Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

were chosen from among the ranks of company directors who were not attending the meeting.
Most important among them were Pieter Bischop, the Zeeland director who had carried the news
to the States General a week earlier, and Jacques Specx, a director in the Amsterdam chamber
who several months before had represented the company in negotiations in the States of Holland
over a possible fusion of the VOC and the WIC. 103 They were joined by four other directors from
the Amsterdam chamber. This group, accompanied by the Amsterdam chamber's lawyer,
Gysbert Rudolphij, arrived in The Hague on September 19 and proceeded first to the States
General, where they delivered the company’s position, both verbally and in writing, and
submitted a separate letter signed by Van der Camer, Vett, and Schonenborch, the
representatives of the States General present at the meeting in Middelburg. 104 In this fashion the
company’s position was represented on multiple levels: while the delegation's report provided
the views of the Heren XIX as a whole, the separate letter from the States General’s own
representatives confirmed their advice and lent credibility to the associated military plans.
In the States of Holland, which the delegation addressed two days later, the directors
largely followed the script that had been agreed to in Middelburg, but to give the information
additional salience they emphasized Portugal’s likely role in supporting the revolt, contrary to
the terms of the 1641 Treaty. They reported on the conspiracy to murder Dutch officials at the
wedding ceremony and “God’s grace in making this treachery known,” and formally requested
700,000 guilders to relieve the colony. 105 This request was debated over the following several
days, during which time the States General recommended taking the needed 1,500 men from the
5,000 soldiers on their way back from Denmark, where they had fought alongside Sweden in the
103 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 26, fol. See also Henk den Heijer, “Plannen voor Samenvoeging van de VOC en WIC,”
Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 2 (Jaargang 1994): 115-130.
104 NA 1.01.03, inv.nr. 4845, entry for September 19, 1645.
105 Staten van Holland and Westvriesland, Gedrukt Resoluties, entry for September 21, 1645.
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