Dutch West India Company

11/18/21, 8:12 PM Dutch West India Company - Wikipedia
Dutch West India Company

The Dutch West India Company (Dutch: Geoctrooieerde
Westindische Compagnie, or GWC; Dutch pronunciation: Dutch West India Company
[ɣəʔɔktroːˈjeːrdə ʋɛstˈɪndisə kɔmpɑˈɲi]; English: Chartered West
India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as
well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem
Usselincx (1567–1647) and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624).[1] On 3
June 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the
Dutch West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United
Netherlands and given jurisdiction over Dutch participation in the
Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.
Company flag
The area where the company could operate consisted of West Native name Geoctrooieerde
Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) Westindische
and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and the Compagnie
eastern part of New Guinea. The intended purpose of the charter Founded June 3, 1621
was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese,
between the various trading posts established by the merchants. Founder Joannes de Laet
The company became instrumental in the largely ephemeral Defunct January 1, 1792
Dutch colonization of the Americas (including New Netherland)
Headquarters Dutch Republic
in the seventeenth century.
Number of Amsterdam, Hoorn,
From 1624 to 1654, in the context of the Dutch-Portuguese War, locations Rotterdam,
the GWC held Portuguese territory in northeast Brazil, but they Groningen and
were ousted from Dutch Brazil following fierce resistance.[2] After Middelburg
several reversals, GWC reorganized and a new charter was Key people Heeren XIX
granted in 1675, largely on the strength in the Atlantic slave trade.
Products Slaves
This "New" version lasted for more than a century, until after the
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, during which it lost most of its assets.
Contents
Origins
The West India Company
Decline
New West India Company
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_West_India_Company 1/8
Origins
When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded in 1602, 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. However, he failed to find a The West India House in
passage. Consequently, in 1615 Isaac Le Maire and Samuel Blommaert, Amsterdam, headquarters of
assisted by others, focused on finding a south-westerly route around the Dutch West India
South America's Tierra del Fuego archipelago in order to circumvent Company from 1623 to 1647
the monopoly of the VOC.
One of the first sailors who focused on trade with Africa was Balthazar de Moucheron. The trade with
Africa offered several possibilities to set up trading posts or factories, an important starting point for
negotiations. It was Blommaert, however, who stated that, in 1600, eight companies sailed on the
coast of Africa, competing with each other for the supply of copper, from the Kingdom of Loango.[3]
Pieter van den Broecke was employed by one of these companies. In 1612, a Dutch fortress was built in
Mouree (present day Ghana), along the Dutch Gold Coast.
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 Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648) between Spain and the
Dutch Republic was occurring. Grand Pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt offered to only suspend
trade with the West in exchange for the Twelve Years' Truce. The result was that, during a few years,
the company sailed under a foreign flag in South America. However, ten years later, Stadtholder
Maurice of Orange, proposed to continue the war with Spain, but also to distract attention from Spain
to the Republic. In 1619, his opponent Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded, and when two years
later the truce expired, the West Indian Company was established.
The West India Company received its charter from the States-General in 1621, but its foundation had
been suggested much earlier in the 17th century only to be delayed by the conclusion of the Twelve
Years' Truce between Spain and the United Provinces in 1609.[4]
The West India Company

The Dutch West India Company was organized similarly to the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Like the VOC, the GWC company 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).[5] 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 and Dordrecht), the region of Groningen, and one representative from the States General.
Each region had its own chamber and board of directors.[6] The validity of the charter was set at 24
years.
Only in 1623 was funding arranged, after several bidders were put
under pressure. The States General of the Netherlands and the
VOC pledged one million guilders in the form of capital and
subsidy. Although Iberian writers said that crypto-Jews or
Marranos played an important role in the formation of both the
VOC and the GWC, research has shown that initially they played a
minor role, but expanded during the period of the Dutch in Brazil.
Emigrant Calvinists from the Spanish Netherlands did make
significant investments in the GWC.[7] Investors did not rush to
put their money in the company in 1621, but the States-General
urged municipalities and other institutions to invest.
Explanations for the slow investment by individuals were that
shareholders had "no control over the directors' policy and the
handling of ordinary investors' money," that it was a "racket" to
provide "cushy posts for the directors and their relatives, at the
Willem Usselincx, co-founder of the
expense of ordinary shareholders".[8] The VOC directors invested
Dutch West India Company
money in the GWC, without consulting their shareholders,
causing dissent among a number of shareholders.[9] In order to
attract foreign shareholders, the GWC offered equal standing to
foreign investors with Dutch, resulting in shareholders from France,
Switzerland, and Venice. A translation of the original 1621 charter
appeared in English, Orders and Articles granted by the High and
Mightie Lords the States General of the United Provinces
concerning the erecting of a West-Indies Companie, Anno Dom.
MDCXII.[10] by 1623, the capital for the GWC at 2.8 million florins
was not as great the VOC's original capitalization of 6.5 million, but
it was still a substantial sum. The GWC had 15 ships to carry trade The Swaanendael Colony along
and plied the west African coast and Brazil.[11] the Delaware
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 Groot Desseyn ("grand design") was devised to seize the Portuguese colonies in Africa and
the Americas, so as to dominate the sugar and slave trade. When this plan failed, privateering became
one of the major goals within the GWC. The arming of merchant ships with guns and soldiers to
defend themselves against Spanish ships was of great importance. On almost all ships in 1623, 40 to
50 soldiers were stationed, possibly to assist in the hijacking of enemy ships.[12] It is unclear whether
the first expedition was the expedition by Jacques l'Hermite to the coast of Chile, Peru and Bolivia, set
up by Stadtholder Maurice with the support of the States General and the VOC.
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 Spanish silver fleet, which carried silver from
Spanish colonies to Spain. He had also seized a consignment of sugar from Brazil and a galleon from
Honduras with cacao, indigo, and other valuable goods. Privateering was its most profitable activity in
the late 1620s.[13] Despite Heyn's success at plunder, the company's directors realized that it was not a
basis to build long-term profit, leading them to renew their attempts to seize Iberian territory in the
Americas. They decided their target was Brazil.[14]
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.[15] Company ships continued privateering in the
Caribbean, as well seizing vital land resources, particularly salt
pans.[16] The company's general lack of success saw their shares
plummet and the Dutch and The Spanish renewed truce talks in
1633.[17]
In 1629 the GWC gave permission to a number of investors in

New Netherlands to found patroonships, enabled by the Charter
of Freedoms and Exemptions which was ratified by the Dutch
States-General on June 7, 1629. The patroonships were created to
help populate the colony, by providing investors grants providing
land for approximately 50 people and "upwards of 15 years old",
per grant, mainly in the region of New Netherland.[5][18] Patroon
investors could expand the size of their land grants as large as 4
Piet Heyn, GWC admiral who
miles, "along the shore or along one bank of a navigable river..."
captured the Spanish silver fleet in
Rensselaerswyck was the most successful Dutch West India
1628.
Company patroonship.[5]
The New Netherland area, which included New Amsterdam,

covered parts of present-day New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey.[5] Other settlements
were established on the Netherlands Antilles, and in South America, in Dutch Brazil, Suriname and
Guyana. In Africa, posts were established on the Gold Coast (now Ghana), the Slave Coast (now
Benin), and briefly in Angola. It was a neo-feudal system, where patrons were permitted considerable
powers to control the overseas colony. In the Americas, fur (North America) and sugar (South
America) were the most important trade goods, while African settlements traded the enslaved (mainly
destined for the plantations on the Antilles and Suriname), gold, and ivory.
Decline
In North America, the settlers Albert Burgh, Samuel Blommaert,

Samuel Godijn, Johannes de Laet had little success with populating the
colony of New Netherland, and to defend themselves against local
Amerindians. Only Kiliaen Van Rensselaer managed to maintain his
settlement in the north along the Hudson. Samuel Blommaert secretly
tried to secure his interests with the founding of the colony of New
Recife or Mauritsstad – Sweden on behalf of Sweden on the Delaware in the south. The main
capital of Nieuw Holland focus of the GWC now went to Brazil.
Only in 1630 did the West India Company manage to conquer a part of
Brazil. In 1630, the colony of New Holland (capital Mauritsstad, present-day Recife) was founded,
taking over Portuguese possessions in Brazil. In the meantime, the war demanded so many of its
forces that the company had to operate under a permanent threat of bankruptcy.[19] In fact, the GWC
went bankrupt in 1636 and all attempts at rehabilitation were doomed to failure.[20]
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.[21] 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.[22] 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.
Due to the Peace of Westphalia, the attacks on Spanish shipping

were forbidden to the GWC. Many merchants from Amsterdam
and Zeeland decided to work with marine and merchants from the
Holy Roman Empire, Denmark-Norway, England and other Warehouse of the GWC in
European countries. In 1649, the GWC obtained a monopoly on Amsterdam
gold and enslaved Africans with the kingdom of Accra (present-
day Ghana). In 1662 the GWC obtained several asiento contracts
with the Spanish Crown, under which the Dutch were obliged to deliver 24,000 enslaved Africans.[23]
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.[24]
The first West India Company suffered a long agony, and its end in 1674 was painless.[25] The reason
that the GWC could drag on for twenty years was due to its valuable West African possessions, due to
its slaves.
New West India Company

When the GWC could not repay its debts in 1674, the company was dissolved. But because of high
demand for trade with the West (mainly slave trade), and the fact that still many colonies existed, it
was decided to establish the Second Chartered West India Company (also called New West India
Company) in 1675. This new company had the same trade area as the first. All ships, fortresses, etc.
were taken over by the new company. The number of directors was reduced from 19 to 10, and the
number of governors from 74 to 50. The new GWC had a capital that was slightly more than 6 million
guilders around 1679, which was largely supplied by the Amsterdam Chamber.
From 1694 until 1700, the GWC waged a long conflict against the Eguafo Kingdom along the Gold
Coast, present-day Ghana. The Komenda Wars drew in significant numbers of neighbouring African
kingdoms and led to replacement of the gold trade with enslaved Africans.
After the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, it became apparent that the Dutch West India Company 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, the company's stock
was bought by the Dutch government, and on 1 January 1792, all territories previously held by the
Dutch West India Company reverted to the rule of the States General of the Dutch Republic. Around
1800 there was an attempt to create a third West Indian Company, without any success.
See also
Atlantic World
Atlantic slave trade
Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
Dutch colonization of the Americas
Dutch East India Company
Dutch-Portuguese War
Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)
List of director generals of New Netherland
List of trading companies
New Holland (Acadia)
Recapture of Bahia
European chartered companies founded around the 17th century
Notes
References
1. Franklin J. Jameson (1887). Willem Usselinx, Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India
Companies. Ryan Gregory University, New York.
2. Charles R. Boxer, 'The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654'. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1957.
3. van den Broecke, Pieter (2000). La Fleur, J. D. (James Daniel) (ed.). Pieter Van Den Broecke's
Journal of Voyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola, 1605-1612 (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=r68MAAAAYAAJ&q=+Loango+copper). Hakluyt Society. pp. 95, 100.
ISBN 9780904180688.
4. Boxer, C. R. (Charles Ralph) (1973). The Dutch seaborne empire, 1600-1800 (https://archive.org/d
etails/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27). Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 27 (https://archive.org/d
etails/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27). ISBN 0140216006. OCLC 16253529 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/16253529).
5. "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" (http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4068/).
World Digital Library. 1630. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
6. Michiel van Groesen, Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2017, pp. 37–38.
7. Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1724-1654. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1957, pp. 10-11.
8. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, p. 12.
9. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, pp. 12–13.
10. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, p. 13.
11. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, pp. 13–14.
12. (in Dutch)Klein, P.W. (1965) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 150.
13. Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606-1661. Oxford: Clarendon
Press 1982, p. 197.
14. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, pp. 198–99.
15. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, pp. 201–02.
16. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, p. 203.
17. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, p. 204.
18. "Conditions as Created by their Lords Burgomasters of Amsterdam" (http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4
066/). World Digital Library. 1656. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
19. (in Dutch)Heijer, H. den (1994) De geschiedenis van de GWC, p. 97.
20. (in Dutch)Dillen, J.G. van, (1970) Van Rijkdom tot Regenten, p. 169.
21. (in Dutch)Dillen, J.G. van, (1970) Van Rijkdom tot Regenten, p. 127.
22. Boxer, C.R. (1957) The Dutch in Brazil 1624 - 1654. Oxford, Clarendon Press. ISBN
23. (in Dutch) Brakel, S. van (1918) Bescheiden over den slavenhandel der Westindische Compagnie,
p. 50, 67. In: Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek IV.
24. (in Dutch)Binder, F. e.a. (http://focquenbroch.apud.net/wilre.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20060517220722/http://focquenbroch.apud.net/wilre.htm) 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.
25. (in Dutch)Klein, P.W. (1965) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 182.
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.
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 (http://www.colonialvoyage.com/) 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 (http://www.s4ulanguages.com/wic.html) Relating about the events in
Brazil in the 17th century (PT & NL)
GWC ship halve maan (http://geneaknowhow.net/in/schepen/overig-schepen/halve-maan-replica.h
tml) The GWC ship the Halve Maan.
Charter of the Dutch West India Company (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/westind.asp)
Text of the Charter of the Dutch West India Company: 1621
Netherlands West India Company GWC (https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223653/http://ww
w.atlasgeo.net/fotw/flags/nl-indch.html)
Atlas of Mutual Heritage (http://www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl/en/) - online atlas of VOC and GWC
settlements
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dutch_West_India_Company&oldid=1055733591"
This page was last edited on 17 November 2021, at 14:01 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.

Dutch West India Company

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dutch West India Company

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

11/18/21, 8:12 PM Dutch West India Company - Wikipedia

Dutch West India Company

The West India Company

Olinda and Pernambuco in 1630 in their initial foray to create a

In 1629 the GWC gave permission to a number of investors in

The New Netherland area, which included New Amsterdam,

In North America, the settlers Albert Burgh, Samuel Blommaert,

Portugal. This indifferent attitude of Amsterdam was the main

Due to the Peace of Westphalia, the attacks on Spanish shipping

New West India Company

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dutch_West_India_Company&oldid=1055733591"

This page was last edited on 17 November 2021, at 14:01 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

You might also like