Moerkapelle had become a separate municipality from Bleiswijk on 1 April 1817, though the village Moerkapelle and the polder (made-dry land) surrounding it were much older. It existed as a separate municipality until 1 January 1991, when it merged with Zevenhuizen into Moerhuizen.1 I will be focusing my research first on the 1850-1899 time period. The nineteenth century in the Netherlands was a time of great change, with the latter half finally seeing the industrial revolution take hold in the Netherlands as well. This included all of the social changes, with corresponding migration patterns. I am curious to see if and how those large patterns are visible in a small, agricultural town in Zuid-Holland.
The Moerkapelle of the 1840s was a small town of about 60 houses, situated amidst clean, fertile pastures and arable lands, with plenty of waterways and well-maintained roads. The population, around 500 people, mainly earned their living in agriculture and livestock trade.2
The agricultural sector was the largest economy of the nineteenth century in the Netherlands. The industrial revolution in the Netherlands didn’t truly get started until the second half of the nineteenth century, bringing many changes that would have been felt in Moerkapelle as well. The agricultural sector itself changed greatly in the 1850-1899 time period, while at the same time the cottage industry started disappearing in favor of the larger industries, often found in cities.3 I expect I will see some of these changes reflected in the population of Moerkapelle as well.
This time period also sees an agricultural crisis (between 1878 and 1895), due to the import of cheap agricultural products from the United States and Canada. It resulted not only in a greater industrialization of the agricultural sector, including a move of no longer needed laborers to the cities, but also a large amount of emigration to other countries.4 Considering Moerkapelle’s economy was mainly driven by agriculture, I expect to see this in the records as well.
Sources:
1.Gemeentegeschiedenis, entry for Moerkapelle. https://www.gemeentegeschiedenis.nl/amco/11383, accessed 29 December 2021.
2. Van der Aa, A.J.. “Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden, Deel 7”, page 5. Gorinchem, Jacobus Noorduyn, 1846. Google Books, https://books.google.nl/books?id=ZnwIAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=nl&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 29 December 2021.
3. Wikipedia entry “Industriële revolutie in Nederland”, https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industri%C3%ABle_revolutie_in_Nederland, accessed 29 December 2021.
4. Wikipedia entry “Geschiedenis van Nederland”, “Verenigd Koninkrijk” section, https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschiedenis_van_Nederland#Verenigd_Koninkrijk, accessed 29 December 2021.
Image credit: public domain image of map, published by Hugo Suringar (Leeuwarden), held by Streekarchief Hollands Midden (sahm.nl, Gouda). Image can be found here.
Moerkapelle 