Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

trade developed in the colony's most important commodity, sugar. 11 This resulted in a boom
atmosphere in the Dutch colony, but it left most of the profits in private hands at precisely the
moment that costs for the colony's military defense were becoming unsustainable.
In December of 1636 the States General passed a resolution reinstating the company's full
monopoly and forbidding any further private trade to Brazil. This generated a swift and angry
reaction, especially from merchants in Amsterdam, where a number of pamphlets appeared
arguing that the trade should be left open. One of these pamphlets likened the company's grip on
Brazil to the tyranny of the Duke of Alva; not only was the company incapable of conducting the
trade to Brazil on an adequate scale, but the monopoly would enrage Portuguese merchants and
discourage potential settlers who would only wish to travel to Brazil if their rights and liberties
were guaranteed. 12 Defenders of the monopoly, based primarily in Zeeland, replied in kind,
arguing that it was unjust for private merchants to reap all the benefits while the company's
investors were saddled only with debts. Moreover, they reasoned that private merchants, “intent
on their own profit,” were unlikely to cultivate the land to benefit of the colony, and thus the
United Provinces, as a whole. 13 Ultimately, the arguments in favor of free trade carried the day
and the States General re-opened the trade to Brazil in April of 1638.
The debate has fascinated generations of historians and features prominently in nearly
every account of the WIC's history. 14 These accounts have emphasized the acrimony between
Amsterdam and Zeeland and their divergent interests: whereas Amsterdam's powerful merchant
11 Narder Ordre Ende Reglement ... over Het Open Ende Vry Stellen Van Den Handel Ende Negotie Op De Stadt
Olinda De Pernambuco Ende Custen Van Brasil, 1634; Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654, 76.
12 Vertooch by een Liefhebber der Vaderlants vertoont tegen het Ongefondeerde ende Schadelijck Sluyten der Vryen
Handel in Brasil, 1637.
13 Examen over het Vertoogh, teghen het Onghefondeerde ende Schadelijck Sluyten der Vryen Handel in Brasil.
Door een Ondersoecker der Waerheydt, 1637.
14 Wätjen, O Dominio Colonial Hollandez no Brasil: Um capitulo da historia colonial do seculo XVII; Boxer, The
Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654; Van Dillen, “De West-Indische Compagnie, het Calvinism en de Politiek”; Den Heijer,
“Het Recht van de Sterkste in de Polder: Politieke en Economische Strijd tussen Amsterdam en Zeeland over de
Kwestie Brazilie, 1630-1654.”
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