Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University
Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University
and other functionaries who staffed the institutions of government in The Hague. 64 What role did these individuals play in the company? Van Dillen’s argument about interests is predicated on the observation that the company’s directors were, with the exception of De Laet, ordinary “money-grubbing” merchants. 65 But this hardly applies to noblemen and courtiers such as Johan van Goch (c. 1581-1637), Gerard van Arnhem (1598-1645), and Hendrik van der Capellen (c. 1591-1659) who for at least three decades both represented the States General in the meetings of the Heren XIX and controlled discussions of the company’s affairs in the States General. It also fails to take account of the Princes of Orange, Maurits of Nassau (1567-1625) and Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647), who strongly supported the company, often wrote letters on its behalf, and played a crucial role mediating compromises between its five chambers. 66 A fresh understanding of company politics that can address these questions requires looking inside the company. 3. Meetings and the Practice of Politics How does one look inside a company? The answer has much to do with the survival of sources. For the VOC the scholar can consult nearly unbroken series of meeting minutes and correspondence, often in duplicate, for a nearly two hundred-year period from 1602-1796. 67 By contrast, the papers of the WIC were largely destroyed by fire or sold to rag merchants in the mid-nineteenth century. 68 What little remains is housed in the company’s own archive and in a 64 H. F. K. van Nierop, Van Ridders tot Regenten: de Hollandse Adel in de Zestiende en de Eerste Helft van de Zeventiende Eeuw (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1990); Paul Knevel, Het Haagse Bureau: 17-eeuwse Ambtenaren tussen Staatsbelang en Eigenbelang (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2001). 65 Van Dillen, “De West-Indische Compagnie, het Calvinism en de Politiek,” 157. Van Dillen uses the term “geldwolven.” 66 Kees Zandvliet, Maurits: Prins van Oranje (Zwolle: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam en Uitgeverij Waanders, 2000); J. J. Poelhekke, Frederik Hendrik, Prins van Oranje: een Biografisch Drieluik (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1978). 67 NA 1.04.02. 68 Den Heijer, De Geschiedenis van de WIC. 19
number of document series within the archives of the States General at Nationaal Archief in The Hague. 69 Outside of these collections there are remarkably few private papers, personal correspondence, or journals and memoires composed by company directors—what Dutch and German historians refer to as egodocumenten (literally, “ego documents,” or those in which the author records his or her personal experiences and perspective). 70 This dearth of sources, especially compared to those for studying other European elites, makes reconstructing directors’ ideology and outlook especially difficult. In a recent edited collection on the Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, the Dutch economic historian Clé Lesger lamented the fact that, “Although the city housed a large trading community, early modern Amsterdam's merchants have left us almost no documents in which they explicitly express their worldview.” Even apparently promising sources such as the papers of the merchant and regent Cornelis Pietersz. Hooft (1581-1647), Lesger continues, “are mainly comments on resolutions passed by municipal or provincial authorities.” 71 The fragmentary and largely bureaucratic nature of these documents has discouraged many scholars. Nevertheless, a key hypothesis motivating this dissertation is that the deliberations of municipal and provincial authorities—or, in this case, the WIC's board of directors, which mirrored their structure—can be more creatively mined than they have been thus far. The records of these deliberations are especially rich for two reasons: first, meetings played a 69 Individual documents or bundles of documents related to the company can also be found scattered throughout Dutch city and provincial archives, or abroad. Collections in the United States with holdings of material related to the WIC include, among others, the New York Public Library, the Huntington Library, the Library of Congress, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and the John Carter Brown Library. 70 Rudolf Dekker, “Egodocumenten tot 1814: Egodocumenten van Noord-Nederlanders van de Zestiende tot Begin Negentiende Eeuw,” 1993, http://www.egodocument.net/egodocumententot1814.html; Lucia F. Werneck Xavier, “Het Gebruik van Egodocumenten en Nederlands Brazilië: de Memorie van Kolonel Christoffel Arciszewski,” in Brazilië in de Nederlandse Archieven, 1624-1654, ed. Marianne L. Wiesebron (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 2008), 130–149. 71 Clé Lesger, “Merchants in Charge: The Self-Perception of Amsterdam Merchants, ca. 1550-1700,” in The Self- Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, ed. Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 75-76. 20
- Page 1 and 2: GOVERNING THE FREE SEA: THE DUTCH W
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and other functionaries who staffed the institutions of government in The Hague. 64 Wh<strong>at</strong> role did<br />
these individuals play in the company? Van Dillen’s argument about interests is predic<strong>at</strong>ed on<br />
the observ<strong>at</strong>ion th<strong>at</strong> the company’s directors were, with the exception of De Laet, ordinary<br />
“money-grubbing” merchants. 65 But this hardly applies to noblemen and courtiers such as Johan<br />
van Goch (c. 1581-1637), Gerard van Arnhem (1598-1645), and Hendrik van der Capellen (c.<br />
1591-1659) who for <strong>at</strong> least three decades both represented the St<strong>at</strong>es General in the meetings of<br />
the Heren XIX and controlled discussions of the company’s affairs in the St<strong>at</strong>es General. It also<br />
fails to take account of the Princes of Orange, Maurits of Nassau (1567-16<strong>25</strong>) and Frederik<br />
Hendrik (1584-1647), who strongly supported the company, often wrote letters on its behalf, and<br />
played a crucial role medi<strong>at</strong>ing compromises between its five chambers. 66 A fresh understanding<br />
of company politics th<strong>at</strong> can address these questions requires looking inside the company.<br />
3. Meetings and the Practice of Politics<br />
How does one look inside a company? The answer has much to do with the survival of sources.<br />
For the VOC the scholar can consult nearly unbroken series of meeting minutes and<br />
correspondence, often in duplic<strong>at</strong>e, for a nearly two hundred-year period from 1602-1796. 67 By<br />
contrast, the papers of the WIC were largely destroyed by fire or sold to rag merchants in the<br />
mid-nineteenth century. 68 Wh<strong>at</strong> little remains is housed in the company’s own archive and in a<br />
<br />
64<br />
H. F. K. van Nierop, Van Ridders tot Regenten: de Hollandse Adel in de Zestiende en de Eerste Helft van de<br />
Zeventiende Eeuw (Amsterdam: De B<strong>at</strong>aafsche Leeuw, 1990); Paul Knevel, Het Haagse Bureau: 17-eeuwse<br />
Ambtenaren tussen Sta<strong>at</strong>sbelang en Eigenbelang (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2001).<br />
65<br />
Van Dillen, “De West-Indische Compagnie, het Calvinism en de Politiek,” 157. Van Dillen uses the term<br />
“geldwolven.”<br />
66<br />
Kees Zandvliet, Maurits: Prins van Oranje (Zwolle: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam en Uitgeverij Waanders, 2000); J.<br />
J. Poelhekke, Frederik Hendrik, Prins van Oranje: een Biografisch Drieluik (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1978).<br />
67<br />
NA 1.04.02.<br />
68 Den Heijer, De Geschiedenis van de WIC.<br />
19
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