Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

XIX. Each chamber selected delegates as it saw fit, with the only stipulation being that
Amsterdam send eight delegates, Zeeland four, and the Maas, North Holland, and Groningen two
each. The States General reserved the right to send as many delegates as it wished, but could
exercise only one of the nineteen votes. 53 Delegates were reimbursed by the company for their
travel and provided with a daily stipend; there were strict guidelines for the format and content of
letters of credential to be presented at the outset of the meeting and stiff penalties for absence or
tardiness—as in other assemblies in the United Provinces, time was monitored by the “turn of the
[hour] glass,” and the fines were given to charity. 54 The meetings ran from nine o'clock until
noon and, following a break, from four until six o'clock in the evening, Monday through Friday,
with a half-day on Saturday. 55 They could last only a week or as long as two months depending
on the nature and gravity of the business at hand.
The letter of invitation to the 1645 fall meeting requested that delegates gather at an inn
in Middelburg on Saturday, September 2, so that the meetings could begin the following
Monday, but delegates evidently arrived late, for the proceedings did not begin in earnest until
the following Saturday. 56 The agenda, which had been distributed to the chambers and the States
General in mid-August, before the arrival of the news from Brazil, included 20 items. 57 Among
these were the usual assessment and outfitting of ships; the delicate issue of selecting a President
and subordinate officers for the Hoge Raad in Recife; the appointment of ministers and school
53 The politics within the chambers to choose delegates to attend the meetings of the Heren XIX, as well as the right
reserved by the States General to send multiple delegates are discussed in Chapter Three.
54 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17, fol. See also Vree, Meetings, Manners, and Civilization, 115. “Voorgestelt synde is
goet gevonden ordinaerl. d' ure vande vergaderinge te leggen desmorgens ten negenen ende nae middach ten vieren
op verboute van ses stuyvers die met het omkeeren vant glas niet sullen pres[en]t wesen maer te late comen ende
twaelff stuyvers voor die gene die geheel achter blyven, ende syn de assessors van den cameren zeelandt en
amst[erda]m, gestelt ende geauthoriss[eer]t voorschreven bouten te executteren ten proffyten van den armen.”
55 For hours and rules for the meetings of the Heren XVII, the board of directors of the VOC, see Pieter van Dam,
Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. F. W. Stapel (’s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1927), 251.
56 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5758, Letter from David Baute and N. van der Merct, Directors of the Zeeland Chamber, to
the States General, August 11, 1645. There is no record of whether anyone was fined for arriving late.
57 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5758, Poincten waerop all de Cameren van de West Indische Comp. beschreven worden,
omme in conformite van den Ocroye [...], August 11, 1645.
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