Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

e required to create a monopoly company for the West Indies. This commission was led by
Francois Francken, Pensionaris of Gouda. Another member was Jan Huygen van Linschoten
(1563-1611), whose voyage to the East Indies in 1586-1587 laid the groundwork for Dutch
overseas expansion in Asia. 15 By the beginning of September 1606, the committee had produced
a lengthy report; by October this report had been transformed into a detailed concept-octroy
(draft charter) that was sent by the States General to the various provinces for their
consideration. 16
This document was modeled on the charter of the VOC, approved four years earlier, in
1602. Like the VOC, the WIC was to be granted a monopoly on trade in its respective territory
and rights to exercise force, plant settlements, and appoint colonial governors in the name of the
States General. At home, the company would be composed of four chambers—Amsterdam,
Zeeland, North Holland, and the Maas—each managed by a fixed number of directors chosen
from among the chief investors. Each chamber would be responsible for raising its own capital
and would be operationally independent. As often as needs required, however, representatives
from the four chambers would convene in a general council to “handle and determine all of the
company’s business.” 17 This business was described as consisting primarily in “resolving when
ships shall be equipped, how many ships shall be sent by each chamber, and all the other daily
affairs of the company in general.” 18 For the first six years the company’s general meeting would
15 Meijer, Liefhebbers des Vaderlands ende Beminders van de Commercie; Van Rees, Geschiedenis der
Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland tot het Einde der Achttiende Eeuw, 2:77; The narrative of Linschoten’s journey is
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies: The First Book,
Containing His Description of the East. (Elibron Classics, 2005); See also Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier, and
Vibeke Roeper, Souffrir pour Parvenir: de Wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten (Haarlem: Uitgeverij Arcadia,
1998).
16 Meijer, Liefhebbers des Vaderlands ende Beminders van de Commercie, 32-34.
17 Article 23, “alle saecken deze compaignie aangaende verhandelt ende beslooten sullen worden.”
18 Article 24, “‘t Voorseyd Collegie van Seventhien bescreven sijnd, sal tesamen commen om te resolveren wanneer
men sal equipperen, hoeveele schepen men op elck quartier sal seynden ende op alle andere diergelijcke saecken de
compaignie in 't gemeen betreffende.”
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