Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

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Johannes de Laet. Hardly all merchants, these individuals’ backgrounds and perspectives help to explain the company’s imperial bent in the period 1618-1645. The dissertation aimed to explain company politics and decision-making by providing a coherent, synchronic account of the company’s inner life: that is, the quotidian rhythms of the company’s board, its rituals to ensure secrecy and loyalty, its methods for processing and sharing information, and the ways that it worked to reach consensus, both within the company and with other centers of power in the Dutch Republic. This meant recovering controversies over policy and outcomes from the otherwise banal details of resolutions, formal procedure, meeting agendas, and seating arrangements. By doing so, the dissertation revealed problematics that had escaped the attention of previous historians, and helped to revise our understanding of several key episodes in the company’s history. In contrast to studies that have looked at Amsterdam as a center for information exchange, the dissertation demonstrated that secret information flowed through its own channels and to other destinations, especially The Hague. Against the emphasis on merchant interests in Holland, it showed that the company’s charter incorporated important concessions to the States General and the Court. As an alternative to arguments that emphasized conflicting interests between Amsterdam and Zeeland, it showed the importance of colonial finance, colonial policy, and the question of slavery to debates over free trade. And, as a departure from a long historiography that focuses on Dutch merchants, it firmly established the role of the nobility in Dutch overseas expansion, especially in the New World. These findings are based on extensive use of manuscript sources in the archives of the WIC and the States General. These sources are heavily weighted towards political considerations, and indeed a fundamental contribution of the dissertation is to balance interpretations based largely on markets, trade, and the interests of merchants with an analysis   263
that focuses on political and imperial considerations. In terms of method, the dissertation has shown that meeting minutes can be successfully used to access politics, not for evidence of specific positions or final resolutions, but for the practical process of negotiation and compromise. The dissertation argues that politics is not simply the confrontation of opposing positions. These are rather the means that actors use to pursue their interests; they are the tools of politics. Politics itself is the art of compromise and of reaching agreement, unless it is the simple imposition of one party's will on another. Compromises can only be reconstructed from negotiations and the records they leave behind. Only rarely do these compromises become visible in the printed record of pamphlets and books. And this should change the way we study political history. The dissertation reached three main substantive conclusions. First, it has shown that the company represented broad regional interests within the Dutch Republic. This is clearest in the way that the Heren XIX was assembled and in the difficulties it encountered during its first meetings between 1622 and 1624. But it can also be seen in the way that information circulated and the way that coalitions formed to resolve the company’s problems in Brazil. Cities like Groningen, Deventer, and Arnhem, as well as more prominent trading cities like Middelburg, Dordrecht, and Leiden, were important investors and exercised significant power within the company’s board. The WIC was responsible for resolving the divergent interests of these cities and, overseas, for representing the United Provinces as a whole. In a newly forming and decentralized Republic, the company served as an important agent of integration. This helps to explain Eli Heckscher’s paradox, cited in Chapter Three, that the Dutch companies received strong support from the state, even though the state itself was weak. Even more than for the VOC, which relied on a narrower geographic base, the WIC's effort to manage Atlantic colonies   264
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GOVERNING THE FREE SEA: THE DUTCH W
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Abstract This dissertation takes a
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IV. “In the Service of Merchants
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for making the archive such an enjo
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Institute for International and Reg
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List of Tables 1. Delegates to the
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Illustration 1. Het West-Indische H
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eported to have said; any money sen
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nexus of commerce and power for whi
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Europe the Dutch Republic is emblem
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Although the VOC frequently used vi
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Van Dillen argued that over time th
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the Western Hemisphere.” 46 Far f
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anxieties it generated, and what pl
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capital from Zeeland in the south a
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number of document series within th
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character of Dutch political instit
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Illustration 2. Vergaderzaal van he
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ecords must be traced backwards—a
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of note.” 93 But it is clear that
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formative periods in the company’
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enhance the role of central authori
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trade in which the company had only
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5. A Note on Sources This dissertat
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1645. 110 The manuscript is found i
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period 1620-1636. 115 For the remai
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at São Salvador da Bahia de Todos
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the revolt pushed the colony’s fa
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Amsterdam newspapers did publish st
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year by the Hoge ende Secrete Raad
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the Portuguese, had crossed the Rio
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ead aloud, two resolutions were pas
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On Wednesday, the same day the ship
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with subtle differences of fact and
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The group consisted of Henderick Sc
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XIX. Each chamber selected delegate
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Inden naeme den heeren amen Saturn.
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Middelburg’s decidedly incestuous
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Illustration 6. Portrait of Johanne
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crucial role that he played in its
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When the meeting resumed on Monday
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and to steer the discussion towards
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were chosen from among the ranks of
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emphasized the considerable sums in
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4. Johannes de Laet as “Informati
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devote myself to my books.” 129 A
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interests were adequately represent
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De Laet's substantive work in the A
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that, even at the beginning, De Lae
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De Laet’s presence at the meeting
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confessions under interrogation and
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Brazil this meant the Heren XIX, wh
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Illustration 7. Portrait of Willem
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peaceful settlement along the fring
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By analyzing the successive changes
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convene in Amsterdam; the following
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This formulation, which must previo
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Amsterdam or Middelburg. 29 In this
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(1566-1626), later burgemeester of
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placed next to his description of t
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That these two provisions remained
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provinces. The creation of the WIC
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The result was that the delegates f
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to the original charter gave the ch
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thus shows the political—as oppos
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1/10 of the equipagie and two direc
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taken place. Once the draft letter
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Table 5. Seating for the delegation
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phase of the company’s Groot Dess
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to be understood the sending over o
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But by far the most important trans
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Illustration 8. Map of Mauritstad a
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geographers whose works remain a tr
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important military, administrative,
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noblemen played in overseas adminis
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good order, police and justice, and
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the council's size and authority, d
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servants. These individuals may not
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At this point the election was comp
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(Receiver General) of the United Pr
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Why did these candidates all refuse
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Alexander's name was almost certain
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None of the remaining records indic
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would be profitable and that their
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Haecxs thanked them for the honor t
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On June 22, 1645—just a week befo
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5. Wolter Schonenborch and the Ritu
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with the WIC presumably did not go
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Haecx recorded in his diary that on
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wavered, for De Laet, who was many
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privately to Brazil, legally or ill
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1. Introduction Chapter Five Free T
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left relatively open. 6 Where monop
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community saw greater profits in pr
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and close trade to private merchant
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trouble paying its bills, especiall
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means to capitalize the company wit
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director than his trade to Brazil,
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With the verhoging stalled, and ani
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e handled without gloves.” 55 In
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“walking the land half-naked” f
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While the resolution as a whole sho
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along with the two powerful Amsterd
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Cornelis Melijn, of a patroonschap
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this measure, he said, “no one in
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maintaining the company's solvency,
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colony, overestimated the number of
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And Maurits offered another argumen
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Stellingwerf, who sat in the States
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Provinces, plus smaller fees of 3%
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exclude private merchants from the
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Page 235 and 236: had not yet been renewed. 4 As the
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Page 241 and 242: ambitions. 21 Although neither Spec
Page 243 and 244: expenses at each of the company's c
Page 245 and 246: included. 34 In Specx’s estimatio
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Page 249 and 250: notes on these documents, suggest t
Page 251 and 252: It was, of course, a fiction. With
Page 253 and 254: to hang from the body [...] This sh
Page 255 and 256: van West-Indien (New World, or a De
Page 257 and 258: title page of the revised edition a
Page 259 and 260: It occurred to me that these miracu
Page 261 and 262: third in the Kort Verhael. This rep
Page 263 and 264: This extraordinary conclusion might
Page 265 and 266: enemy” and the positive effects o
Page 267 and 268: appeared in the late 1630s in the c
Page 269 and 270: versus settlement. He was also more
Page 271 and 272: An exceptionally cold winter delaye
Page 273: failure of Dutch imperialism from t
Page 277 and 278: support to the WIC, but they also i
Page 279 and 280: Maurits predicted and which was not
Page 281 and 282: British Library Additional Manuscri
Page 283 and 284: Burke, Peter. A Social History of K
Page 285 and 286: Goffman, Erving. Frame Analysis: An
Page 287 and 288: Jonge, J. K. J. De Oorsprong van Ne
Page 289 and 290: Noorlander, Danny L. “Serving God
Page 291 and 292: Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Na
Page 293: 1624-1654, edited by Marianne L. Wi
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