Dutch West India Company

{{Short description|Dutch chartered company (1621–1792)}} {{Use British English|date=May 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Distinguish|Dutch East India Company}} {{Infobox company | name = Dutch West India Company | native_name = ''Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie'' | logo = Flag of the Dutch West India Company.svg | logo_caption = Company flag | type = [[Chartered company]] | traded_as = | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | founded = {{Start date|1621|06|03|df=y}} | defunct = {{End date|1792|01|01|df=y}} | hq_location_city = | hq_location_country = | hq_location = | num_locations = 5 ([[Amsterdam]], [[Hoorn]], [[Rotterdam]], [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]], and [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]]) | area_served = | key_people = Heeren XIX | industry = | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsidiaries = | footnotes = | intl = | products = Shipping [[slaves]], administrators, farmers, and soldiers, and returning with salt, beaver skins, silver, sugar, tobacco, coffee, [[cochineal]], [[Haematoxylum campechianum|campeche]], and [[Brosimum guianense|letterwood]] }}

The '''Chartered West India Company''' ({{langx|nl|Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie}}; '''GWC'''), commonly known as the '''Dutch West India Company''' ({{langx|nl|West-Indische Compagnie}}; '''WIC'''), was a Dutch [[chartered company]] that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were [[Reynier Pauw]], [[Willem Usselincx]], and [[Jessé de Forest]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Jameson |first= Franklin J. |title= Willem Usselinx Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies |year= 1887 |location= New York| publisher= Ryan Gregory University}}</ref> On 3 June 1621, it was granted a [[:wikisource:Charter of the Dutch West India Company|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.

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 ended east of the [[Maluku Islands]], according to the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]. 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 largely ephemeral [[Dutch colonisation of the Americas]] (including [[New Netherland]]) in the seventeenth century.

From 1624 to 1654, in the context of the [[Dutch–Portuguese War]], the GWC held Portuguese territory in northeast Brazil, but they were ousted from [[Dutch Brazil]] following fierce resistance.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957>{{cite book |last= Boxer |first= Charles R. |author-link= Charles R. Boxer |title= The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654 |publisher= Clarendon Press |year= 1957 |location= Oxford}}</ref> After several reversals, the GWC reorganised and a new charter was granted in 1675, largely on the strength in the Atlantic slave trade. This "new" version lasted for more than a century, until after the [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War|Fourth Anglo–Dutch War]], during which it lost most of its assets.

==Origins==

When the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) was founded in 1602,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archives of the Dutch East India Company {{!}} Silk Roads Programme |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/documentary-heritage/archives-dutch-east-india-company#:~:text=The%20Dutch%20East%20India%20Company%20(VOC,%20Verenigde%20Oostindische%20Compagnie),trading%20companies%20operating%20in%20Asia. |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=en.unesco.org}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plancius, Petrus | website= encyclopedia.com |url= https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/plancius-petrus |access-date=2022-11-01}}</ref> However, he failed to find a passage. Consequently, in 1615, [[Isaac Le Maire]] and [[Samuel Blommaert]], assisted by others, focused on finding a south-westerly route around South America's [[Tierra del Fuego]] archipelago 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 [[Factory (trading post)|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]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pieter Van Den Broecke's Journal of Voyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola, 1605-1612|last=van den Broecke|first=Pieter|publisher=Hakluyt Society|year=2000|isbn=9780904180688|pages=95, 100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r68MAAAAYAAJ&q=+Loango+copper|editor-last=La Fleur|editor-first=J. D. (James Daniel)|access-date=2020-11-10|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624214026/https://books.google.com/books?id=r68MAAAAYAAJ&q=+Loango+copper|url-status=live}}</ref> [[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 [[Habsburg Spain|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 [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648)]] between Spain and the Dutch Republic was occurring. [[Grand Pensionary]] [[Johan van Oldenbarnevelt]] offered to suspend trade with the West Indies in exchange for the [[Twelve Years' Truce]].<ref name= Boxer-1973>{{Cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27|title=The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800|last=Boxer|first=C. R. | date=1973| publisher=Penguin| isbn=0140216006| location=Harmondsworth|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27 27] |oclc= 16253529|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Adams |first= Julia|title= The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern |year= |page= 55 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=e-qd05sHxVsC&dq=Willem+Usselincx%2C+Reynier+Pauw&pg=PA55 |via= Google Books |access-date= }}</ref> He took the proposal of founding a West-India Company off table. The result was that, during a few years, the Dutch sailed under a foreign flag to 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 in April 1621 the truce expired, the West Indian Company could be established.

The West India Company received its charter from the States-General in June 1621, granting it a 24-year monopoly on trade and colonisation that included the American coast between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1621 Charter of the Dutch West India Company |url= https://history.nycourts.gov/about_period/charter-1621/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Historical Society of the New York Courts |language=en-US}}</ref> One of the promotors was [[Reynier Pauw]], who went on to appoint two of his sons as the first managers in 1621; both Pieter and [[Michiel Reyniersz Pauw]] were in place for fifteen years.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rabbel.nl/direcwic.htm |title= De Scheepvaart en handel van de Nederlandse Republiek op Nieuw-Nederland 1609-1675| first= Jaap |last= Jacobs |access-date=2022-09-25 |archive-date=2022-09-25 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220925140407/https://rabbel.nl/direcwic.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Reynier Pauw II, [[Cornelis Bicker]], and [[Samuel Blommaert]] were appointed in 1622.<ref>[http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/besluitenstatengeneraal1576-1630/BesluitenStaten-generaal1626-1651/silva/sg/functies/113196 bewindhebber van de WIC ter Kamer Amsterdam]</ref>

==Organisation== [[File:Willem Usselinx (1567-na 1647). Koopman en stichter van de West Indische Compagnie Rijksmuseum SK-A-1675.jpeg|thumb|right|[[Willem Usselincx]], co-founder of the Dutch West India Company]] [[File:Delaware Bay Vinckeboons 14.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Zwaanendael Colony]] along the Delaware]][[File:Piet Hein.jpg|thumb|[[Piet Hein (Netherlands)|Piet Heyn]], GWC admiral who captured the Spanish silver fleet in 1628.]]

The ''Dutch West India Company'' was organised similarly to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Like the VOC, the GWC 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,<ref name="WDL2">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4068/ |title = 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 |website = wdl.org| publisher= [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1630 |access-date = 2013-07-28 |archive-date = 2021-07-02 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210702224806/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/4068/ |url-status = live }}</ref> as opposed to the Heeren XVII who controlled the East India company.) 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 [[Noorderkwartier|Northern Quarter]] ([[Hoorn]] and [[Enkhuizen]]), the Maas ([[Rotterdam]], [[Delft]], and [[Dordrecht]]), the region of [[Groningen]], and one representative from the [[States General of the Netherlands|States General]]. Each region had its own chamber and board of directors.<ref>{{cite book |last= van Groesen |first= Michiel |title= Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press |year= 2017 |location= Philadelphia |pages= 37–38}}</ref> 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.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 />{{rp|10–11}} 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 expense of ordinary shareholders".<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 />{{rp|12}} The VOC directors invested money in the GWC, without consulting their shareholders, causing dissent among a number of shareholders.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 />{{rp|12–13}} In order to attract foreign shareholders, the GWC offered equal standing to foreign investors with Dutch, resulting in shareholders from [[Kingdom of France|France]], [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Switzerland]], and [[Republic of Venice|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''.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 />{{rp|13}} By 1623, the capital for the GWC at 2.8 million florins was not as great the VOC's original capitalisation of 6.5 million, but it was still a substantial sum. The GWC had 15 ships to carry trade and plied the west African coast and Brazil.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 />{{rp|13–14}}

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 Empire|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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2021|title=Thematic Survey of Dutch Heritage Resources in the Greater Hudson Valley|url=https://online.fliphtml5.com/uyvk/zsfg/|access-date=January 26, 2026|website=New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation|pages=|page=17}}</ref> 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 [[Maritime hijacking|hijacking]] of enemy ships.<ref name= Klein-1965>{{cite book |last= Klein |first= P. W. |title= De Trippen in de 17e eeuw |year= 1965 | language= nl}}</ref>{{rp|150}} It is unclear whether the first expedition was the expedition by [[Jacques l'Hermite]] to the coast of [[Captaincy General of Chile|Chile]] and [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]], 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 Pieterszoon Hein|Piet Hein]]'s seizure of the [[Spanish silver fleet]], which carried silver from [[Spanish Empire|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.<ref name= JII-1982>{{cite book |last= Israel |first= Jonathan I. |author-link= Jonathan I. Israel |title= The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606-1661 |publisher= Clarendon Press |year= 1982 |location= Oxford}}</ref>{{rp|197}} Despite Heyn's success at plunder, the company's directors realised 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.<ref name= JII-1982 />{{rp|198–99}}

===Settlements in the Americas=== {{Further|Dutch Brazil|Dutch colonisation of the Guianas|New Netherland|New Netherland settlements}} 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, South Holland|Gouda]], along with Enkhuizen and Hoorn were enthusiastic about seizing territory. They sent a fleet to [[Portuguese Brazil|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.<ref name="JII-1982" />{{rp|201–02}} Company ships continued privateering in the Caribbean, as well seizing vital land resources, particularly salt pans.<ref name="JII-1982" />{{rp|203}} The company's general lack of success saw their shares plummet and the Dutch and the Spanish renewed truce talks in 1633.<ref name="JII-1982" />{{rp|204}}

In 1629, the GWC gave permission to a number of investors in [[New Netherland]] to found [[patroonships]], enabled by the [[Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions]] which was ratified by the [[States General of the Netherlands|Dutch States General]] on 7 June 1629. The patroonships were created to help populate the colony, by providing investors grants providing land for approximately 50 people "upwards of 15 years old", per grant, mainly in the region of New Netherland.<ref name="WDL2" /><ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4066/ |title = Conditions as Created by their Lords Burgomasters of Amsterdam |website = wdl.org| publisher= World Digital Library |year = 1656 |access-date = 2013-07-28 |archive-date = 2013-06-05 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130605151543/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4066/ |url-status = live }}</ref> Patroon investors could expand the size of their land grants as large as {{Convert|4|mi|abbr=on|order=flip|round=0.5}}, "along the shore or along one bank of a navigable river..." [[Rensselaerswyck]] was the most successful Dutch West India Company patroonship.<ref name="WDL2" />

[[File:FortsGoldküste.JPG|thumb|Forts of the [[Dutch Gold Coast]] (map circa 1700)]]

The [[New Netherland]] colony, which included [[New Amsterdam]], covered parts of present-day New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey,<ref name="WDL2" /> with Manhattan and [[Fort Amsterdam]] serving as the first capital.<ref name="jones17">{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Frederick Robertson |editor-last= Lee| editor-first= Guy Carleton |title=The colonisation of the middle states and Maryland |volume=IV |author-link= |publisher=George Barrie & Sons |year=1904 |isbn= |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofnortham0004unse/page/n11/mode/2up | page= 17}}</ref> Other settlements were established on the [[Netherlands Antilles]], and in South America; in Dutch Brazil, [[Dutch colonisation of the Guianas|Suriname and Guyana]].

In Africa, posts were established on the [[Dutch Gold Coast]] (now [[Ghana]]), the [[Dutch Slave Coast|Slave Coast]] (now [[Benin]]), and briefly in [[Dutch Loango-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, copper, and ivory.

In North America, the [[New Netherland settlements|settlers]] [[Albert Burgh]], Samuel Blommaert, [[Samuel Godijn]], and [[Johannes de Laet]] had little success with populating the colony of [[New Netherland]], and to defend themselves against local Amerindians. Only [[Kiliaen van Rensselaer (merchant)|Kiliaen Van Rensselaer]] managed to maintain his settlement in the north along the Hudson. Blommaert secretly tried to secure his interests with the founding of the colony of [[New Sweden]] on behalf of Sweden on the [[Delaware River|Delaware]] in the south. The main focus of the GWC now went to Brazil.

The GWC managed to [[Dutch–Portuguese War|conquer parts of Brazil from Portugal]] in 1630. That same year, the colony of [[Dutch Brazil|New Holland]] was founded, with a capital in [[Mauritsstad]] (present-day [[Recife]]). In the meantime, the war demanded so many of its forces that the company had to operate under a permanent threat of bankruptcy.<ref>{{cite book| last= den Heijer| first= H.| year= 1994| title= De geschiedenis van de GWC| language= nl| page= 97}}</ref> In fact, the GWC went bankrupt in 1636 and all attempts at rehabilitation were doomed to failure.<ref name= VanD-1970>{{cite book| authorlink= Johannes Gerard van Dillen | last= Dillen| first= J. G. van |year= 1970| title= Van Rijkdom en Regenten| language= nl}}</ref>{{rp|169}} In 1636, the GWC took possession of [[Sint Eustatius]], [[Sint Maarten]], and [[Saba (island)|Saba]] which all fell under Dutch control. A commander was stationed on St. Eustatius to govern all three islands by 1678.

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 reclined.<ref name= VanD-1970 />{{rp|127}} In 1645, the main participants in the GWC were members of the [[:nl:Trip (geslacht)|Trip family]].<ref name= Klein-1965 />{{rp|181}} 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.<ref name= Boxer-Dutch-1957 /> 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.

===Restart=== [[File:Johannes-vingboons-11-kasteel-elmina-en-fort-nassau-ghana.jpg|thumb|Painting by [[Johannes Vingboons]] of both [[Elmina Castle]] and [[Fort Nassau, Ghana]] (ca 1665)]]

Due to the [[Peace of Westphalia]], the attacks on Spanish shipping were forbidden to the GWC. The Portuguese succeeded in the [[recapture of Angola]]. Many merchants from Amsterdam and [[Zeeland]] decided to work with marine and merchants from the [[Holy Roman Empire]], [[Denmark–Norway]], [[Kingdom of England|England]], and other European countries. In 1649, a competing [[Swedish Africa Company]] was founded; the GWC obtained a monopoly on gold and enslaved Africans with the kingdom of [[Accra]] (present-day Ghana). [[Elmina Castle]] was the main port. In 1654, the Dutch were thrown out of [[Dutch Brazil|Brazil]] after the [[recapture of Recife]]. In 1656, the company signed the [[Treaty of Butre]] ([[Dutch Gold Coast]]). In 1659, the [[Danish West India Company]], an undercover Dutch enterprise, was founded.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Svensli |first= F. |title= 'Evil Disposed Netherlanders': The Dutch West India Company’s Opposition to Danish Activity on the Gold Coast, 1657–1662 |journal= Itinerario |volume= 42 |issue= 3 |publisher= 326-350 |year= 2018 |doi= 10.1017/S0165115318000578}}</ref> In 1660, the [[Royal African Company]] was founded, led by the [[James II of England|Duke of York]].

In 1662, the GWC obtained several ''[[Asiento de Negros|asiento]]'' subcontracts with the [[Monarchy of Spain|Spanish Crown]], under which the Dutch were allowed to deliver 24,000 enslaved Africans.<ref>{{cite journal |last= van Brakel |first= S. |title= Bescheiden over den slavenhandel der Westindische Compagnie |journal= Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek| language= de |volume= IV |year= 1918 |pages= 50, 67}}</ref> The GWC made [[Curaçao]] a centre of the [[Atlantic slave trade]], bringing slaves from West Africa to the island, before selling them elsewhere in the Caribbean and [[Spanish Main]].<ref name="The History of Curaçao">{{cite web |url=https://www.curacao-travelguide.com/about/history/ |title=The History of Curaçao| website=curacao-travelguide.com| publisher= |access-date= 15 July 2019}}</ref> The influence of the GWC in Africa was threatened during the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War|Second]] and [[Third Anglo-Dutch War|Third Anglo–Dutch Wars]], but English efforts to displace the Dutch from the region ultimately proved unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://focquenbroch.apud.net/wilre.htm |last= Binder |first= F. |title= Dirck Dircksz. Wilre en Willem Godschalk van Focquenbroch(?) Geschilderd door Pieter de Wit te Elmina in 1669 |language= nl |journal= Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum |volume= 27 |publisher= |year= 1979 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060517220722/http://focquenbroch.apud.net/wilre.htm |archive-date= 2006-05-17 |pages= 7–29 |via= focquenbroch.apud.net |access-date= 2026-01-03}}</ref>

The first West India Company suffered a long agony, and its end in 1674 was painless.<ref name= Klein-1965 />{{rp|182}} The reason that the GWC could drag on for 27 years seems to have been its valuable West African possessions, due to its slaves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Israel |first=Jonathan I. |title=Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |pages=164-165 |isbn=978-0198211396}}</ref>

==Second West India Company== {{slavery}}[[File:Gerrit Lamberts (1776-1850), Afb 010055000280.jpg|thumb|[[Gerrit Lamberts]] (1776–1850), the demolition of the West India House in 1817]]

When the GWC could not repay its debts in 1674, the company was dissolved. But due to continued high demand for trade between West Africa and the Dutch colonies in the Americas (mainly slave trade), a second West India Company known as the New West India Company was chartered that same year.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Law |first1=Robin |title=The Slave Trade in Seventeenth Century Allada: A Revision |journal=African Economic History |date=1994 |volume=22 |issue=22 |pages=76–77 |doi=10.2307/3601668 |jstor=3601668 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3601668 |access-date=27 August 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This new company controlled the same trade area as the first but privateering was no longer an asset. All ships, fortresses, etc. were taken over by the new company. Nobody was fired, but the number of directors was reduced from 19 to 10, and the number of governors from 74 to 50. By 1679, the new GWC had slightly more than {{nowrap|6 million}} guilders which was largely supplied by the Amsterdam Chamber. In 1687, due to the ''asiento'' possessed by [[:nl:Balthasar Coymans (1652-1686)|Balthasar Coymans]], the company paid the highest dividend.<ref name= VanD-1970 />{{rp|380}}

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 the replacement of the gold trade with enslaved Africans. [[Calabar]] was the largest slave trading place in Africa. [[Sint Eustatius]] (Dutch Caribbean) became the most profitable asset of the GWC and a transit point for enslaved Africans in the Atlantic slave trade. After 1734 the GWC was primarily engaged in facilitating the slave trade,<ref>{{cite book |last= Boon |first= D. |title= Nederlandse relaties met Ashanti Het perspectief van de Tweede West-Indische Compagnie, 1750–1772 |year= 2015 |pages= 29–30}}</ref> and only responsible for the supply of slaves until 1738.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.zeegeschiedenis.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2013_2_klein.pdf |last= Fatah-Black |first= Karwan |title= Smokkelhandel en slavenhandel in Suriname gedurende de ondergang van de Nederlandse macht op zee, 1780-1795 |website= zeegeschiedenis.nl |date= |page= 42 |language= nl| access-date= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.vpro.nl/speel~POMS_VPRO_362547~kooplieden-kapers-en-kolonisten-11-de-ondergang-het-spoor-terug~.html |title= Het Spoor Terug: Kooplieden, kapers en kolonisten 11: De ondergang |website= vpro.nl |date= 1998-04-12 |access-date= }}</ref> The company then began to outsource the slave trade and left it to [[private enterprise]], especially in [[Middelburg, Zeeland]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.zeeuwsarchief.nl/themapagina/slavenreis-van-de-eenigheid/de-reis-geschiedenis/ |title= De West-Indische Compagnie |website= zeeuwsarchief.nl |language= nl |date= |access-date= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Notulen van de edel mogende heeren Staten van Zeelandt |date= |via= Google Books |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ENSTPs5kvycC&dq=West+Indische+Compagnie+1775+slaven&pg=RA9-PA1 |language= nl |access-date= }}</ref>

In 1750, [[Thomas Hope (banker, born 1704)|Thomas Hope]] was elected to the board of the company, but preferred the [[Heren XVII]] after two years; he was succeeded by [[Nicolaas Geelvinck]] in 1764.  In 1773, when drinking coffee and cocoa was popular almost everywhere, the family [[Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck]] sold its property in the [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|colony of Surinam]]. The GWC participated in a bigger share together with the [[Society of Suriname]]. Many planters in Surinam and the Caribbean came into financial trouble because of the mortgages ([[British credit crisis of 1772–1773|crisis of 1772]]); the demand for slaves dropped.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates |title= Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Estimates |website= slavevoyages.org |date= |access-date= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/kabinet-koning-excuses-slavernijverleden?share=yTiQ%2BXjZNZTZEDc%2Fb6lhVjio%2BAYkyuXUsA%2FvmLCKtZYo7nfM%2FDkLehOB&s=03 |title= Bankiers als aanjagers van slavernij in de 18de eeuw door Roel Janssen |website= ftm.nl| language= nl |date= |access-date= }}</ref> In 1775, the last slave ship entered the port of [[Willemstad]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Emmer |first= P.C. |title= De Nederlandse slavenhandel 1500-1850 |date= |via= Google Books |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rT11AAAAQBAJ&dq=West+Indische+Compagnie+1775+slaven&pg=PT49 |access-date= }}</ref>

After the [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War]] (1780–1784), it became apparent that the GWC was no longer capable of defending its own colonies, as Sint Eustatius, [[Berbice]], [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]], [[Demerara]], and some forts on the Dutch Gold Coast were rapidly taken by the British. From 1780 on, the company made losses and paid no [[dividend]]. In 1781, the annual production of the Essequibo and Demerara colonies was 10,000 ''[[Dutch units of measurement#Okshoofd|okshoofden]]'' (2.3m [[Litre|liters]]) of sugar, 5 million ''[[Dutch units of measurement#Pond|ponden]]'' (2.5k [[Tonne|metric tonnes]]) coffee, and 800,000 ponden (395 metric tonnes) cotton.<ref name="surrender">{{cite news |url=https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/view?objectsearch=jaar&coll=ddd&resultsidentifier=ddd:010200005:mpeg21:a0008&page=1&identifier=ddd:010200005:mpeg21:a0006&facets%5Btype%5D%5B%5D=artikel&facets%5Bperiode%5D%5B%5D=1%7C18e_eeuw%7C1780-1789%7C |title=Middelburgsche courant |website=Middelburgsche courant via Delpher |date=1 May 1781 |language=nl |access-date=6 May 2026}}</ref>

In 1791, it was decided not to renew the patent to the GWC and to dissolve the company. All stocks were sold and territories previously held by the GWC came under the rule of the [[States General of the Netherlands]]. A directorate Ad-Interim took over the administration. A Council of Colonies was established as administrator over the affairs of the GWC until 1795.<ref>[https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/1.05.02 1.05.02 Inventaris van het archief van de Directie ad Interim, [1791-1792]; Raad der Koloniën, [1792-1795], (1773) 1791-1795 (1796)]</ref>

Around 1800, there was an attempt to create a third West India Company, but without success.

==See also== {{portal|Netherlands|New York City|Suriname|Companies}} * [[List of Dutch West India Company trading posts and settlements]] * [[Atlantic slave trade]] *[[Curazao]] * [[Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions]] * [[Dutch colonisation of the Americas]] * [[Dutch–Portuguese War]] * [[Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)]] * [[List of director generals of New Netherland]] * [[New Holland (Acadia)]]

==Notes== {{reflist|group=nb}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== {{Div col}} * {{cite book |last1=Ebert |first1=Christopher |chapter=Dutch Trade with Brazil before the Dutch West India Company, 1587–1621 |title=Riches from Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping |date=1 January 2003|pages=1585–1817 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-47477-2 |doi= 10.1163/9789004474772_012 |url=https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/9789004474772/B9789004474772_s012.pdf |access-date= |language=en }} * {{cite journal |last= Emmer |first= Pieter C. |title= The West India Company, 1621–1791: Dutch or Atlantic? |journal= Companies and trade: Essays on overseas trading companies during the ancien régime |year= 1981 |pages= 71–95}} * {{cite book |last= Emmer |first= Pieter C. |title= The Dutch in the Atlantic economy, 1580-1880: Trade, slavery and emancipation |volume= 614 |publisher= Variorum |year= 1998}} * {{cite book |last= Frijhoff |first= W. Th. M. |title= The West India Company and the Reformed Church: Neglect or Concern? |year= 1997}} * {{cite book |editor-last= van Groesen |editor-first= Michiel |title= The Legacy of Dutch Brazil |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2014}} * {{cite book |last= Heijer |first= Henk den |editor-last1= Postma |editor-first1= Johannes |editor-last2= Enthoven |editor-first2= Victor |chapter= The Dutch West India Company, 1621–1791 |title= Riches From Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping, 1585-1817 |publisher= Brill |year= 2003 |location= Leiden |pages= 77–114}} * {{cite book |last= Heijer |first= Henk den |editor-last1= Postma |editor-first1= Johannes |editor-last2= Enthoven |editor-first2= Victor |chapter= The Dutch West India Company, 1621–1791 |title= The West African Trade of the Dutch West Indian Company 1674-1740 |publisher= Brill |year= 2003 |location= Leiden |pages= 139–69}} * {{cite book |last= Klooster |first= Wim |title= The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World |publisher= Cornell University Press |year= 2016}} * 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. * {{cite book|last=Nederlof|first=Marjo|title=Eerlijckman — 1680–1713: in dienst van het Staatse leger en de West-Indische Compagnie|year=2008|publisher=De Curaçaosche Courant|location=Curaçao|isbn=9789990408201}} *{{cite book |title= Peltries or plantations: the economic policies of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, 1623-1639 |publisher= Johns Hopkins Press |year= 1969 |location= Baltimore}} * {{cite journal |last= Pijning |first= Erst |editor-last1= Macinnes |editor-first1= Allen L. |editor-last2= William |editor-first2= Arthur H. |title= Idealism and Power: The Dutch West India Company in the Brazil trade (1630-1654) |journal= Shaping the Stuart World, 1603–1714: The Atlantic Connection |publisher= Brill |year= 2006 |location= Leiden |pages= 207–32}} * {{cite journal |last= Postma |first= Johannes |title= West-African Exports and the Dutch West India Company, 1675–1731 |journal= Economisch-en sociaal-historisch jaarboek |year= 1973| volume= 36}} * {{cite journal |last1=Postma |first1=Johannes |title=The dimension of the Dutch slave trade from Western Africa |journal=The Journal of African History |date=April 1972 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=237–248 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700011440 |jstor= |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/dimension-of-the-dutch-slave-trade-from-western-africa1/5B2D3FB7D18EB6DEF7767C6220B9C849 |access-date= |language=en |issn=1469-5138|url-access=subscription }} * {{cite journal |last= Rink |first= Oliver A. |title= Private Interest and Godly Gain: The West India Company and the Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland, 1624-1664 |journal= New York History |volume= 75 |issue= 3 |year= 1994 |page= 245}} {{ProQuest|1816961}} * {{cite journal |last1=Ryder |first1=Alan Frederick Charles|title=Dutch Trade on the Nigerian Coast During the Seventeenth Century |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |date=1965 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=195–210 |doi= |jstor =41971157|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41971157 |access-date= |issn=0018-2540}} * {{cite book |last= Rutten |first= Alphons MG |title= Dutch transatlantic medicine trade in the eighteenth century under the cover of the West India Company |publisher= Erasmus Pub |year= 2000}} * {{cite book |last= Schmidt |first= Benjamin |title= Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570-1670 |publisher= University Press |year= 2001 |location= Cambridge |isbn= 978-0-521-80408-0}} * {{cite book |last= Van den Boogaart |first= Ernst |title= Infernal Allies: The Dutch West India Company and the Tarairiu, 1631-1654 |year= 1980}} * {{cite journal |last= Van Hoboken |first= W. J. |title= The Dutch West India Company: the political background of its rise and decline |journal= Britain and the Netherlands |year= 1960 |pages= 41–61}} * {{cite book |last= Visscher |first= Nic Joh |title= 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 |publisher= Muller |year= 1867}} * {{cite book |last= Weslager |first= Clinton Alfred |title= Dutch explorers, traders and settlers in the Delaware Valley, 1609-1664 |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press |year= 1961}} * {{cite book |last= Zandvliet |first= Kees |title= Mapping for money: maps, plans, and topographic paintings and their role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries |publisher= Batavian Lion International |year= 1998 |location= Amsterdam}} {{Div col end}}

==External links== {{Sister project links|s=Charter of the Dutch West India Company|commons=Category:West-Indische Compagnie|wikt=no|b=no|q=no|n=no|v=no}} {{EB1911 poster|Dutch West India Company, The}} * [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 * [http://www.s4ulanguages.com/wic.html Facsimile of 15 GWC books] Relating about the events in Brazil in the 17th century (PT & NL) * [http://geneaknowhow.net/in/schepen/overig-schepen/halve-maan-replica.html The GWC ship the Halve Maan] * [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/westind.asp Charter of the Dutch West India Company], 1621 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223653/http://www.atlasgeo.net/fotw/flags/nl-indch.html Netherlands West India Company GWC] * [http://www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl/en/ Atlas of Mutual Heritage], online atlas of VOC and GWC settlements

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