Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

masters for Brazil; means to improve the slave trade from Angola and the trade in general along
the northern coast of Guinea; a review of outstanding subsidies owed to the company by the
various provincial assemblies; payment to the militia in Brazil; resolution to the management of
New Netherland and Curaçao; a report from the committee charged with examining recent
mineral discoveries; arrangements to sell a large quantity of dye woods from Brazil; and
planning for how to handle the increase in private traders operating illegally within the charter
area. All of these issues ultimately would be addressed at the meeting.
To gather a sense of the affair, it helps to know who attended. While scholars often
mention the WIC’s role in the war with Spain and its responsibility for establishing settlements,
they invariably assume that the company’s directors were sober merchants, for whom matters of
trade and profit were of paramount importance. 58 In fact the picture is more complicated, as a
short review of the biographies of several individuals makes clear. The delegation from the
States General, for example, was made up largely of aristocrats and city magistrates. 59 Its senior
member was supposed to be Hendrick van der Capellen, a nobleman from Gelderland who had
close connections to the Prince of Orange and for several years had served on the committee in
The Hague responsible for affairs related to the WIC. 60 He did not appear in Middelburg,
however, and so was replaced by Johan van der Camer (d. 1657), a member of the Haarlem city
council and, from 1643, a delegate to the Gecommitteerde Raden (Executive Council) for South
Holland. 61 The other members of the delegation, each representing one of the seven provinces,
included Jacob Veth, Pensionaris of the city of Middelburg and Zeeland's permanent deputy at
58 Dillen, “De West-Indische Compagnie, het Calvinism en de Politiek,” 157.
59 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17, no. 20, fol. 1.
60 On Van der Capellen, see P.C. Molhuysen, ed., Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek (Leiden: A. W.
Sijthoff’s Uitgevers-Maatschappij, 1911-37), vol. 8, 250.
61 "Johan van der Camer" in Repertorium van ambtsdragers en ambtenaren 1428-1861.
http://www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/Repertorium/app/personen/3989. Accessed April 12, 2012.
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