Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

expedition's success, along with detailed maps of the fort, reached the United Provinces that fall.
The Dutch now possessed the oldest and most important strategic position in all of West
Africa. 146
The remainder of the meeting of the Heren XIX in the spring of 1638 was devoted to
consolidating this new position and preparing the company to aggressively enter the trade in
slaves. The directors began with basic organizational matters: it was agreed, for example, that the
trade should be shared proportionally among the chambers, following the standard formula of
ninths, with ships outfitted for 18 months and provisioned to each carry between 350 and 400
slaves. 147 Every ship also was to carry a smaller vessel to travel up river in search of new traders.
Next the directors reviewed a “formula for the cargo appropriate for the slave trade at Ardra and
Rio Calabria,” referring to what are now Benin and eastern Nigeria, then known as the Slave
Coast. 148 African consumers' tastes were notoriously fickle, especially for cloth, and the
company
needed to determine what goods were in fashion. 149 No similar lists were discussed for the Gold
Coast, where the company had more experience. Ships were to stop first at Elmina, where the
Director General had already taken up residence, and from there to proceed eastwards to trade
for slaves. 150 Following this discussion, the directors conducted a thorough review of all the
146 On Elmina, see J. Bato’ora Ballong-Wen-Mewuda, São Jorge da Mina, 1482-1637, 2 vols. (Paris: Commission
Nationale pour les Commemorations des Decouvertes Portugaises, 1993); Christopher R. DeCorse, An Archaeology
of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,
2001).
147 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.6, entry for April 23, 1638. Formulier van een Cargasoen dienstich tot de Slaeffsche
Negotie voor Ardra ende in Rio Calbario naer gissinge voor ontrent een Jaer.
148 A similar list can be found in Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast 1580-1680, 349; See
also Adam Jones, ed., West Africa in the Mid-Seventeenth Century: An Anonymous Dutch Manuscript (Atlanta:
African Studies Association Press, 1994).
149 Jones, West Africa in the Mid-Seventeenth Century.
150 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.6, entry for April 23, 1638.
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