Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

3. History Counts
Where Specx’s calculations were meant to capture the company’s current situation, and thus to
project the prospective value of its trade into an indefinite future, Johannes de Laet's work less
than a year earlier looked to justify and defend the company’s existence on the basis of its
accomplishments in the past. And where Specx had assessed value in the familiar terms of raw
commercial profit, based on income and expenses, De Laet argued that the company's value
could only be assessed through a much more inclusive calculation that took into account not only
its trade, but also its feats of organized piracy, its contributions to ship-building, consumption,
and employment, and the heavy costs that it had imposed upon the King of Spain. This very
different sort of calculation, no less mathematical, drew upon established tropes but showed
impressive new sensitivity to the importance of precise quantification in mercantile and political
rhetoric.
In November of 1644, Elsevier in Leiden published De Laet’s Iaerlyck Verhael, a
comprehensive, richly illustrated history of the WIC that chronicled the period from the
company’s first voyages in 1623 until the end of 1636. 63 De Laet dedicated the book to the States
of Holland with the following words:
The most important means by which the King of Spain has held the whole World, and especially
Christendom, in uproar for so many years, and attacked these United Provinces so mightily, is his
income from the rich lands of America. [...] Since the Chartered West India Company was
established and has begun its work, men can only guess how the King’s treasure and income has
been reduced and his former strength weakened, so that it is now already clear that his arms begin
63 De Laet, Historie Ofte Iaerlijck Verhael van de Verrichtinghen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie,
zedert haer Begin, tot het Eynde van ’t Jaer Sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich; Begrepen in Derthien Boecken, ende
met Verscheyden Koperen Platen Verciert. The modern Dutch edition is De Laet, Iaerlyck Verhael van de
Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie.
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