Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

1. Introduction
Chapter Three
A Council of the Indies for the Dutch Republic?
The Origins of a Company Board
The WIC was granted a 24-year charter by the States General on June 3, 1621. 1 Although many
people were involved in its formation, historians have long pointed to the tireless agitation of a
single figure, Willem Usselincx. 2 Born in Antwerp in 1567, Usselincx was one of the most
innovative economic theorists of his generation. When Antwerp was sacked by Spanish troops in
1585, he traveled to Spain, Portugal, and the Azores, where he gained first-hand experience of
the wealth of the New World and the manner in which it was extracted by the Iberian powers.
Sometime around 1591 he migrated north and settled in Amsterdam, where he was quickly
absorbed into the city's merchant and intellectual elite. By his own account, Usselincx began
advocating for a WIC during the last years of the sixteenth century. 3 In a 1608 pamphlet, he
argued that the Dutch could exploit the riches of the New World by planting settler colonies in
1 Den Heijer, “The Twelve Years’ Truce and the Founding of the Dutch West India Company.”
2 J. Franklin Jameson, Willem Usselinx: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies (New York: G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1887); Catharina Ligtenberg, Willem Usselinx (Utrecht: A. Oosthoek, 1914); Otto van Rees,
Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland tot het Einde der Achttiende Eeuw, vol. 2 (Utrecht: Kemink en
Zoon, 1868). A more recent discussion can be found in Benjamin Schmidt, Innocence Abroad: The Dutch
Imagination and the New World, 1570-1670 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 176-184.
3 A. C. Meijer, Liefhebbers des Vaderlands ende Beminders van de Commercie: de Plannen tot Oprichting van een
Generale Westindische Compagnie gedurende de Jaren 1606-1609 (Middelburg: Zeeuwsch Genootschap, 1986).
93