Building Carriage,Wagon and Motor Vehicle Bodies in the Netherlands: The 1900–40 Transition

Abstract

During the motorisation boom in the Netherlands in the 1920s, Dutch wagonmakers started making bodies for motorised utility vehicles. Prior to this, luxury carriage builders already had made the transition to production of automobiles or the bodies for these new vehicles. For wagonmakers, the decline in demand for their traditional business and farm wagon and carts began after World War I. However, the automobile industry created many opportunities for them as well. Archival information shows that the Dutch trade associations and government agency Rijksnijverheidsdienst, played a key role in the innovation and retraining process by building a network, stimulating wagonmakers to modernise and retrain, and by transferring and developing knowledge.