Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

once he arrived in Brazil. 149 De Laet’s involvement in the negotiations to select and confirm the
new governor suggest, once again, that his written work grew out of and supplemented, rather
than expressed, the most important elements of his contribution to the company’s business.
And the same was true for the meetings of the Heren XIX. Of the ten meetings of the
company’s board for which records remain, De Laet was present at five. 150 Based on extracts,
letters, and other documents it is clear that he attended at least ten more, so that we can say with
some certainty that he attended a minimum of fifteen meetings of the Heren XIX between 1622
and 1649, and possibly more. 151 This means that De Laet’s would have been one of the most
familiar faces on the company’s board, including not only the directors of the various chambers
but also the noblemen who served on the committees on WIC affairs at The Hague and returned
year and after year to represent the States General in the Heren XIX. 152 This familiarity ensured a
modicum of continuity and memory in an institution that otherwise had no permanent
membership. Since De Laet was often the most senior delegate from Amsterdam, which hosted
the meetings six of every eight years, he also would have had plenty of experience as chair.
Except in a very few cases, it is impossible to extract from the remaining sources the
views or competencies of any specific individual within the Heren XIX. Resolutions by their very
nature hide the discussion that preceded them, and even the lists that show the membership of the
sub-committees that did much of the board’s work cannot tell us who took which position, or
wielded authority on a specific matter. Nevertheless, the list of committees on which De Laet
served provides almost a microcosm of the company’s history as a whole, reinforcing the view
149 De Laet, Suiker, verfhout & tabak.
150 NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 1; NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.6 and 12564.17; NA 1.10.69, inv.nr. 542. These include
meetings in the fall of 1623, spring 1624, spring 1634, spring 1638, and fall 1645.
151 NA 1.01.04, inv.nrs. 5753-5758; NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 12564.15; NA 1.01.07, inv.nr. 20; NA 1.05.01.01, inv.nr. 9.
These include meetings in the spring of 1626, fall 1629, spring 1630, winter and summer of 1631, Spring 1633, fall
1635, summer 1636, summer 1643, fall 1644, and fall 1646.
152 See Chapters Three and Four of this dissertation.
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