Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

handle [the trade] than private merchants.” An anonymous pamphlet on the question of free trade
to “the Coast of Africa, namely St. Thome, Guinea, Angola, St. Paulo de Loanda,” addressed to
“all the company's chief investors,” appeared shortly thereafter. 157 The pamphlet argued that
opening the trade to Brazil had been a disaster for the company's finances, but that now some
within the company were eager to do the same in Africa. The folly of this plan was
clear enough from the common observation that competition from the English was already
driving down profits in the Africa trade; the same would be true if the trade was opened. But,
more important, the company's monopoly over the slave trade ensured that slaves went to Brazil,
rather than to Spanish America, where the “King of Spain [now receives] no slaves to work in
his Gold and Silver mines.” 158 Free traders could not be trusted in this way. There were problems
with the company's management, the pamphlet's author concluded, but to open the trade was “a
cure worse than the disease.” 159
Perhaps not coincidentally, the arguments in favor of free trade with Africa coincided
with the emergence of Curaçao as a new destination for slaves to be traded onwards to Spanish
America and colonies in the Caribbean. This was first proposed by the island's Director General,
Johannes van Walbeek, in 1639 and gained steam under his successors in the early 1640s,
including Pieter Stuyvesant, who served from 1642-1644. 160 When he returned to the United
Provinces, Stuyvesant presented the Heren XIX with plans for Curaçao to be administered
157 V. W. C., Trou-hertighe onderrichtinge, aen alle hooft participanten, en lief-hebbers vande geoctroyeerde West-
Indische Compagnie. Nopende het open stellen vanden handel op de cust van Africa, namentlijck, St. Thomé,
Guinea, Angola, St. Paulo de Loando, mitsgaders de Marignian, Nieu Nederlant ende West-Indien. (Amsterdam,
1643).
158 In 1640, Maurits argued that stopping the flow of slaves from Loanda would strike a key blow against Spain for
exactly this reason. Koninklijk Huisarchief A4, inv.nr. 1454, fol. 196. “Le Roy de Castille ne tyrant de Negros
d’Angola, la ruine des indes est inevitable.”
159 V. W. C., Trou-hertighe onderrichtinge, aen alle hooft participanten, en lief-hebbers vande geoctroyeerde West-
Indische Compagnie. Nopende het open stellen vanden handel op de cust van Africa, namentlijck, St. Thomé,
Guinea, Angola, St. Paulo de Loando, mitsgaders de Marignian, Nieu Nederlant ende West-Indien., B3.
160 Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast 1580-1680.
217