Het privilege van Filips de Goede aan de vrije schippers van Gent (1436)

In 1436, the free shippers received a written confirmation of their privileges from Philip the Good, following their help in suppressing a rebellion of tradesmen in Ghent. This contribution aims to explain the privileges of the free shippers in more detail through a substantive and formal analysis of the charter of 1436. One of the most important sentences in this charter turns out to be the most enigmatic as well: the free shipper from Ghent were said to have been ‘founded’ on the Scheldt, the Lieve and the Lys. This verb appears to imply that the free skippers had the right to exercise control over these waterways; moreover, the free shippers believed that their corporation had been created for the sole purpose of steering the economic traffic on these waterways. Supposedly, their privileges already existed as customary law, and this charter provided them with written proof.