Page 239 - Encyclopedia Of World History

dutch empire 589

Dutch West India Company Charter, 1621

As indicated by this excerpt from the charter granted and in the west to the east end of New Guinea, inclu-
by the “High Mightinesses the Lords the States-General sive.And therefore whoever shall venture, without the
of Holland,” the Dutch West India Company was given consent of this Company, to sail upon or trade with
powerful rights over trade between Holland and the any places within the limits granted to the said Com-
West Indies and Africa. pany, shall do so at the risk of losing the ships and
merchandize which shall be found upon the aforesaid
That, for a period of twenty-four years no native or
coasts and districts, which it shall be competent to
inhabitant of this country shall be permitted, except
immediately seize on behalf of the said Company,
in the name of this United Company, either from the
and to hold as confiscated property at the disposal of
United Netherlands or from any place outside them,
the same. And in case such ships or merchandize
to sail upon or to trade with the coasts and lands of
should be sold or taken to other lands or ports, the
Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of
underwriters and shareholders may be sued for the
Good Hope, nor with the countries of America and
value of the said ships and merchandize; with this
the West Indies, beginning from the southern extrem-
exception only, that those ships which, before the date
ity of Newfoundland through the Straits of Magellan,
of this Charter, have sailed from these or other lands
Le Maire, and other straits and channels lying there-
to any of the aforesaid coasts, shall be permitted to
abouts, to the Strait of Anjan, neither on the North
continue their trade until they have disposed of their
nor on the South Sea, nor with any of the islands sit-
cargoes, and until their return to this country, or until
uated either on the one side or the other, or between
the expiration of their Charter, if they have been
them both; nor with the Australian and southern
granted any before this date, but no longer.
lands extending and lying between the two meridi-
Source: Further documents relating to the question of boundaries between British Guiana
ans, reaching in the east to the Cape of Good Hope, and Venezuela (pp. 53 –54 ). (1896). London: n.p.

Netherland, the application of the Navigation Acts in the Dutch language or the official brand of Dutch Protes-
British colonies and similar protectionist legislation in the tantism.The governors of the various Dutch colonies and
French colonies, and the declining opportunities for trading forts were well aware of the fact that only reli-
Dutch privateers reduced the volume and value of the gious and cultural tolerance could prevent internal strife
Dutch Atlantic trade. Around 1650, estimates put the among the many non-Dutch nationals.
yearly number of Dutch ships operating in the Atlantic at After 1734 the WIC became a “body without a soul.”
around 250. During the eighteenth century that average Private consortia governed the two most important Dutch
had declined to about 140. In addition to the triangular plantation colonies, Suriname and Berbice.The company
slave trade from Europe to West Africa, then on to the was left with the administration of the Dutch possessions
New World and back again to Europe, the WIC ships on the African coast, the Dutch Antilles, and two small
traded in American and African produce such as Brazil- plantation colonies on the South American mainland,
ian wood, hides, ivory, sugar, tobacco, and cacao. Essequibo and Demerara. Its top-heavy apparatus at
The WIC concentrated on trade, not colonization.The home did not change: The national and local director-
total number of Europeans in the colonies and trading ships had become part of the job circuit within the Dutch
establishments of the company never surpassed 20,000 oligarchy. Private Dutch traders did increase the volume
at any one time. That suggests that it must have been of the trade in slaves and tropical cash crops, but the
more profitable to send young men on a temporary Dutch were unable to profit from the explosive growth of
basis to tropical Asia than to settle them as colonists in the Atlantic economy after the War of American Inde-
New Netherlands and the Cape colony.The Dutch West pendence. In 1791 the second WIC was abolished and
India Company was not interested in exporting the the Dutch Republic itself became a colonial power.