Minutes of empire : Dutch West India Company politics, 1618-1648 / Alexander B. Bick

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bick, Alexander B., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

West-Indische Compagnie (Netherlands)--History--17th century.

West-Indische Compagnie (Netherlands).

Corporate meetings--History--17th century.

Corporate meetings.

Atlantic Ocean Region--Commerce--Netherlands.

Atlantic Ocean Region.

Netherlands--Commerce--Atlantic Ocean Region.

Netherlands.

Commerce.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (chiefly color), color map

illustration

maps

polychrome

Other Title:

Dutch West India Company politics, 1618-1648

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

"In September 1645, as news of a revolt in Dutch Brazil reached Europe, the directors of the West India Company gathered for a meeting that would determine the fate of their burgeoning imperial project in the New World. Minutes of Empire tells the story of this meeting. Drawing readers into the boardroom of one of history’s most enigmatic trading companies, it exposes a hidden world of early modern corporate politics and challenges conventional accounts of how the Dutch Republic rose to commercial preeminence in the heart of the Golden Age. Chartered by the States General in 1621, the West India Company’s principal aim was to open a new front in the struggle against Habsburg Spain by attacking its colonial revenues at their source. This required deep and enduring cooperation between the company and the central organs of the Dutch state. Rather than the merchant-dominated venture of popular imagination, the company emerges as an instrument of war in which noblemen and courtiers played a decisive role. Through portraits of figures such as Hendrick van der Capellen and Johannes de Laet, the book reveals how the company and its leaders wrestled with fundamental questions of political authority, colonial governance, and the relationship between private enterprise and public power. Minutes of Empire shows how conquest abroad helped to unify and strengthen a fragmented polity at home—and why the West India Company’s failure to hold Brazil ultimately mattered less than its contribution to securing the Dutch Republic’s independence from Spain in 1648"-- Oxford Academic

Contents:

Introduction : Into the boardroom

Setting the agenda

The delegations

Urgent business

Concerning the government in Brazil

Concerning the slave trade from Angola

Calculating the value of the New World

Conclusion : The empire makes the state

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed August 20, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Bick, Alexander B. Minutes of empire

ISBN:

9780197582862

0197582869

9780197582848

0197582842

9780197582855

0197582850

OCLC:

1574209878

Publisher Number:

CIPO000355240

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license