The Defeat of the Peruvian Fleet by Joris van Speilbergen (1614–17)

Already at the time of the Mahu and van Noort expeditions, the States-General had begun to urge that similar commercial enterprises should merge, or coordinate their efforts, with a view to attaining a greater Dutch share of trade. This was achieved in 1602 with the creation of the East India Company, which had been granted a monopoly charter over Dutch trade eastwards via the Cape of Good Hope and westwards from the Straits of Magellan, initially for a period of 21 years. However, although the Dutch were to continue to advance in both directions, to the west this was limited to the Caribbean, the Guiana coast and Brazil for more than a decade. In fact, in the years immediately following the foundation of the company, there had developed a struggle for supremacy between Willem Usselincx, another refugee from the south, proposer of schemes for Dutch expansion in the West Indies and leader of a group generally referred to as the ‘war party’, and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt who directed the ‘peace party’ towards the conclusion of some form of understanding with Spain.

Cape · Charter · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Geography · Merge (version control) · Monopoly · Political science · Refugee · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law