Abstract
In the 18th century, the cities in the west of the Republic were confronted with a sharp fall in population. This has generally been interpreted as a symptom of the Netherlands' economic decline. Yet no systematic historical study of this disurbanisation has ever been published. The analytical instruments that could help clarify this trend are therefore poorly developed. Moreover, this disurbanisation has never been considered in relation to the expansion of the country?s agriculture sector in the same period. The proposed research will make a systematic study of the process of disurbanization in the period 1700-1860, focusing on the case of Zeeland. It will start from existing theoretical models, furnishing them with additional elements relating to culture, mentality and politics. It will also explore the ways in which the processes of urban decline and agricultural growth influenced each other. The focus is on investigating the shift of economic, political and cultural power and on the emergence of a new symbiosis between city and countryside.