Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

The preceding analysis suggests that state involvement in the WIC was so great precisely
because the state itself was so decentralized. The company was both a product of, and a vehicle
for, the centralization of commercial and imperial policy.
Finally, the chapter has argued that representatives of the States General played a vital
role in the in the Heren XIX. Van der Meer and Van Goch's efforts to impose order and unity
were only a beginning, though, and the significance of the States General’s representatives and
the board itself would grow substantially during the 1630s and early 1640s, when the territory
under the company's direct administrative and military control rapidly expanded. In order to
handle the greater volume of correspondence and the challenges of financial accounting, the
Heren XIX hired additional scribes, clerks, and accountants, and in 1642 they established a
General Rekencamer (Central Accounting Office) responsible for coordinating the work of the
chambers' individual accountants and reconciling the company’s books. 101 The Heren XIX also
retained a staff of lawyers to handle suits from foreign merchants and governments who believed
that they had been wronged by the company’s actions overseas. 102 The challenge of staffing
regional directorates in the conquests grew, as well. By 1642 there were already separate
administrative structures in Brazil, Guinea, Angola, New Netherland, and Curacao, each
requiring a steady stream of personnel, instructions, and provisions. 103 As a result, the meetings
of the Heren XIX lasted longer and longer, so that the board began to take on the character of a
standing colonial administration, with its own staff and supervisory authority over subordinate
councils overseas.
101 NA 1.01.05 inv.nr. 9411.
102 These included Simon van Beaumont, secretary to the city of Middelburg and a director of the company, and,
later, the Amsterdam lawyer Gysbert Rudolphij.
103 For the separation of Loanda from Brazil, see NA 1.01.05 inv.nr. 9411. For the division of Guinea into a northern
and southern, districts see Van den Boogaart and Emmer, “The Dutch Participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade,
1596-1650,” 358.
129