Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

affairs. 59 By October of the next year, the States General expected to receive lists of the new
directors from the chambers. These directors were then invited to assemble in The Hague, where
in late November they were loaned the States General's archive of documents relating to the
company and the Amsterdam chamber was asked to call the first meeting of the Heren XIX. 60 In
a sign of the company’s emerging independence, a request from the States General for this first
session to be held in The Hague, rather than Amsterdam, was rejected. 61 The proceedings began
in Amsterdam on December 17, 1622.
The foremost problem at this first meeting, as the State's General's senior representative,
Nicholas van der Meer, reported back to The Hague, concerned the delegation from North
Holland. For almost two years the cities of Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Alkmaar, Edam, Medemblik,
Monnickendam, and Purmerend had failed to reach agreement on the allocation of directorships
and the division of responsibilities for the construction and provisioning of ships. The nature of
the impasse is clear from a long session devoted to the problem held in the States of Holland in
March of 1621, recorded in detail by Nicholas Stellingwerf. Mediators from Amsterdam, Delft,
and Dordrecht proposed what they expected to be a workable solution: Hoorn and Enkhuizen
would together receive 4/10 of the so-called timmeragie (ship building) while 6/10 would be
divided among the smaller cities. Alkmaar and Purmerend agreed to this proposal, but Hoorn
demanded 6/10 for itself and Enkhuizen, Edam, Medemblik, and Monikendam each demanded
1/4. A similar situation pertained to the allocation of directorships, and repeated efforts by the
States of Holland to find a resolution all ended in failure. 62
59 Resolutions of the States General, August 6, 1621. “Deze [bekwaamste en best geaggectionnerde direceuren]
zullen zo nodig bijeenkomen en een voorlopig college vormen, dat besluiten kan nemen in alle voorvallende zaken.”
60 Ibid., November 29, 1621.
61 Ibid., December 5, 1621.
62 Stellingwerff and Schot, Particuliere Notulen van de Vergaderingen der Staten van Holland, 1620-1640, entry for
March 18, 1621.
113