The people of the Zaanstreek
The people of the Zaanstreek
The people of the Zaanstreek
The Dutch Pantry
If you were to use a time machine to explore the Zaan region’s past, you wouldn’t need to look at the calendar to know in what era you arrived: you could simply follow your nose!
Is that fresh sawdust making you sneeze? Then you must be in the 17th century! Is there an unbearable stench of cod liver oil? Then you’ve gone back another century! But if all you can smell is cocoa powder and sugary biscuits, then it must be around 1900!
All these smells tell us a lot about what might have been the first− and indeed largest−industrial region in the world. The first leaf in this history book can be credited to Cornelis Coneliszoon, a humble farmer and visionary inventor. Tinkering away in his brother-in-law’s carpentry workshop beside his father-in- law’s mill, he was the first Dutchman to design a tool that was as simple as it was brilliant: the crankshaft. With two bends, this new device used the rotation of the windmill’s sail arms to make rods and pistons move back and forth. Attach a few saws and, hey presto, you had a mechanical sawmill: a machine that could not only saw 30 times faster−and therefore much more cheaply−than a handsaw, but also saw with greater and straighter precision.
This was around the start of the 17th century, when the newly created Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam was cry- ing out for timber to build its new ships. Sawmills sprouted up everywhere, and before long there were 700 in the region. Shipyards followed in their wake, and the Zaan area was soon the main hub for merchant shipbuilding in Europe, achieving such renown that even the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great, came to take a look. Today, the small house where he lodged is the oldest remaining wooden building in the region.
The secret to the Zaan region’s success was simple: a combina- tion of hard work and a good nose for business. But the indus- trious locals didn’t stop at shipbuilding! In addition to sawmills, sail-cloth weaving mills, dyehouses and cotton bleachers, they also founded an entire supply chain for the shipping industry, from rusk bakeries and paper mills to factories that pressed rapeseed oil. This hive of activity in Amsterdam’s backyard attracted workers from across the entire country.
When steam engines replaced windmills, production capacity increased even more, and the focus soon shifted to food prod- ucts. Well-known giants in the Dutch food sector that are still thriving today−companies such as Albert Heijn, Honig, Duyvis and, of course, Verkade−were all founded in the Zaan region, which quickly became the Dutch ‘pantry’.
Whale Tears
Moby Dick could easily have been set in the Zaan region, where there was plenty of inspiration for the tale of a desperate hunt for a blood-thirsty white whale. For centuries, local men hunted those giants of the ocean, sailing to Spitsbergen and beyond, up to the ancient ice of the North Pole, to drag their catches behind their ships all the way back to North Holland.
Whale meat was eaten, but more importantly, whale or train oil−from the Dutch word for tear, traan−was also boiled out of the mammals’ blubber. Dozens of whale oil refineries around Zaandam released the most sickening stench, blanketing the air across the entire region. Whale oil was in extremely high demand and exported to faraway places, used as fuel for lamps, as a lubricant for machinery, and worked into soap and candles. The best whalebone was transformed into corsets, umbrellas, fans and frames for eyeglasses, while the remaining bones were boiled down to make glue.
Whale oil was eventually replaced by petroleum, but whaling continued until 1986, when a ban was introduced to protect the giant sea creatures from extinction. Whales live on in Zaanstad’s town crest gracing each side of the coat of arms. But unlike Moby Dick, they are black, not white.
The people of the Zaanstreek
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