Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

July of 1635, they had recommended that the trade to Brazil remain open, but that investors in
the company who traded on their own account be given preferential terms, including lowering
the recognition fees due the company to 5% from the normal rate of 10%. 46 This proposal was
not adopted and the Amsterdam hoofdparticipanten eventually resolved to support keeping the
trade open. But their position can only have further undermined confidence among the other
chambers and cities, which increasingly voiced concern about the cozy relationship between
Amsterdam's directors and the private merchants trading to Brazil.
These concerns took concrete form in yet another way. The WIC's charter called for
each chamber of the company to manage its own capital stock and lists of shareholders, even
though profits and losses were reconciled annually and distributed amongst the five chambers
based on a set proportional formula. Evidently the founders of the company did not foresee, or at
least did not take steps to prevent, the possibility that shares issued by different chambers would
begin to trade at different prices. But once Brazil was opened to private merchants, this is exactly
what happened. In their report in May of 1635, Van Arnhem and Herberts noted that the value of
shares in the company had “begun to diverge widely.” 47 In Amsterdam shares were selling for
119-120 guilders, while in Groningen they had sunk to 94-95 guilders, below par. Zeeland
pointed out that VOC shares had never diverged in this fashion, and, at the next meeting of the
Heren XIX in July of the same year, protested that failing to protect the company's monopoly
indirectly permitted “the majority [of the trade] to fall to Amsterdam, to the prejudice of the
other chambers and cities.” 48
46 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5754, fols. 107-114. Remonstratie van de Hooftparticipanten van de Camer Amsterdam.
47 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5754, fol. 59. Rapport van de Heeren Arnhem ende Herberts. “Die actien die nu soo
verschieden van prys zijn in der respective cameren.”
48 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5754, fol. 137. Rapport van de heeren Arnhem ende Pauw Gecommitteerden van wegen hare
hooch mo. op de Jongste vergaderinge van de Negentiene van de Westindische Compagnie binnen Amsterdam die
beschieden is geweest den ii July 1635 ende geendicht den eerste ten Augusti daer aen volgende.
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