Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

and close trade to private merchants were driven by the States General's interests in populating
and defending Brazil at the least possible public expense. Slavery was part of both
considerations. The first section of the chapter shows that the company's plans to raise additional
private capital in 1636 stalled in the face of shareholder frustration with the policy of free trade
to Brazil, and that the States General's decision to reinstate the monopoly that December was
motivated by its desire to avoid assuming the financial burden for the war. The next section
explores the States General's concerns about disorder in Brazil itself on the even of Johan
Maurits’ arrival. By reconstructing the relevant committees, it establishes the active role played
by noblemen and other officials in The Hague who supported monopoly, military expansion, and
slavery as the best means to secure the colony. The following section examines the decision
within the Heren XIX to reopen the trade in 1638 and in particular at a compromise proposal
presented by the States of Holland. Though a victory for Amsterdam, the chapter shows that this
proposal was in fact accepted on Maurits' recommendation, and that it contained important
provisions to appease Zeeland by attracting additional private capital and formally recognizing
the company's monopoly on the trade in slaves. The last section analyzes the way that the Heren
XIX planned for and organized the slave trade during the period 1637-1645. The conclusion
suggests a framework for thinking about how this trade evolved from a solution to problems in
Dutch Brazil to a source of commercial profit in its own right.
2. Monopoly and Private Capital
The States General's decision to re-impose the company's monopoly in December of 1636 dates
back to the beginning of 1635 and was intimately linked to plans for a verhoging (augmentation
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