Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

was flirting with complete collapse. This dim view, incidentally, was not the result of a long-
standing prejudice against the WIC or its directors: as late as December 1644 Alexander asked
his brother to buy an additional 6,000 guilders worth of stock on the open market for 55 guilders
a share. 58 At that point—only six months before he penned the lines above—he either believed
that this figure represented a bargain or he was committed to investing for reasons of pride and
prestige. 59 In either case, he presumably believed that the company's fortunes stood a reasonable
chance of improving.
Now Alexander worried that the company would have trouble finding anyone fit to
assume the office of President. The directors desired someone with a lower profile than Maurits,
whom they could more easily control. But who would accept such a position? Alexander's
comments concerning his own candidacy, which apparently came as a complete surprise, were
unequivocal:
I have always said, and had written to my brother, that I had no reason to go so far over the sea in
the service of merchants, and that it would still not appeal to me if the contract, now grown to
1,800 guilders per month, was made still greater. 60
uytdeilongen of renten te cesseren, ende alle het inkomen van de Compagnie geabsorbeert te worden in de swaere
lasten van oorlogh, ende onderhoudinghe van Forten ende Comtooren. Daer quamen wel goede retouren van Brasil
ende Nieuw Nederlandt, als oock van de kust van Africa; maer d'openstellinge van de handel in Brasil dede alle, ofte
de beste retouren komen in handen van particuliere reeders, die by de Bewinthebberen wierden gefavoriseert. Alle
die uyt Brasil wederomme t'huys quamen, waren verryckt.”
58 See Alexander van der Capellen's rekenboeck in the Gelders Archief, 0467, inv.nr. 134, fol. 49.
59 Evidence for the latter motivation might be read in his reference to "a capital of 100,000 guilders," the investment
threshold required for a city to merit a director in the Amsterdam chamber.
60 Van der Capellen, Gedenkschriften van Jonkheer Alexander van der Capellen, Heere van Aartsbergen,
Boedelhoff, en Mervelt, vol. 2, 111. “De titul ende macht van President, versien met goede instructie, wierde
geordeelt de meeste ende aengenaemste diensten te kunnen doen, maer men wiste niet, waer men de persoon daertoe
bequaemst soude kunnen vinden, tot dat by de vergaderinghe geresolveert wiert, daertoe vyf voorgestelde ende de
Cameren aengenaeme persoonen te fondeeren, daeronder ick Alexander van der Capellen een was, ende gestelt
wierde voor aen, hoewel butn myn kennisse, toedoen ofte versoeck. Als nu myn broeder my dese sake bekent
gemaeckt hadde, ende ick die by my overleyt, hebbe ick altydt geseyt, ende myn Broeder geschreven gehadt, dat ick
geen reden hadde, om soo wydt over See te gaen in dienst van coopluden, konde oock daertoe geen treck krygen,
alwaer 't dat het tractement, nu begrootet op 1800. gulden ter maendt, noch grooter gemaeckt mochte worden.”
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