Economic historians Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker launched their Game of the Golden Age during a special event at the KNAW’s Trippenhuis on 31 January. The game revolves around Hans Thijs, a seventeenth-century tradesman in Amsterdam. The goal of the game is to accumulate as much wealth as possible, investing in bulk goods, luxury goods, property or bonds, while dealing with seventeenth-century risks such as the plague and burnt down warehouses.
The Game of the Golden Age is a ‘serious game’, based on historical research on financial markets in the Low Countries around 1600. The Dutch version can be downloaded from the App Store for free for iPhone, and iPad. Accompanying educational material for high school students has been developed by De Praktijk, and can be downloaded on their website for free as well. The English version of the game will be launched at NIAS in two months time.
Oscar Gelderblom (right) presenting the Game of the Golden Age.
About Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker
Oscar Gelderblom is Associate Professor of Economic History at Utrecht University and member of the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science. Joost Jonker is NEHA Professor of Business History at the University of Amsterdam and Associate Professor of Economic History at Utrecht University. Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker are currently at NIAS to write a book together on the evolution of financial markets in pre-industrial Europe.
More information about the Game of the Golden Age or the launch (Dutch).