Thursday, November 25th 2010

17.30-18.00 Introduction: Werner Plumpe and Ralf Banken (Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main)  The Transnational Rhine Economy in the Period of the Coal-based Economy.

18.00-19.00 First Keynote Speech: Richard Coopey (Aberystwyth University; London School of Economics) Flowing across boundaries, flowing across history; The economy of rivers since 1800.

Friday, November 26th 2010

9.00-11.00 First Session: Perspectives on Transport and Logistics

• Jeroen Euwe (Erasmus University Rotterdam): Changing Traffic Flows along the Rhine during the Weimar Republic.
• Vincent Lagendijk (University Leiden):  Transnational Dimensions of the Exploitation of International Rivers: A Comparative Approach.
• Andreas Kunz (Institute of European History Mainz):  The Transport of Coal in the Rhine Economy 1850-1950.

Discussant: Monika Dommann (University Basel)

11.30-13.00 Second Session: Business and Financial Relations

• Hein Klemann (Erasmus University Rotterdam):  Monetary and Financial Problems in the Rhine States during the Interwar Period.
• Alfred Reckendrees (Copenhagen Business School): The Vereinigte Stahlwerke and its Financial Relations to the Netherlands 1926-1933.

Discussant: Christopher Kobrak (ESCP Europe Paris)

14.00-15.00 Second Keynote Speech: Ron Boschma (University Utrecht) How do regions diversify over time? The importance of technological relatedness.

15.30-17.00 Third Session: International Coal and the Rhine

• Hendrik Fischer (University of Cologne), Boris Gehlen (University of Bonn): The Development of the Rhenish Lignite Industry: Enterprises and Markets 1880-1933.
• Ralf Banken (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main): The Coal market between Mannheim and Basel: The Competition between the Saar and Ruhr Coal in the middle and upper Rhine Valley 1850-1914.
• Thomas Jovovic (Ruhr University Bochum): The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the Concentration of the Ruhr Coal Mining Industry.

Discussant: Dominique Barjot (Paris-Sorbonne-Paris IV) (to be confirmed)

17.00-18.00 General discussion

Saturday, November 27th 2010

9.00-11.00 Fourth Session: Regulating and Regional Integration

• Isabel Tölle (University Siegen), Fuming Chimneys under the Bridge: the first non-moveable Bridge over the Rhine as a Hindrance for Shipping.
• Francoise Berger (University of Grenoble), Issues and imbalances of an insertion in the Rhine economy: The International Steel Cartel in the Inter-War-Period.
• Kurosawa Takafumi (Kyoto University), The Hydro-powered Industrial Revolution in the High-Rhine: How Historical Inter-industrial Linkages Formed a Transnational "Proto-Economic Region".