Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

Republic derived no direct benefit; the burning of ships, towns, sugar mills, and other assets
amounted to 7,580,000 guilders. 91
Finally, in the fifth—and most intriguing—section, De Laet attempted to calculate the
revenues the King had forfeited as a result of the company's predations, along with the additional
“expenses he had incurred to protect against them.” 92 Lost revenues from Pernambuco,
Itamaricá, Paraiba, and Rio Grande amounted to 5 million guilders; the attack on Bahia, and the
joint Spanish-Portuguese fleet that returned it to Iberian control in 1625, cost a further 10 million
guilders. Convoys to protect the annual treasure fleets, newly constructed forts, and ships run-
aground because they sailed out of season in an attempt to evade Dutch fleets, added up to
28,500,000 guilders. Here De Laet offered what modern economists would call a form of
opportunity-cost reasoning: it was self-evident that the Dutch chipped away at Spanish revenues
by blocking trade and seizing or destroying goods, but by continuously applying pressure
throughout the Atlantic Basin, De Laet reasoned that the company could impose costs even for
events that never took place. 93
Adding the totals from all five sections, De Laet estimated that the King of Spain had
sustained damage worth a staggering 118,283,166 guilders, all of which, he argued, might
otherwise have been used against the Dutch. Instead, it had made them considerably richer. And
De Laet was careful to point out that this had been done on the relatively small initial investment
of 7 million guilders, the capital raised by the company in the early and mid-1620s. 94
91 Ibid., 288–291.
92 Ibid., 291. “Op-reeckeninghe vande schaden die de koning van Spagnien heeft gheleden in sijne inkomsten door
toe-doen vande compagnie, ende de onkosten die daer tegen heft moeten doen.”
93 I would like to acknowledge my debt on this point to Eric Schliesser, Research Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Ghent.
94 De Laet, Iaerlyck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, vol. 4, 293.
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