Printed Markets - The Basel Avisblatt (1729-1845)

Switzerland’s first advertising journal – the so-called Avisblatt – was published in Basel. It is a typical example of a new market form emerging in 18th century Europe, yet it is also exceptional since all issues from 1729 to 1844/45 are preserved. In the SNF funded research project “Märkte auf Papier” at the University of Basel (PI: Prof. Dr. Susanna Burghartz), this serial source has been digitized and used to investigate economic, social and societal transformations of the early capitalist period in Basel. A database of all adverts and announcements was created, totalling 932’000 records and providing different sorts of metadata for each advert. Combined with open source analytical tools, the avisblatt project makes this dataset available.

The Avisblatt project was funded by a grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): Märkte auf Papier. Informationen, Daten und Nachrichten im Basler ‘Avisblatt’, 1729-1845 (Grant No.: 100011_182156)