Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

fewer men.” Brazil was simply too big for the WIC—or for that matter, even for the King of
Spain—to populate on its own. Better to make the colony open to all classes of people, from any
nation, and to keep the trade free. 106
Maurits letter was dated January 16, 1638. He began by saying that “even those who
want to keep the trade for the company alone know well that to populate the colony is the highest
priority, and that free trade would best achieve this.” 107 The company deceived itself if it
believed it could simply appropriate the trade of the private merchants. Like Sir William Temple
thirty years later, Maurits argued that trade could not simply be conquered or seized: it was
governed by its own laws and had to be carefully nurtured. 108 In the early years of the colony the
price of sugar was low because Portuguese planters feared it would be plundered, and so sold it
cheaply, but now it was in short supply and the prices had risen accordingly. The company
would need deep pockets and the flexibility to sell goods on credit; it was better to leave this to
private merchants, who had more resources and experience. 109 Only free trade would attract
settlers and encourage industry, including among the Portuguese:
The inhabitants [of Brazil]... say that they would rather let their farms go wild, and let their ingenhos
stand idle, than to work for others under the closed trade and thus to be slaves of the company, like
their blacks who work on the sugar mills. 110
106 Ibid., 239. “dat alree boven genough bewesen is, dat daer meer te vinden, meer te copen en meer te vercopen valt,
waer veele menschen woonen, arbeyden, spenderen, als daer waer der menschen weynich is.”
107 Johan Maurits, “Memorie van Prins Maurits van Nassau van 16 Jan. 1638, waarbij deze op Vrijen Handel
aandringt en het Monopolie der West-Indische Compagnie Bestrijdt,” Kronijk van het Historisch Genootschap
gevestigd te Utrecht 11, no. 3:1 (1855): 63. “Ick sie dat die geene, die den handel voor de Compagnie alleen willen
behouden, wel erkennen, dat het populeeren van Brasil ten hoochsten noodich sij, ende sullen oock apparentelijck
toestaen, dat door vrye negotie die populatie betern voortganck soude neemen, maer dat den tegenwoordigen stant
van de Compagnie sulckx niet toe en laat ende daer na niet en kan wachten.”
108 Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of The Netherlands, 121; Hont, Jealousy of Trade. On the
problems of restoring economic activity in contemporary war zones, see Jeff Peterson and Mark Crow,
“Expeditionary Economics: Towards a Doctrine for Enabling Stabilization and Growth,” 2010. Cited with
permission of the authors.
109 Maurits, “Memorie van Prins Maurits van Nassau van 16 Jan. 1638, waarbij deze op Vrijen Handel aandringt en
het Monopolie der West-Indische Compagnie Bestrijdt,” 65.
110 Ibid., 68. “[…] het sluiten van den handel sal d’inwoonderen, die gereets sijn, verjagen, want sij maecken veele
ende sware clachten, gelijck uyt bijgaende copie aen de xix te sien is, seggende lieuer alle haer planten te laten
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