Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

to meeting minutes, but also to the record left by contemporary chroniclers. Johannes de Laet’s
history of the WIC was studiously silent on the company's internal management, almost certainly
to avoid discussion of the acrimonious disputes that dogged the company’s board. 10 There is thus
no equivalent to the analysis of the Heren XVII found in Pieter van Dam’s exhaustive account of
the “constitution, government, and trade” of the VOC, composed between 1693-1701. 11 While
the Heren XVII have been lionized within Dutch historiography, the Heren XIX have been
largely forgotten. To see the contrast one need only examine the chapter headings in J. G. van
Dillen’s magnum opus on the Dutch economy, Van Rijkdom en Regenten (Of Regents and
Riches). The section on the VOC is entitled, “Het Bedrijf van de Heren XVII” (The work of the
Gentlemen XVII); that on the WIC more prosaically, “Afrika en Amerika.” 12 For the VOC we are
presented with an agent, for the WIC, only a geographic region. We still know precious little
about the way the Heren XIX functioned, the individuals that staffed its meetings, and the polices
it developed to address the combined challenges of war, commerce, and colonial administration.
Answering these questions requires suspending contemporary assumptions about the role and
composition of a modern corporate board and carefully reconstructing the way the Heren XIX
functioned in practice.
The chapter is divided into three sections, each of which draws on a slightly different set
of sources. The first examines drafts for the WIC's charter composed between 1606 and 1620. 13
10 Johannes de Laet, Iaerlyck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, ed.
L’Honoré Naber, 4 vols., Linschoten Vereeniging (’s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931).
11 Pieter van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. F. W. Stapel (’s-Gravenhage: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1927). Born in Amersfoort in 1621, Van Dam became the company's legal advisor in 1649 and then, in
1652, its lawyer, a position he retained until his death in 1706. His Description of the East India Company was so
important that it was kept under lock and key in a chest in the Amsterdam chamber of the VOC. See Vree, Meetings,
Manners, and Civilization, 175.
12 J. G. van Dillen, Van Rijkdom en Regenten: Handboek tot de Economische en Sociale Geschiedenis van
Nederland tijdens de Republiek (’s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970).
13 These drafts were assembled from the Secrete Loketkas, Oude Westindische Compagnie in the archive of the
States General (NA 1.01.07 inv.nr. 12564.1) and the papers of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in the archive of the States
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