Most historians agree that quarantine practices in the Mediterranean Sea played a pivotal role in the disappearance of plague from Western Europe. Although maritime quarantine originated in the Middle Ages, its importance increased during the seventeenth and eighteenth century when centralising states, guided by ‘populationist’ ideas of statecraft doctrines like mercantilism, began to develop and enforce isolation periods more elaborately. While extensive scholarship has explored maritime quarantine in Mediterranean port cities, little attention has been paid to the harbours of northwestern Europe. This study aims to fill this gap by examining maritime quarantine practices in the Austrian Netherlands during the eighteenth century. I survey measures taken in the region’s coastal area between 1715 and 1795 and examine if these precautions were influenced by theories of statecraft or prophylactic policy evolutions in the Mediterranean world. I argue that central involvement in maritime quarantine increased during the eighteenth century, driven by the growing influence of populationism in government circles as well as a heightened focus on commercial development. |
