Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

influence of Habsburg authority. 84 Similar forms of informal power were associated with seating,
recording resolutions, and chairmanship, which was either fixed or rotated following precise
rules in each of the various provincial and national assemblies.
In this way meetings provide a particularly useful lens on the practice of politics, defined
as the give-and-take of negotiation on specific policies by individuals or groups with divergent
priorities or interests. Although the chambers and boards of directors of the VOC and the WIC
are often mentioned in the literature on discussieculture, an approach that focuses on meetings
has yet to be applied to the history of either company
in any systematic way. In fact, the composition and procedures of the Heren XIX are still poorly
understood and the body is largely invisible in many histories.
There are, of course, important limitations to this approach. Minutes tend to include only
the final resolution of debates that lasted many days or even months, with only very short
sentences indicating when agreement could not be reached and further deliberation was
postponed until a later date. This may have helped to avoid public airing of disputes, and thus to
promote an image of harmony within the elite, but it also makes it difficult if not impossible to
reconstruct the positions taken by individuals or groups, or, in many instances, to grasp precisely
which elements of a proposal were acceptable, and which ones eluded consensus or majority
support. 85 Similarly, while minutes often name the participants and the subject to be discussed in
committee, they provide little or no direct information on decision-making within these smaller
groups, or in the corridors and inns referred to above. Finally, in several assemblies, and
especially the States General, delegates were sworn to express positions negotiated in advance at
the local, chamber, or provincial level, so that the discussion captured in minutes and other
84 Van Vree, Meetings, Manners, and Civilization, 143.
85 De Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice, 18.
25