Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

source for specific nuggets of information about the company’s early history, scholars have yet
to carefully examine either the book’s form or its place within contemporary Dutch politics. 67
Building on research by Henk den Heijer, Jaap Jacobs has observed that the book was
written during protracted negotiations within the States of Holland to renew the WIC's charter,
set to expire in 1645. 68 Sensing an ugly debate, the company requested special assistance from
the States General in July 1643. The latter passed the issue to the States of Holland, who in
January 1644 replied with an unexpected proposal to combine the WIC and the VOC into a
single joint venture. In this way the two companies could project even greater military might
overseas, while the VOC’s superior financial resources would help to re-capitalize the ailing
WIC, at no cost to the state. To the WIC and its directors the proposal came like “a gift from the
heavens,” but it was swiftly and unequivocally dismissed by the VOC, whose directors
recognized that in accepting combination they would both dilute their regular profits from Asia
and inherit the WIC's considerable debts. 69 De Laet’s book contributed to this discussion by
highlighting the company's many years of service and thus the importance of renewing its
charter.
But it is fairly clear that De Laet's work on the Iaerlyck Verhael extended further back in
time. In Book I, he explained that the project arose as a “necessary consequence” and
complement to his earlier geographical compendium, the Nieuwe Wereldt, ofte Beschrivinghe
67 See L’Honoré Naber’s introduction to the 1931 edition, along with Bekkers, “Introduction”; Jacobs, “Johannes de
Laet en de Nieuwe Wereld”; Den Heijer, “Plannen voor Samenvoeging van VOC en WIC”; Bremmer, Jr., “The
Correspondence of Johannes de Laet as a Mirror on his Life.”
68 Den Heijer, “Plannen voor Samenvoeging van VOC en WIC,” 115–117; Jacobs, “Johannes de Laet en de Nieuwe
Wereld.”
69 Twee Deductien, aen-gaende de Vereeninge van d’Oost ende West-Indische Compagnien, aen de ... Staten van
Hollandt ende West Vrieslandt, vande West-Indische Compagnie overgelevert. (’s-Gravenhage, 1644); Den Heijer,
“Plannen voor Samenvoeging van VOC en WIC,” 116. “[…] als een geschenk uit de hemel.”
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