THE DUTCH TRADING COMPANIES AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PRE-MODERN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Dutch expansion in the seventeenth century was primarily driven by the Dutch trading companies. The two largest were the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), established in 1602 for the trade in the Far East, and the Geoctroyeerde West–Indische Compagnie (at the time abbreviated as GWC, but nowadays usually referred to as WIC), founded in 1621, aiming at the Atlantic area. Both companies were governed by a group of merchants called bewindhebbers (‘directors’). The VOC had seventeen of these officials and the WIC nineteen, which governing bodies were called respectively the Heeren XVII (‘Lords Seventeen’) for the VOC and Heeren XIX (‘Lords Nineteen’) for the WIC. Officially both trading companies were private ventures, but both the VOC and WIC received an official charter granted by the States General of the Dutch Republic. This charter made these private corporations hybrid entities because through this charter their aim was both economical and political. On the one hand, they were companies engaged in trade and transport, but on the other, as semi-governmental entities, they acted abroad as colonial governments, ruling foreign territories as sovereigns, employing not only merchants and sailors, but also soldiers and engineers, who used guns, built fortifications and staffed warships.

Both companies were organized into so-called chambers, representing shareholders from different merchant centres in the Dutch Republic. In this way the Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie (WIC) had five chambers: (1) the Amsterdam chamber represented, besides Amsterdam, also shareholders from Dutch cities such as Leiden, Haarlem, and Deventer; (2) the Zeeland chamber consisted of Middelburg, Vlissingen (Flushing), Veere, Tholen, and Zierkzee; (3) the De Maze chamber included Rotterdam, Delft and Dordrecht; (4) the Noorder – kwartier chamber combined the merchant cities in West Friesland, namely Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Alkmaar, Edam, Medemblik and Monnickendam, and finally (5) the Stad en Lande chamber represented the city of Groningen with the so called ‘Ommelanden’ (the surrounding countryside). Each chamber brought its own ships, equipment and soldiers into the collective enterprise.

The WIC was established with multiple goals. Firstly, its founding was prompted by the commercial success of the VOC, which company traded with various places in Asia.