The rich trading history of the Northern Netherlands is not just a story of men. According to Dutch researcher Danielle van den Heuvel, Dutch women played a significant part in that trade. Women were able to capture a place in the world of commerce as a result of large-scale commercialisation following the Golden Age. For her research, Van den Heuvel received the prize for the best dissertation at the World Economic History Congress 2009. The heroic female entrepreneurs of the Northern Netherlands were already portrayed in old travel journals. However, up until now the degree of genuine involvement of these women in trade was not known. Van den Heuvel analysed figures from two centuries of trade from the Northern Netherlands and discovered that the women did not really become involved in commercial enterprise until just after the Golden Age. They did not, therefore, profit from the economic prosperity of that age, but only managed to establish their position in the period immediately ensuing it. There was a reasonably mature commercial sector at the end of the seventeenth century. According to Van den Heuvel, this situation afforded the women a unique opportunity. For instance, there was a wide range of products and an even larger demand for inexpensive consumer goods. This allowed women with just a small amount of initial capital to set up their own businesses.
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