of “global markets,” the efficiency of international maritime labour markets or, as a kind of counterpart to the Braudelian Mediterranean, North Sea culture have proliferated, the lack of such an overview is apparent. How can one discuss global concepts without knowing the actual state of affairs in various nations? How can one construct models without at least some hard evidence? And even if one has a few pieces, are they part of the same puzzle? In short, our knowledge for each country is far from uniform, and in many cases far from linguistically accessible. Moreover, much depends on what sources have survived and what kinds of queries put to the material. Since maritime history is not an academic priority in all countries, we have a sketchy and fragmented picture, or sometimes even a total blank. As an example, a question like “how many sailors were employed in any particular period between 1570 and 1870 in any particular trade” posed for some researchers an insurmountable barrier.

Our shared interests in seafaring people were the basis and inspiration for the organisation of the conference on “European Sailors, 1570-1870.” In addition, our own research into the various aspects of the Dutch maritime labour market prompted many questions that could only be answered satisfactorily by international comparative research.