Suriname Law Firm
The law firm of Suriname ( nl : Geoctroyeerde Sociëteit van Suriname) was founded on May 21, 1683 as the new owner of the Suriname colony . This society consisted of three partners, the West India Company (WIC), the city of Amsterdam and Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijk (also: Sommelsdijck, member of the van Aerssen family , which at that time was still one of the richest in the Netherlands) . According to the contractual agreement, the partnership members each share a third of both the profits and the costs of the colony. The basis for the administrative organization of Suriname remained the commercial patent of September 23, 1682 originally issued by the States General (nl: Staten Generaal ) of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands for the WIC. This Octroi or Charter of Suriname regulated in 32 articles a. a. the administrative organization and the relationship with the republic. It was to last with changes until the Suriname Society was dissolved in 1795.
history
The province of Zeeland as the conqueror of Suriname under Abraham Crijnssen had argued with the States General about ownership for fifteen years and Zeeland had stubbornly refused to place Suriname under the care of the financially troubled “First WIC” since 1669. A solution was not found until 1682 and Zeeland agreed to surrender its rights to Suriname for 260,000 guilders to the "Second WIC", which had been founded in the meantime. Since the WIC was not able to raise the required 260,000 guilders within the agreed short period, another solution was sought. The WIC found two partners in the city of Amsterdam and in Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, each of whom shared a third of the amount of the assignment, and so the Geoctroyeerde Sociëteit van Suriname was founded in May 1683 . In the founding act was u. a. agreed that a share could only be given with the consent of the other partners. Van Sommelsdijck was supposed to go to Suriname as governor , but he was revocabel - that is, accessible. However, his heirs should in principle be given preference when appointing governors. Although the slave trade was originally to remain with the WIC, a transitional regulation changed this. In the next three years, with a possible extension, the slave trade was transferred to the firm. However, for every slave sold an amount of 15 guilders had to be paid to the WIC. As a result, the city of Amsterdam and van Sommelsdijck now also appeared as slave traders.
Since Amsterdam had been designated as the meeting place for the society, the first meeting of the newly founded society took place on June 3, 1683 in the West India House. Koenraad van Klenck, Gillis Sautijn and Cornelis Valckenier for the city of Amsterdam, Isaac van Heuvel and Paulus Godin for the WIC (Chamber of Amsterdam) were present as directors. Van Sommelsdijck also attended the meeting with the Amsterdam merchant Philips van Hulten. Van Hulten was also to act as director and agent of van Sommelsdijck. During the meeting, u. a. decided that 300 military men should accompany van Sommelsdijck to Suriname.
Due to the strong influence of the city of Amsterdam in both the West Indian company and the law firm, Suriname had practically become a colony of the city of Amsterdam.
On September 3, 1683, van Sommelsdijck sailed from Texel as the first governor and partner of the newly founded partnership for Suriname. Here he took over the administration of the Staten van Zeeland in November 1683 . Initially, however, not in the name of the firm, but for the WIC. The residents and the military then had to take the oath of allegiance to the republic and the WIC to governor van Sommelsdijck .
Although the WIC was the patron of Suriname, the administration was in the hands of the governor as the most influential partner of the newly founded partnership. The formal rule of the WIC ended on October 5th, 1686, when the States General transferred power over Suriname to the society.
In May 1686, on the other hand, after the three-year period, the monopoly over the slave trade fell back from the partnership to the WIC. However, as the WIC failed to meet its obligations, the last time it had been agreed that 2,500 slaves should be delivered to Suriname per year, the partnership decided in 1738 to open the slave trade to Suriname for private slave traders.
The term of office of Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck ended violently on July 19, 1688, when mutinous soldiers shot the governor, who was not exactly considered diplomatic and squeamish. His wife Marguérite, née du Puy de Saint-André- Montbrun , who remained in the Netherlands, tried to sell her stake in the partnership shortly after her husband's death. It took until 1770 before François Cornelis van Aarssen van Sommelsdijk was able to transfer his share to the city of Amsterdam for the sum of 700,000 guilders. Thus, the Suriname law firm only had two partners, the city of Amsterdam and the WIC.
After the West India Company got more and more into financial problems, the States General decided on May 27, 1791 to abolish the company. The estates and debts were taken over by the States General.
The management of the partnership and the administration of the old colonies were then transferred to the “Council over the colonies in America and over the possessions in Africa” in The Hague . In fact, there were only two permanent protectorates left, that of the firm of Suriname and that of the firm or directorate of Berbice , which were also not affected by the liquidity of the WIC.
The Suriname firm had a short period of time until 1795 before it was definitively dissolved. After a century of conflict, especially between the planting elite, the changing governors and the law firm, direct power over Suriname was transferred to the Dutch state.
Population and plantations
Since after the October 1682 an annual bounty of 50 pounds of sugar had to be paid by the colonists to the society, a population of 489 Christians with 2,254 African slaves and 83 locals as well as 163 Jews (see also: Jodensavanne ) became for the year 1684 972 African slaves and 23 locals identified. A bounty was raised for a total of 3,984 people.
At the end of van Sommelsdijck's tenure in 1688, there were 75 to 100 sugar cane plantations in operation.
The height of the plantation economy was between 1760 and 1770. In 1765 after Amsterdam and Rotterdam :
- 10,000 tons of sugar
- 70,000 tons of coffee , cultivated since 1720,
- 100 tons of cocoa , cultivated since 1733,
- 50 tons of cotton , has been planted since 1735,
executed with a total value of 15 million guilders.
In 1791, four years before the partnership was dissolved, the Surinaamse Almanac still registered 563 plantations.
In 1790 the population consisted of around 5,000 free people, 1,760 of them so-called colored people (former slaves bought free and declared free) and in 1795 the slave population was determined to be 48,155 people. The majority of the slaves worked on coffee plantations.
Fortifications
In the period from 1683 to 1795, Suriname had the following main defenses against attempts at conquest from outside:
- Fort Zeelandia ( captured by the English, then Fort Willoughby ),
- Fort Sommelsdijck (completed in 1685, called Fort Cottica until 1688, at the confluence of the Commewijne and the Cottica ),
- Fire watch (1685, laid out as back cover for Fort Sommelsdijck and as an observation post against enemy landing troops on the Motkreek , Atlantic ),
- Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam (completed in 1747, at the confluence of the Suriname and Commewijne),
- Redoute Purmerend (around 1747, opposite Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam, built as a support fort),
- Redoute Leiden (laid out around 1755, on Commewijne opposite Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam)
See also
literature
- CFA Bruijning and J. Voorhoeve, (main editors): Encyclopedie van Suriname . Elsevier , Amsterdam a. Brussel 1977, ISBN 90-10-01842-3 , p. 60 u. 61.
- Hans Buddingh ': Geschiedenis van Suriname . Het Spectrum, Utrecht 2000 (3rd edition), ISBN 90-274-6762-5 .
- Karwan Fatah-Black: Sociëteit van Suriname 1683-1795. Het bestuur van de kolonie in de achttiende eeuw . Walburg Pers, Zutphen 2019, ISBN 978-94-6249-162-5
- GW van der Meiden: Betwist Bestuur. Een eeuw strijd om de macht in Suriname 1651-1753 . De Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam 1987, ISBN 90-6707-133-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ StarNieuws, July 1, 2015 Dutch, accessed July 2, 2015