Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

took on its specific rhetorical function only later, as renewal of the charter came to dominate
public discussion of the company’s status within the Republic.
As indicated previously, the Iaerlyck Verhael was organized chronologically, with each
of thirteen books corresponding to a single year in the company’s history. De Laet indicated in
Book I that he would leave aside any discussion of the company’s management at home, on the
rather flimsy explanation that the company’s charter—a copy of which was included at the
beginning of the book, along with a complete list of the company’s directors to 1636—could
adequately speak for its organization and the company's relationship to the States General. In
fact, as several scholars have noted, this permitted him to avoid the contentious and sometimes
bitter debates between the company’s five chambers that had dominated the company’s early
history. He also made clear that the text mainly covered the company’s military conquests and
that he “did not trouble himself with trade and shipping to the gold-rich lands of Guinea and the
islands of America not yet claimed by the enemy.” 78 Only where “trade and conquest were
intermingled” were they included in the narrative. What remained, De Laet declared, was proof
enough that the company “had done such great things for the state, and much more than men had
ever expected of it.” 79
Critical to the book's authority was De Laet’s privileged access to the company’s archives
and the thoroughness and care with which he used original sources to assemble and document
the company’s history. He described his task thus:
78 De Laet, Iaerlyck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, vol. 1, 3. “sonder
my te bemoeyen met den handel ande bevaeringhe die by de selve Compagnie van den beginne is anghestelt op de
gout-rijcke Landen van Guinea ende beyde de ghedeelten van America en de Eylanden noch niet beslagen ende
verheert by den Vyandt; als alleen in ’t voorbygaen ende wanneer de Koophandel met den oorloge is vermenght
gheweest.”
79 Ibid., vol. 1, 4. “[…] dat dese Compagnie seer groote dinghen voor desen staet heeft ghedaen, ende veellicht meer
als men van haer hadde verwacht ofte konnen eysschen.”
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