Dutch West India Company
slaves, administrators, farmers and soldiers, and returning with salt, beaver skin, silver, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cochineal, and campeche- and letterwood |
The Dutch West India Company or WIC (
The area where the company could operate consisted of West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and ended east of the Maluku Islands, according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the various trading posts established by the merchants. The company became instrumental in the largely ephemeral Dutch colonization of the Americas (including New Netherland) in the seventeenth century.
From 1624 to 1654, in the context of the Dutch–Portuguese War, the GWC held Portuguese territory in northeast Brazil, but they were ousted from Dutch Brazil following fierce resistance.[2] After several reversals, the GWC reorganized and a new charter was granted in 1675, largely on the strength in the Atlantic slave trade. This "new" version lasted for more than a century, until after the Fourth Anglo–Dutch War, during which it lost most of its assets.
Origins
When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded in 1602,[3] some traders in Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic policies. With help from Petrus Plancius, a Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer, and clergyman, they sought for a northeastern or northwestern access to Asia to circumvent the VOC monopoly. In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson, in employment of the VOC, landed on the coast of New England and sailed up what is now known as the Hudson River in his quest for the Northwest Passage to Asia.[4] However, he failed to find a passage. Consequently, in 1615, Isaac Le Maire and Samuel Blommaert, assisted by others, focused on finding a south-westerly route around South America's Tierra del Fuego archipelago in order to circumvent the monopoly of the VOC.
One of the first sailors who focused on trade with Africa was
Trade with the Caribbean, for salt, sugar and tobacco, was hampered by Spain and delayed because of peace negotiations. Spain offered peace on condition that the Dutch Republic would withdraw from trading with Asia and America. Spain refused to sign the peace treaty if a West Indian Company would be established. At this time, the
The West India Company received its charter from the States-General in June 1621, granting it a 24-year monopoly on trade and colonization that included the American coast between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan.
Organization
The Dutch West India Company was organized similarly to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Like the VOC, the GWC had five offices, called chambers (kamers), in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, Middelburg and Groningen, of which the chambers in Amsterdam and Middelburg contributed most to the company. The board consisted of 19 members, known as the Heeren XIX (the Nineteen Gentlemen).[11] The institutional structure of the GWC followed the federal structure, which entailed extensive discussion for any decision, with regional representation: 8 from Amsterdam; 4 from Zeeland, 2 each from the Northern Quarter (Hoorn and Enkhuizen), the Maas (Rotterdam, Delft and Dordrecht), the region of Groningen, and one representative from the States General. Each region had its own chamber and board of directors.[12] The validity of the charter was set at 24 years.
Only in 1623 was funding arranged, after several bidders were put under pressure. The
Unlike the VOC, the GWC had no right to deploy military troops. When the Twelve Years' Truce in 1621 was over, the Republic had a free hand to re-wage war with Spain. A
The company was initially a dismal failure, in terms of its expensive early projects, and its directors shifted emphasis from conquest of territory to pursue plunder of shipping. The most spectacular success for the GWC was Piet Heyn's seizure of the
Involvement in Brazil
There were conflicts between directors from different areas of The Netherlands, with Amsterdam less supportive of the company. Non-maritime cities, including Haarlem, Leiden, and Gouda, along with Enkhuizen and Hoorn were enthusiastic about seizing territory. They sent a fleet to Brazil, capturing Olinda and Pernambuco in 1630 in their initial foray to create a Dutch Brazil, but could not hold them due to a strong Portuguese resistance.[21] Company ships continued privateering in the Caribbean, as well seizing vital land resources, particularly salt pans.[22] The company's general lack of success saw their shares plummet and the Dutch and The Spanish renewed truce talks in 1633.[23]
In 1629, the GWC gave permission to a number of investors in
The New Netherland area, which included
Decline
In North America, the settlers
Only in 1630 did the West India Company manage to conquer a part of Brazil. In 1630, the colony of
Because of the ongoing war in Brazil, the situation for the GWC in 1645, at the end of the charter, was very bad. An attempt to compensate the losses of the GWC with the profits of the VOC failed because the directors of the VOC did not want to.[28] In 1645, the main participants in the GWC were members of the Trip family.[29] Merging the two companies was not feasible. Amsterdam was not willing to help out, because it had too much interest in peace and healthy trade relations with Portugal. This indifferent attitude of Amsterdam was the main cause of the slow, half-hearted policy, which would eventually lead to losing the colony.[30] In 1647, the company made a restart using 1.5 million guilders, capital of the VOC. The States General took responsibility for the warfare in Brazil.
Restart
Due to the
In 1662, the GWC obtained several asiento subcontracts with the Spanish Crown, under which the Dutch were allowed to deliver 24,000 enslaved Africans.[32] The GWC made Curaçao a centre of the Atlantic slave trade, bringing slaves from West Africa to the island, before selling them elsewhere in the Caribbean and Spanish Main.[33] The influence of the GWC in Africa was threatened during the Second and Third Anglo–Dutch Wars, but English efforts to displace the Dutch from the region ultimately proved unsuccessful.[34]
The first West India Company suffered a long agony, and its end in 1674 was painless.[35] The reason that the GWC could drag on for 27 years seems to have been its valuable West African possessions, due to its slaves.
Second West India Company
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Slavery |
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When the GWC could not repay its debts in 1674, the company was dissolved. But due to continued high demand for trade between West Africa and the Dutch colonies in the Americas (mainly
From 1694 until 1700, the GWC waged a long conflict against the Eguafo Kingdom along the Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. The
In 1750
After the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, it became apparent that the GWC was no longer capable of defending its own colonies, as Sint Eustatius, Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and some forts on the Dutch Gold Coast were rapidly taken by the British. In 1791 it was decided not to renew the patent to the GWC and to dissolve the company. All stocks were sold and territories previously held by the GWC came under the rule of the States General of the Netherlands. A directorate Ad-Interim took over the administration. A Council of Colonies was established as administrator over the affairs of the GWC until 1795.[46] Around 1800 there was an attempt to create a third West India Company, but without success.
See also
- List of Dutch West India Company trading posts and settlements
- Atlantic slave trade
- Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
- Dutch colonization of the Americas
- Dutch–Portuguese War
- Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)
- List of director generals of New Netherland
- New Holland (Acadia)
Notes
References
- ^ Franklin J. Jameson (1887). Willem Usselinx, Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies. Ryan Gregory University, New York.
- Charles R. Boxer, 'The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654'. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1957.
- ^ "Archives of the Dutch East India Company | Silk Roads Programme". en.unesco.org. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "Plancius, Petrus | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ISBN 9780904180688. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
- OCLC 16253529.
- ^ The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern ... by Julia Adams, p. 55
- ^ "The 1621 Charter of the Dutch West India Company". Historical Society of the New York Courts. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "Jaap Jacobs, "De Scheepvaart en handel van de Nederlandse Republiek op Nieuw-Nederland 1609-1675"". Archived from the original on 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
- ^ bewindhebber van de WIC ter Kamer Amsterdam
- ^ a b c d "Freedoms, as Given by the Council of the Nineteen of the Chartered West India Company to All those who Want to Establish a Colony in New Netherland". World Digital Library. 1630. Archived from the original on 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
- ^ Michiel van Groesen, Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2017, pp. 37–38.
- Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1724-1654. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1957, pp. 10-11.
- ^ Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, p. 12.
- ^ Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, p. 13.
- ^ Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, pp. 13–14.
- ^ (in Dutch) Klein, P.W. (1965) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 150.
- Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606-1661. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1982, p. 197.
- ^ Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, pp. 198–99.
- ^ Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, pp. 201–02.
- ^ Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, p. 203.
- ^ Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, p. 204.
- ^ "Conditions as Created by their Lords Burgomasters of Amsterdam". World Digital Library. 1656. Archived from the original on 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
- ^ Jones, 1904, p. 17
- ^ (in Dutch) Heijer, H. den (1994) De geschiedenis van de GWC, p. 97.
- ^ (in Dutch) Dillen, J.G. van, (1970) Van Rijkdom tot Regenten, p. 169.
- ^ (in Dutch) Dillen, J.G. van, (1970) Van Rijkdom tot Regenten, p. 127.
- ^ Klein, P.W. (1965) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 181
- Boxer, C.R.(1957) The Dutch in Brazil 1624 - 1654. Oxford, Clarendon Press. ISBN
- ^ Svensli, F. (2018). “Evil Disposed Netherlanders”: The Dutch West India Company’s Opposition to Danish Activity on the Gold Coast, 1657–1662. Itinerario, 42(3), 326-350. doi:10.1017/S0165115318000578
- ^ (in Dutch) Brakel, S. van (1918) Bescheiden over den slavenhandel der Westindische Compagnie, p. 50, 67. In: Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek IV.
- ^ "The History of Curaçao". Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ (in Dutch) Binder, F. e.a. Archived 2006-05-17 at the Wayback Machine (1979) Dirck Dircksz. Wilre en Willem Godschalk van Focquenbroch(?) Geschilderd door Pieter de Wit te Elmina in 1669. Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 27, p.7–29.
- ^ (in Dutch) Klein, P.W. (1965) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 182.
- JSTOR 3601668. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
- ^ Van Dillen (1970) Van Rijkdom en Regenten, p. 380
- ^ Boon, D. (2015) Nederlandse relaties met Ashanti Het perspectief van de Tweede West-Indische Compagnie, 1750-1772, p. 29-30
- ^ Smokkelhandel en slavenhandel in Suriname gedurende de ondergang van de Nederlandse macht op zee, 1780-1795 Karwan Fatah-Black, p. 42
- ^ Het Spoor Terug: Kooplieden, kapers en kolonisten 11: De ondergang. 12 april 1998
- ^ De West-Indische Compagnie by Zeeuws Archief
- ^ Notulen van de edel mogende heeren Staten van Zeelandt
- ^ Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Estimates
- ^ Bankiers als aanjagers van slavernij in de 18de eeuw door Roel Janssen
- ^ De Nederlandse slavenhandel 1500-1850 by P.C. Emmer
- ^ 1.05.02 Inventaris van het archief van de Directie ad Interim, [1791-1792]; Raad der Koloniën, [1792-1795], (1773) 1791-1795 (1796)
Further reading
- Boxer, Charles R. The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1957.
- Ebert, Christopher. "Dutch Trade with Brazil before the Dutch West India Company, 1587–1621." Riches from Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping (2003): 1585–1817.
- Emmer, Pieter C. "The West India Company, 1621–1791: Dutch or Atlantic?." Companies and trade: Essays on overseas trading companies during the ancien régime (1981): 71–95.
- Emmer, Pieter C. The Dutch in the Atlantic economy, 1580-1880: Trade, slavery and emancipation. Vol. 614. Variorum, 1998.
- Frijhoff, W. Th M. "The West India Company and the Reformed Church: Neglect or Concern?." (1997).
- Groesen, Michiel van, (ed.) "The Legacy of Dutch Brazil", Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- Groesen, Michiel van "Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil", University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
- Heijer, Henk den. "The Dutch West India Company, 1621–1791." in Johannes Postma and Victor Enthoven, eds. Riches From Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping, 1585-1817. Leiden: Brill 2003, 77–114.
- _________. "The West African Trade of the Dutch West Indian Company 1674-1740," in Postma and Enthoven, eds. Riches from Atlantic Commerce, pp. Leiden: Brill 2003, pp. 139–69.
- Jones, Frederick Robertson (1904). Lee, Guy Carleton (ed.). The colonization of the middle states and Maryland. Vol. IV. George Barrie & Sons.
- Klooster, Wim. The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World. (Cornell University Press, 2016). 419 pp.
- Meuwese, Marcus P. " For the Peace and Well-Being of the Country": Intercultural Mediators and Dutch-Indian Relations in New Netherland and Dutch Brazil, 1600–1664. Diss. University of Notre Dame, 2003.
- Nederlof, Marjo (2008). Eerlijckman - 1680-1713: in dienst van het Staatse leger en de West-Indische Compagnie. Curaçao: De Curaçaosche Courant. ISBN 9789990408201.
- Peltries or plantations: the economic policies of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, 1623-1639. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969.
- Pijning, Erst. "Idealism and Power: The Dutch West India Company in the Brazil trade (1630-1654)," in Allen L. Macinnes and Arthur H. William (eds.) Shaping the Stuart World, 1603-1714: The Atlantic Connection. Leiden: Brill 2006, 207–32.
- Postma, Johannes. "West-African Exports and the Dutch West India Company, 1675–1731." Economisch-en sociaal-historisch jaarboek 36 (1973).
- Postma, Johannes. "The dimension of the Dutch slave trade from Western Africa." The Journal of African History 13.02 (1972): 237–248.
- Rink, Oliver A. "Private Interest and Godly Gain: The West India Company and the Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland, 1624-1664." New York History 75.3 (1994): 245.
- Ryder, Alan Frederick Charles. "Dutch trade on the Nigerian coast during the seventeenth century." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 3.2 (1965): 195–210.
- Rutten, Alphons MG. Dutch transatlantic medicine trade in the eighteenth century under the cover of the West India Company. Erasmus Pub., 2000.
- Schmidt, Benjamin, Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570-1670, Cambridge: University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-521-80408-0
- Van den Boogaart, Ernst. Infernal Allies: The Dutch West India Company and the Tarairiu, 1631-1654. 1980.
- Van Hoboken, W. J. "The Dutch West India Company: the political background of its rise and decline." Britain and the Netherlands 1 (1960): 41–61.
- Visscher, Nic Joh. A Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets Relating to New-Netherland, and to the Dutch West-India Company and to Its Possessions in Brazil, Angola Etc., as Also on the Maps, Charts, Etc. of New-Netherland. Muller, 1867.
- Weslager, Clinton Alfred. Dutch explorers, traders and settlers in the Delaware Valley, 1609-1664. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961.
- Zandvliet, Kees. Mapping for money: maps, plans, and topographic paintings and their role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International, 1998.
External links
- Dutch Portuguese Colonial History Dutch Portuguese Colonial History: history of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Ceylon, India, Malacca, Bengal, Formosa, Africa, Brazil. Language Heritage, lists of remains, maps.
- Facsimile of 15 GWC books Relating about the events in Brazil in the 17th century (PT & NL)
- GWC ship halve maan The GWC ship the Halve Maan.
- Charter of the Dutch West India Company Text of the Charter of the Dutch West India Company: 1621
- Netherlands West India Company GWC
- Atlas of Mutual Heritage – online atlas of VOC and GWC settlements