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elief to Brazil. The company drew support not only from Zeeland, but also from the Prince of
Orange, Gelderland, Groningen, Overijssel, Utrecht, and even the majority of cities in
Holland. 116 The Amsterdam city council remained opposed to putting new money into the
company, but even in Amsterdam the picture is not so clear. On September 14, Abraham Erude,
Joseph Acosta, and Jeronimo Nunes, Portuguese Jewish merchants living in Amsterdam,
travelled to Middelburg to present the Heren XIX with a formal remonstrance asking the
directors to ensure that their sugar was exported from Recife without delay and to “protect the
company's territories” in Brazil. 117 They were given assurances and asked to make their concerns
known to the “government of this land,” and especially the city of Amsterdam. Two weeks later
they did just that, presenting a formal remonstrance to both the States General and the City of
Amsterdam, the latter including a petition with 93 signatures of Amsterdam merchants trading to
Brazil. 118 Despite this pressure to defend the colony, Amsterdam continued to withhold its
approval. Changing the city's position would require additional pressure.
116 NA 1.01.03, inv.nr. 4845, entry for October 28, 1645.
117 NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.17, fol. 5. “met aen wyssinge van de middelen de welcke soude mogen worden
aengewent ende soo haest mogel. wesende sonder tyt versuymen int wreck gestelt, om de suykeren van daer over te
bringen ende het Landt te bewaaren tot voorcomminge van een totale ruyne voor de negotianten ende groote schade
voor de comp.” Born in Florence in 1620, Jeronimo Nunes moved to Amsterdam in 1642 and was appointed Agent
of the Portuguese Crown in May 1645, beginning a long career furthering Portuguese interests in the Dutch
Republic. His presence in this delegation is indicative of the overlapping and potentially conflicting loyalties of
Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jews. At least at this early stage in the revolt, it appears that a number of Jewish merchants
saw their interests best protected by a continuation of Dutch rule in Pernambuco. On Nunes see Jonathan Israel,
“The Diplomatic Career of Jeronimo Nunes Da Costa: An Episode in Dutch-Portuguese Relations of the
Seventeenth Century,” Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 98, no. a/1 (1983):
167–190.
118 NA 1.01.04, inv.nr. 5758, Letter from Merchants of Amsterdam Trading to Brazil, received by the States General
on October 2, 1645.
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