Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

Middelburg’s decidedly incestuous elite. 68 He must also have been somewhat advanced in years,
since the leader of the chamber's delegation to the Heren XIX was by custom also its most senior
member. 69
About David Baute far more is known, for shortly before he died he composed a detailed
account of his life to serve as a guide for his children, a copy of which was discovered in the
nineteenth century when the Dutch sold Elmina Castle to Britain. 70 Though a merchant for more
than forty years, Baute's experience was hardly confined to the mundane exchange of goods.
Born in 1588 to a wealthy family of jewelry merchants in the city of Antwerp, his parents sent
him to Middelburg in 1604 to serve as a clerk. Five years later, when the Dutch Republic and
Spain signed the Twelve Years' Truce, Baute moved to Seville to apprentice with a local
merchant; when the Truce expired in 1621 he took over from a merchant from Amsterdam who
was living in Spain and established his own business. 71 This proved to be increasingly difficult
amidst rising anti-Dutch sentiment. In 1624 Baute's name was discovered on a Dutch ship sailing
under the Spanish flag and, despite his denials, he was accused of trading with the enemy and
sentenced to torture. This he described in intimate detail: after being forced to undress, his hands
were tied with rope, the ends of which were attached to a metal bar and successively tightened by
the executioner, “so that they cut to the bone.” 72 This lasted for more than seven hours before
68 On the Middelburg elite, see Frederik Nagtglas, Levensberichten van Zeeuwen, 2 vols. (Middelburg: J. C. & W.
Altorffer, 1890-93).
69 This practice was borrowed from the Heren XVII of the East India Company. Van Dam, Beschryvinge van de
Oostindische Compagnie, 249-250.
70 This text is Baute, Cort Relaas Sedert Den Jare 1609; Frederik Nagtglas, “David Baute, Een Bladzidje uit de
Handelsgeschiedenis der 17de Eeuw,” Tijdschrift Voor Staathuishoudkunde En Statistiek 27 (1869): 374–403; J. H.
Kluiver, “David Baute, Een Zeeuws Koopman-Avonturier uit de Zeventiende Eeuw,” Zeeland Jaargang 1
(December 1991): 6–13.
71 Kluiver, “David Baute, Een Zeeuws Koopman-Avonturier uit de Zeventiende Eeuw.”
72 Baute, Cort Relaas sedert den Jare 1609, 24. “Sijnde nu geheel naakt, alleenelijk aangehouden hebbende mijn
linne onderbroek, wiert ik den scherprechter overgelevert, die mij brocht bij een ijsere traillie, mijnen rugge
daaraanvoegende, wiert ik vast met touwen minder dan een kleijne vinger dik, bloot gebonden. Den beul namp mijn
armen, en leijden se over malcanderen, daaraan leggende den eersten tour, de touwe ofte coorde vast gemaakt sijnde
aan eenen stok gelijk de packers gebruiken, die hij in beyde sijn handen bleeff houdende. Settende sijnevoeten op
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