Dutch West India CompanyDutch
West India Company (Dutch: Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie, Dutch pronunciation: [ɣəʔɔktroˈjɪrdə ʋɛstˈɪndisə kɔmpɑˈɲi] or Dutch: GWIC; English: Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company (known as the "
WIC") of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was
Willem Usselincx (1567–1647). On
June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in
the West Indies (meaning the Caribbean) by
the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over
the African slave trade,
Brazil,
the Caribbean, and
North America. 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 the eastern part of
New Guinea. 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 Dutch colonization of the Americas.
History
Flag of the Dutch West India Company, which existed from 1621 to 1794.When
the Dutch East India Company (
VOC) was founded in
1602, some traders in
Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic politics. With help from
Plancius Peter, a Flemish minister who was engaged in producing maps, globes and nautical instruments, they sought for a northeastern or northwestern access to
Asia to circumvent
the VOC monopoly. In
1609 Henry Hudson, on behalf of
the VOC, outwitted his competitors by landing on the coast of
New England in his quest for
the Northwest Passage to
Asia. Consequently, in
1615 Isaac Le Maire and
Samuel Blommaert, assisted by others, focused on finding
a south-westerly route around
Tierra del Fuego, in order to circumvent
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 each other with
the supply of copper, from
the Kingdom of Loango.
Pieter van den Broecke was employed by one of these companies. In
1612, a Dutch fortress was built in
Mouree, along
the Dutch Gold Coast.
Dutch fortress in MoureeTrade 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.
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 Indian Warehouse at Rapenburg (Amsterdam), constructed in 1642The first West India Company
The Swaanendael Colony along the DelawareThe WIC was organized similarly to
the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, abbreviated as
VOC). Like
the VOC, the 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 Lords Nineteen). 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. Unlike
the VOC,
the WIC 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 WIC.
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. It is unclear whether this 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 relatively successful; in
the 1620s and
1630s,
many trade posts or colonies were established. The largest success for
the WIC in its history was
the seizure of the Spanish silver fleet, which carried
silver from
Spanish colonies to
Spain, by
Piet Heyn in
1628; privateering was at first the most profitable activity. In
1629 the
WIC gave permission to a number of investors in
New Netherlands to found patroonships. The
New Netherland area, which included
New Amsterdam, covered parts of
present-day New York,
Connecticut,
Delaware, and
New Jersey. Other settlements were established on
the Netherlands Antilles, several
other Caribbean islands,
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 slaves—mainly destined for
the plantations on the Antilles and
Suriname—
gold, and
ivory.
Decline.
Piet Heyn (1577-1629)
Recife or Mauritsstad – Capital of Nieuw HollandThe 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 Indians. 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 Sweden on
the Delaware in the south. The main focus of
the WIC 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. In fact,
the WIC went bankrupt in
1636 and all attempts at
rehabilitation were doomed to failure.
Because of the ongoing war in
Brazil the situation for
the WIC in
1645, at the end of the charter,
was very bad. An attempt to compensate the losses of
the WIC with the profits of
the VOC failed because
the directors of the VOC didn't want to. 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. In
1647 t
he 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 hijacking of Spanish ships was no longer allowed. Many merchants from Amsterdam and Zeeland decided to work with marine and merchants from Hamburg, Glückstadt (then Danish), England and other countries. In 1649, the WIC obtained a monopoly on gold and slaves in the kingdom of Accra (present-day Ghana). In 1662 there were contacts with the owners of the Asiento, which were obliged to deliver 24,000 slaves.[8] In 1663 and 1664 the WIC sold more slaves than the Portuguese and English together.
The first West India Company suffered a
long agony, and
its end in 1674 was painless. The reason that
the WIC could
drag on for twenty years was due to
its valuable West African possessions.
Warehouse of the WIC in AmsterdamThe second West India CompanyWhen
the WIC 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 WIC 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 WIC waged a long conflict against
the Eguafo Kingdom along
the Gold Coast, present-day
Ghana.
The Komenda Wars drew in significant numbers of
neighboring African kingdoms and led
to replacement of
the gold trade with slaves.
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 them. 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.
Slave transport in Africa
The West India House in Amsterdam, the headquarters of the W.I.C.
