he prehistory of this book is long. When working on my dissertation, presented in 1996, Ingmar Brohed (R. I. P.), my doctoral su- Tpervisor, suggested that instead of borrowing lots of books from countries beyond the Nordic, Icould go to some big library abroad, such as the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, to see many of those books there. I did. Starting there I found on this subject some interesting literature and documents in libraries and in archives primarily in Germany and Finland resulting in some pages in my book. So this work with its international perspective has continued, travel and visits to libraries and archives followed by texts. Except for the published texts, some of them preceding one part or another in this book, two unpublished texts focusing on this subject have been discussed at the European social science history conferences in Berlin 2004 and Belfast 2018. These two texts display a development as the first one was more focused on the crimes and their settings while the second from an even more international perspective questioned the idea of these actions being possible to describe as a specific crime. And now, after decades, finally a book. This delay makes it even more impossible to do a full list of the hordes I should give thanks to. Therefore only afew of so many will be mentioned, sadly. However, a big Thank you to all that have helped and inspired me in this endeavour! Thus only a few names, mostly from recent time, of many will be mentioned. Recent time, however, does not apply to Hans Andersson who managed to tempt me with the ESSHCconference in Berlin 2004, for me a start of many refreshing dives into contemporary research. When three obstacles the covid19 situation, my own disease, and the huge problems with reading substantial texts in handwritten Nederlands from the eighteenth century hindered me from visiting yet another archive, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Lodewijk Wagenaar came to my rescue. Eventually it was time to ask others to read my text. preface longing for the scaffold 12
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