Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

approved by a resolution of the States General two months later, on June 15. 29 Planning began
immediately thereafter for a verhoging in which each shareholder would be asked to subscribe
new money equal to 1/3 of his original investment, payable in three installments. Organizing
committees were established in each chamber to reach out to existing shareholders, oversee the
subscription campaign, and prepare printed announcements to be displayed in public. 30 The
company also appealed directly to the States General to supplement its own initial investment. 31
To ensure that investors would be receptive to the plan, the company offered an annual return of
8% on both newly invested and existing capital—a step that effectively transformed the
company's shares into interest paying, convertible bonds. 32
From the very beginning the verhoging was presented as a way to pay for expenditures
in northeastern Brazil, and thus became linked to the thorny problem of whether trade to the
colony would be left open or reserved exclusively for the company. The link can be seen clearly
in an anonymous memorandum submitted to the States General in 1636. 33 Composed in
conversational style, the memorandum employed a format of alternating questions and answers
to address the central problem stated unambiguously in its title: “How the [West India] Company
can be stabilized, to the advantage of the investors, without incurring costs to the government.”
Whether the memorandum was submitted by someone in the Zeeland chamber or by an advisor
in The Hague is impossible to discern. What is clear, however, is that it aimed to find alternatives
29
NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5754, fol. 195. Versoeck van de Gecommitteed Bewindhebbers van de WIC, NA 1.01.04,
inv.nr. 5754, exhibited on April 29, 1636; NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 77, fol. 1. See also Acquoy, Deventer’s
Participatie in de West-Indische Compagnie, 19; Winter, De Westindische Compagnie ter Kamer Stad en Lande, 19.
30
NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 22. Resoluties van de Bewindhebbers van de Camer Zeeland, entry for August 21, 1636.
31
NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5754, fol. 195. Versoeck van de Gecommitteed Bewindhebbers van de WIC, exhibited on
April 29, 1636.
32
Ibid. On the use of bonds see Goetzmann and Rouwenhorst, The Origins of Value.
33
NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.5. Discourse ondervrage en antwoort hoe die Westind. Comp. sal comen gestabiliseert
en gebeneficeert worden buyten costen vant lant, tot merckel. voordeel van die participanten.
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