"Een thuijn geleegen buijten de Z. O. zeijde dezer steede" Land use and land ownership in the eighteenth-century Four Gravets of Colombo (Sri Lanka)
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2020-08-31
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en
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In the late seventeenth and the entire eighteenth century, the coastal regions of Sri Lanka were a colony of the Dutch Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC). Between 1659 and 1796 Colombo functioned as the capital of this colony. This thesis, studies the developments of the land market and land use in the (mid-)eighteenth-century suburbs of this city, the so-called Four Gravets of Colombo. In studying this case, this thesis ties into three ongoing debates in urban/historical research: debates on the development of various social groups in Sri Lanka, studies into colonial land management, and studies into suburbs. In order to examine the developments that took place in Colombo’s Four Gravets, a set of contemporary land registers, the land thombos, were used. These registers are a unique source for socio-economic studies into the lives of (indigenous) people under colonial rule.
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Faculteit der Letteren