ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the role of investments in skills during an economic crisis. It focuses on the Antwerp diamond industry in the Early Modern period, examining apprentice contracts and guild regulations. The birth of the so-called knowledge economy is a much debated topic in recent historical research. Guild historians have also stimulated the research on skills and education. The revived interest in urban corporatism since the 1980s has coincided with increased attention to the historical aspects of apprenticeship and learning on the shop floor. The doge's city exported the diamonds to other European cities such as Paris, Nuremberg and Bruges. The Antwerp diamond sector existed long before the official recognition of its guild in 1582. Probably at some point in the fifteenth century, Italian merchants moved the diamond trade from Bruges to Antwerp because of changing international trade routes. The work of both Mokyr and van Zanden has stimulated research on the 'circulation of knowledge'.
