Tweede West-Indische Compagnie (WIC)
Item
Country
NL
Name of institution (English)
National Archives
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
dut
Contact information: postal address
Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 20, 2595 BE The Hague
Contact information: phone number
0031 703315400
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
1.05.01.02
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
Second West India Company (WIC)
Title (official language of the state)
Tweede West-Indische Compagnie (WIC)
Language of title
dut
Creator / accumulator
West-Indische Compagnie (West Indian Company)
Date(s)
1624/1800
Language(s)
dut
por
Extent
101.50 linear meters
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Poor
Scope and content
The Tweede West-Indische Compagnie fonds comprises documentation of the second Dutch West India Company (1674-1791), including numerous records on Dutch colonies in the Atlantic (Surinam, Curaçao, St Eustatius, Essequibo, Berbice, Demerara, Coast of Guinea). The fonds is divided into nine series, including one with documentation from the Vergadering van Tienen or Heren X (Assembly of Ten, the governing board) and five related to each office, called "Kamers" (chambers): Amsterdam, Zeeland, Maze, Noorderkwartier (Northern District) in Enkhuizen and Hoorn, and Stad en Lande (City and Country). The fonds also includes a series with records from the archives of the first West India Company (1621-74) and two sections named "Supplement" with assorted documentation.
As a result of the vibrant participation of Sephardic merchants in the commercial life of the Netherlands and the importance of their networks in the Dutch Atlantic, this fonds provides rich information on the social and economic life of the Sephardic communities in the Caribbean, as well as their relations with the Dutch authorities after 1674, and even before, in the case of the series with records related to the former WIC. The latter contains some information regarding Dutch Brazil, where the Sephardic and converso merchants played a decisive role, such as a letter from the WIC to the Portuguese and inhabitants of Brazil regarding the political and trade policy that the WIC would conduct there after the conquest (1322.6).
Particular attention should be paid to the correspondence received from the colonies, as well as the resolutions taken by the Kamers. For instance, in the case of Curaçao, this documentation includes rich information on internal conflicts in the Sephardic congregation as well as on the relation of its leaders with the WIC directors and other Dutch authorities (see, in particular, the works of Jessica Roitman and Wim Klooster mentioned below). Some examples are the following:
357 (Kamer Amsterdam: records of resolutions, 1702): includes a resolution regarding a conflict that opposed Governor Nicolaas van Beek to the Jewish community of Curaçao, following an order of the governor to send their slaves to work on Saturdays. Two parnassim, Baron de Belmonte and Alexandre Nunes da Costa, who were shareholders of the WIC, influenced the case in favour of the Jews.
585 (Kamer Amsterdam: letters received from Curaçao, 1738-39): includes a report submitted by fiscal Petersen to the WIC directors saying that Jews should be excused from serving in the militia and that they should pay a tax in lieu of service, 1737. However, Petersen was not successful in his petition.
316 (Kamer Maze: documents received from Curaçao, 1742-48): includes a report of Governor Isaac Faesch (1746), in which he mentions a conflict that divided the Jewish community of Curaçao. David Aboab, who moved from Jamaica to Curaçao, disagreed with rabbis Raphael Jesurun and Samuel Mendes Sola on religious matters. For this reason, he was excommunicated. As Aboad refused to make the required public contrition, the parnassim of the Mikvé Israel congregation appealed to the governor in order to banish him. In this letter to the WIC, Faesch explains the reason for Aboab's exile.
403 (Kamer Amsterdam: records of resolutions, 1748): contains a letter from Governor Faesch to the Heren X, informing that he would not allow the opening of another synagogue in Curaçao until he heard otherwise from them. Other documents regarding the petition to establish a third synagogue in Curaçao can be found in nos. 475, 596, and 597.
This fonds is also rich in information regarding other Dutch colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean. Therefore, letters and documents received from Surinam, St Eustatius, Essequibo, Berbice, and other colonies on the northeastern coast of America contain precious sources for the study of the Sephardic Jews and Iberian conversos dwelling or trading in these territories.
As a result of the vibrant participation of Sephardic merchants in the commercial life of the Netherlands and the importance of their networks in the Dutch Atlantic, this fonds provides rich information on the social and economic life of the Sephardic communities in the Caribbean, as well as their relations with the Dutch authorities after 1674, and even before, in the case of the series with records related to the former WIC. The latter contains some information regarding Dutch Brazil, where the Sephardic and converso merchants played a decisive role, such as a letter from the WIC to the Portuguese and inhabitants of Brazil regarding the political and trade policy that the WIC would conduct there after the conquest (1322.6).
Particular attention should be paid to the correspondence received from the colonies, as well as the resolutions taken by the Kamers. For instance, in the case of Curaçao, this documentation includes rich information on internal conflicts in the Sephardic congregation as well as on the relation of its leaders with the WIC directors and other Dutch authorities (see, in particular, the works of Jessica Roitman and Wim Klooster mentioned below). Some examples are the following:
357 (Kamer Amsterdam: records of resolutions, 1702): includes a resolution regarding a conflict that opposed Governor Nicolaas van Beek to the Jewish community of Curaçao, following an order of the governor to send their slaves to work on Saturdays. Two parnassim, Baron de Belmonte and Alexandre Nunes da Costa, who were shareholders of the WIC, influenced the case in favour of the Jews.
585 (Kamer Amsterdam: letters received from Curaçao, 1738-39): includes a report submitted by fiscal Petersen to the WIC directors saying that Jews should be excused from serving in the militia and that they should pay a tax in lieu of service, 1737. However, Petersen was not successful in his petition.
316 (Kamer Maze: documents received from Curaçao, 1742-48): includes a report of Governor Isaac Faesch (1746), in which he mentions a conflict that divided the Jewish community of Curaçao. David Aboab, who moved from Jamaica to Curaçao, disagreed with rabbis Raphael Jesurun and Samuel Mendes Sola on religious matters. For this reason, he was excommunicated. As Aboad refused to make the required public contrition, the parnassim of the Mikvé Israel congregation appealed to the governor in order to banish him. In this letter to the WIC, Faesch explains the reason for Aboab's exile.
403 (Kamer Amsterdam: records of resolutions, 1748): contains a letter from Governor Faesch to the Heren X, informing that he would not allow the opening of another synagogue in Curaçao until he heard otherwise from them. Other documents regarding the petition to establish a third synagogue in Curaçao can be found in nos. 475, 596, and 597.
This fonds is also rich in information regarding other Dutch colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean. Therefore, letters and documents received from Surinam, St Eustatius, Essequibo, Berbice, and other colonies on the northeastern coast of America contain precious sources for the study of the Sephardic Jews and Iberian conversos dwelling or trading in these territories.
Archival history
Most of the papers found in WIC archives were produced by locally stationed company officials, but also by people with whom they interacted: kings and noblemen, traders and middlemen, shippers, and harbour masters.
As the WIC archives were part of a global information system of the WIC trade organisation, they contain abundant cultural, religious, social, political, and economic information as well as geographical, geological, or agricultural remarks about different areas of the globe.
Each WIC governor was in charge of a trading post for a few years. He had to keep a journal with information about his daily affairs. Moreover, when he left his position, it was mandatory for him to compose a report for this successor with information about what had happened in his region in the period that he was in charge of the trading post. The directors also wrote reports about expeditions to explore the region and embassies of the local and national rulers.
As the WIC archives were part of a global information system of the WIC trade organisation, they contain abundant cultural, religious, social, political, and economic information as well as geographical, geological, or agricultural remarks about different areas of the globe.
Each WIC governor was in charge of a trading post for a few years. He had to keep a journal with information about his daily affairs. Moreover, when he left his position, it was mandatory for him to compose a report for this successor with information about what had happened in his region in the period that he was in charge of the trading post. The directors also wrote reports about expeditions to explore the region and embassies of the local and national rulers.
Administrative / Biographical history
The West-Indische Compagnie (WIC), the Dutch West India Company, was founded in 1621 mainly to carry on economic warfare against Spain and Portugal by striking at their colonies in the West Indies and South America and on the west coast of Africa.
The WIC was governed by a board consisting of 19 members (the Heerem XIX) and had five offices (Kamers) corresponding to the various regions of the Netherlands. Having the monopoly of trade with the Americas, Africa, and the Atlantic regions between them, the WIC was militarily and financially supported by the States General (the Dutch national assembly).
Its zenith was reached during the administration of Count John Maurice (1636-44) with the conquest of the northeastern region of Brazil and the foundation of New Holland, which ended up capitulating to the Portuguese in 1654. Between 1634 and 1648, the WIC also established several colonies in the West Indies and Guyana, including Aruba, Curaçao, and Saint Martin, but later lost many of them to the French. New Netherland, the Dutch colony in North America, became a province of the WIC in 1623 and remained so until 1667, when it was ceded to the English.
The loss of Brazil to the Portuguese and later other colonies to the French and the English reflected the decline of the WIC. The Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars also threatened its influence on the west coast of Africa. Deeper in debt, the WIC was dissolved in 1674.
The Tweede West-Indische Compagnie replaced the original WIC. Its capital was formed by giving shares to the shareholders and owners of bonds of the first WIC. The few alterations to the WIC infrastructure were reducing the number of directors from 19 to 10 and the governors from 74 to 50. In addition, the company's monopoly was limited to the slave trade and the trade to the Dutch forts in Africa, but even this monopoly was lost in 1734. After this year, the WIC was left with the administration of the Dutch territories on the African coast, the Dutch Antilles, and two small plantation colonies on the South American mainland: Essequibo and Demerara. However, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-84), the WIC proved to be incapable of defending its colonies, such as Sint Eustatius, Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and some forts on the Guinea coast, which were easily conquered by the British army.
In 1791, the WIC was taken over by the state, and the shareholders were partly compensated with government bonds. It was definitely dissolved after the French invasion of the Dutch Republic in 1794.
The WIC was governed by a board consisting of 19 members (the Heerem XIX) and had five offices (Kamers) corresponding to the various regions of the Netherlands. Having the monopoly of trade with the Americas, Africa, and the Atlantic regions between them, the WIC was militarily and financially supported by the States General (the Dutch national assembly).
Its zenith was reached during the administration of Count John Maurice (1636-44) with the conquest of the northeastern region of Brazil and the foundation of New Holland, which ended up capitulating to the Portuguese in 1654. Between 1634 and 1648, the WIC also established several colonies in the West Indies and Guyana, including Aruba, Curaçao, and Saint Martin, but later lost many of them to the French. New Netherland, the Dutch colony in North America, became a province of the WIC in 1623 and remained so until 1667, when it was ceded to the English.
The loss of Brazil to the Portuguese and later other colonies to the French and the English reflected the decline of the WIC. The Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars also threatened its influence on the west coast of Africa. Deeper in debt, the WIC was dissolved in 1674.
The Tweede West-Indische Compagnie replaced the original WIC. Its capital was formed by giving shares to the shareholders and owners of bonds of the first WIC. The few alterations to the WIC infrastructure were reducing the number of directors from 19 to 10 and the governors from 74 to 50. In addition, the company's monopoly was limited to the slave trade and the trade to the Dutch forts in Africa, but even this monopoly was lost in 1734. After this year, the WIC was left with the administration of the Dutch territories on the African coast, the Dutch Antilles, and two small plantation colonies on the South American mainland: Essequibo and Demerara. However, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-84), the WIC proved to be incapable of defending its colonies, such as Sint Eustatius, Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and some forts on the Guinea coast, which were easily conquered by the British army.
In 1791, the WIC was taken over by the state, and the shareholders were partly compensated with government bonds. It was definitely dissolved after the French invasion of the Dutch Republic in 1794.
Sources:
Access points: locations
Access points: corporate bodies
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The fonds is divided into different sub-fonds concerning the different instances of decision. The exception is the two last sub-fonds, which are classified as supplements and contain miscellaneous documentation.
Access, restrictions
The archive has limitations for consulting documents due to poor material conditions.
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Kevin Soares, 2022
Bibliography
Linked resources
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| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Nationaal Archief | Collections (official language of the state) |
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Collectie Joshua Mozes Levy Maduro | Existence and location of originals |