Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

1645. 110 The manuscript is found in the loketkas, a series of special dossiers kept by the States
General on negotiations in which they were actively involved. 111 The manuscript is in at least
three hands and almost certainly was copied shortly after the meeting ended from an original set
of minutes kept by one or more company scribes. A note on the top left corner of the first page
indicates that the manuscript was “handed over [to the States General] on 28 October.” The
minutes include a complete list of participants at the meeting, an account of the resolutions
taken, the letters that were read, and dozens of draft calculations, lists, and instructions. It runs to
53 folio pages, front and back, in tight gothic script. Preserved in the same series of the loketkas
are the “Secret minutes of the delegates of the West India Company to the meeting of the Heren
XIX,” a separate document in a single hand, running to 16 folio pages, that was also given over to
the States General on October 28. 112 There are no original signatures or other notations on either
document.
This dissertation draws off a number of other series within the archive of the States
General. The States General maintained bundles, at one time bound with string, of letters and
other documents they received concerning company affairs, along with shorthand drafts of
resolutions or correspondence issued by the States General itself. These are called the liassen and
are organized in rough chronological order, beginning in 1624 and continuing until the end of the
second company in 1791. 113 Though often extremely difficult to decipher, these documents
110 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17, no. 20, fols. 1-53. Resolutien van de vergadering van de Heren XIX te Middelburg,
9 September-16 Oktober, 1645.
111 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17. In addition to the ordinary and secret minutes, this dossier includes 24 other
manuscripts, mostly extracts from resolutions in the Heren XIX or the States General, the earliest dated November 7,
1643 and the latest November 8, 1645. All of these relate directly to the company's efforts to select members for the
new High Council to replace Johan Maurits, who was recalled from Brazil in early 1643. Extensive use of these
materials is made in chapter four of this study.
112 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17, no. 23, Secrete Resolutien by de Gecommitteerde ter verganderinge der XIX voor.
ho. mo. heren Staten Generael.
113 NA 1.01.04, inv.nrs. 5751-5815, Ingekomen ordinaris brieven en stukken betreffende West-Indische zaken, 1623-
1795.
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