THE SURVIVAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM

I first came to live in New Amsterdam in the year 1628 after having spent several years sailing on Dutch vessels between Africa, Brazil and the Netherlands. I was not yet twenty. I had heard that when the first wave of settlers had arrived 4 years ago they were overwhelmed by the bounty of the land. There had been no starvation among them their first year, only wanting for cows, hogs, and other cattle fit to eat and that had come the following spring. The town was small to say the least, only about three hundred people. It was merely an entrepot for the Dutch West India Company. One of the first things the company did was build a fort at the southern tip of Manhattan- not so much for the protection from Indians, but more importantly as a defensive center against their enemy-- Spain. As settlers we were told that we had to obey company rules—where to live, what to plant, and where to go if we were needed for a special project. Early on there were complaints by company officials that some us who had not been contracted to perform manual labor, expected too much in the way of free food and shelter while we got rich on the fur trade. They saw some us as a rough lot that had to be forced to work. Most of us remember being told that we could expect other things: cheap livestock, easy credit for the purchase of supplies, freedom of worship and after six years of service to the company, free land on which to settle. It soon became apparent that since the WIC had a monopoly on all trade going in and out of the area, it would not make sense for them to go to the expense of attempting to house and feed a growing number of colonists, especially colonists who might want more land and might interact unfavorably with the Indians. They were there simply to reap the profits from the furs and fishing and not to plant a colony. I had had other ideas.

As a consequence the colony grew slowly and so did the hopes of individual entrepreneurs expecting to make great profits. After 2-3 years of high expenses and little or no profit, investors in the Dutch West India Company were looking for a way out and an opportunity to concentrate on their more profitable holdings in Brazil and the West Indies. The fact that in Holland religious tolerance and peace existed did not help to encourage immigration. I wondered what would happen next.

But in 1628, our Dutch Admiral Piet Heyn made a major heist, capturing a Spanish treasure fleet worth 15 million guilders, more that enough to pay dividends to the WIC investors. The company was persuaded to give New Netherlands a second chance.

The Freedom and Exemptions of 1629 was the first major attempt by the WIC to attract large numbers to the colony. The company agreed to give large tracts of land, estates, to “patroons” who would purchase the land from the Indians. In return they agreed to develop the land by bringing over 50 or more settlers at their expense. The patroon had to provide a farm already stocked, a school and a minister for each of his settlements. In turn his tenants would be virtual serfs and required to remain on the land for 10 years. The patroons would have legal rights to settle all capital cases as well, in effect, making them manorial lords. However, the company insisted on maintaining its monopoly on the fur and fishing trade. There were not many takers until a 1630 revision gave the patroons the opportunity to engage in these trades, a company decision mostly driven by the pressure on the fur trade as a result of an ever expanding population of British settlers and traders. The Hudson Valley was soon dotted with Dutch estates.

Still, over the next decade little was done to encourage Dutch settlement of the colony even as British populations continued to encroach on our northern and southern extremities. What now I wondered would save us from abandonment? The answer came in yet another revision of the Freedoms and Exemptions.

Holland had just experience the collapse of the Tulip Mania, an inflation driven craze that had made a great fortune for many. When prices for tulips suddenly collapsed, many were driven into bankruptcy and many more into unemployment. What were they going to do with Holland's indigent? Knowing that little had really been done to expand and encourage growth of New Netherlands, the leaders of Holland threatened to take over the WIC. In response the Freedoms and Exemptions were again reworked. Now emigrants could come here with the promise of free transport, 200 acres, and a schoolmaster for their children. Trade was open to all nations subject to import and export duties. Did these enticements save our colony? You will have to ask Willem Kieft, our next governor. We were four hundred of us at the time.


SOURCES:




Burrows, Edwin G. , and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.




Rink, Oliver A. Holland on the Hudson: A Economic and Social History of Dutch New York. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986.