Introducing my trip to London and Leiden

This blog is where I will share my experiences of my five-week seminar as one of sixteen school teachers comparing the development of modern economic systems in the Dutch Republic and Great Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Led by project director Gerard Koot (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) this seminar compares and contrasts the social and economic developments in the Dutch Republic during the seventeenth century with developments in Great Britain a century later. The program is held in London (week one) and in Leiden (weeks two through five). In addition to thrice-weekly reading and discussion sessions, I will explore historical sites related to the seminar's theme. In London and environs, I'll visit the Docklands Museum, the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Hospital, the Royal Observatory, the original Bank of England, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the Low Country cities of Amsterdam, Leiden, the Hague, Haarlem, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and the Zuiderzee ports of Hoorn and Enkhuizen, I'll see museums, palaces, churches, merchant houses, warehouses, canals, and other maritime sites associated with the seminar's topic.   I'll try to post as often as I can (internet access is limited) and I'll provide some photos along the way too!