Harald Deceulear Consumption and distribution of cloths between town and countryside in the Southern Low Countries (sixteenth to eighteenth century)
This article investigates how the presence or absence of rural markets influenced the social organisation, composition and historical evolution of the clothing industry in the towns of the Southern Low Countries in the early modem period. In towns with large, populous, fertile or proto-industrial hinterlands, a multitude of second hand dealers functioned as intermediaries between town and country. In towns with weaker connections to their hinterland, a smaller number of second hand dealers concentrated on public sales for the local market. The development of a rural service sector harmed the outlets of urban sellers of simple goods. More broadly, this article argues that the of ten taken for granted local, urban level of analysis can be transcended into a more regional, comparative approach, in which different dynamics of hinterlands and town-countryside relations shaped different trajectories of urban markets and trades.

Jan Dumolyn Investing in social capital. Networks andsocial transac- tions of Burgundian officials
Medieval historians in the Netherlands have increasingly paid attention to the role of 'networks' in society. Often they have done so to the detriment of the study of social classes. Methodological individualism and the neglect of social conflicts have sometimes been the result of this approach. In reality, networks exist and operate in a context of unequal power relations and division of wealth in society and should be studied as such. Explicit theoretical reflection is absolutely necessary though historians tend to neglect this. This article is inspired by the approach of Pierre Bourdieu, who considers networks as 'social capital'. Social capital is traded with economic, political, cultural and symbolic capital in 'social transactions' between actors and institutions. I illustrate this theoretical vision with empirical examples within the administrative apparatus of the Valois dukes of Burgundy (1385-1492) in the county of Flanders. Government officials tried to accumulate their 'capital', looking for prestige, wealth, power, influence, marriage and social mobility. They mobilised their social networks in order to do so while in the meantime the duke of Burgundy tried to use these same networks to extend his power and the impact of state formation.

Harald Deceulaer studeerde geschiedenis aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel en werkt op het Algemeen Rijksarchief in Brussel. Hij publiceerde o.a. Pluriforme patronen en een verschillende snit. Sociaal-economische, institutionele en culturele transformaties  in de kledingsector in Antwerpen, Brussel en Gent, ca. 1585-ca. 1800 (Amsterdam, IISG, 2001), en talloze artikels over de sociale geschiedenis van de Nederlanden, o.a. in de International Review of Social History, Textile History en de Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine. 
    Adres: Harald De- ceulaer. Helenalei 51.2018 Antwerpen. haralddeceulaer@hotmail.com.

Jan Dumolyn is doctor in de geschiedenis en als voltijds assistent verbonden aan de vak- groep Middeleeuwse geschiedenis van de Universiteit Gent. Hij publiceerde onder meer De Brugse opstand van 1436-1438, Kortrijk-Heule, 1997 naast verschillende artikelen over de laatmiddeleeuwse adel en ambtenaren.
    Adres: Blandijnberg 2,9000 Gent,jan.Dumolyn@rug.ac.be.