Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

used to nominate and rank-order the candidates only a few weeks earlier could be suspended
without serious objection, indicates how important the company's directors considered the
matter. As a result of the proposal, three new names were put forward: Abraham Trouwers, a
director from the Amsterdam chamber and the company's Rekenmeester; Nicholas
Koeckebacker, Schepen (Alderman) from Delft; and Hendrik Haecxs, a merchant living in
Amsterdam. It was hoped that these additions would help to solve the problem and help balance
the council. But would any of these three individuals accept?
Hendrik Haecxs' story is well known among Dutch scholars thanks to a lengthy diary he
began at this time. 68 Although almost nothing is known of his life, it is clear that Haecxs had
lived and worked as a merchant in Brazil during the early 1640s. He appears in the minutes of
the Hoge ende Secrete Raad as early as 1641, when he signed a petition complaining about the
preferential treatment afforded to Jewish merchants in the colony, and again in April 1644, when
he received payment of 475 guilders in return for goods specified to be “for the service of his
Excellency,” meaning Maurits. 69 It seems likely that this service brought Haecxs to the attention
of the company's directors. Haecxs recorded in his diary that he was informed of the company's
interest in his service by a friend while he was attending a wedding on June 29, 1645. A week
later, three directors, including Loten, visited his house to communicate directly the wishes of
the Heren XIX:
After ripe deliberation, they had unanimously voted my name, in order (if it pleased me) that I
should take a place in the Hoge ende Secrete Raad, not doubting whether this would be an honor
to God, an improvement of the desolate state of the company, as well as the many widows and
orphans supported thereby, and my own reputation. 70
68 Haecxs, “Het Dagboek van Hendrik Haecxs, Lid van den Hoogen Raad van Brazilië (1645-1654).”
69 NA 1.05.01.01 inv.nr. 56, Overgekomen brieven en papieren van Brazilie, packet for 1641 and NA 1.05.01.01
inv.nr. 70, Minuten van de Hoge en Secrete Raed in Brazilie, entry for April 30, 1644. I must thank Lucia Xavier for
finding and calling my attention to these sources.
70 Haecxs, “Het Dagboek van Hendrik Haecxs, Lid van den Hoogen Raad van Brazilië (1645-1654),” entry for July
5, 1645, 150. “na veel rijpe deliberatie mijne persoon eenparichlijck hadden gestemt, om (soo Ick wilde) mij plaetse
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