History of Zeeland in the World

Exploring the World from Zeeland A D , G H , K B, D G (.)

Table of contents P N A I Arjan van Dixhoorn T M C C S : A D C Jurian Sandvoort E T A D : M C C B D L G C Martijn Tijs P V E M E : C M David van Gelder T M C C W I C O : F T D H K Lisa Bosma T “G R ” S. E A D : C I S R Cecilia Uitermark T W C C : K - - - A W Koen van der Blij A A B : G G N B B Meta Huijsmans S Y : K W N Matija Kaji

T W W W : E A C M Gerjanne Hoek V H Z : “D ” Z F Alexandra Navarro Garcia T O M : I I S Daphne Blanker T I ’ H : R S E C D P Alec Cornelissen V G C B : R - G ’ “ T C ” Alexandra Navarro Garcia “D Y T Y F ”: F Z T L ( - ) Jeanine M.D. Verkade B I

Notes on Authors D B (Heerlen, ) graduated from UCR in , majoring in political science and law, with a full track in history. She then enrolled in the master’s program in Crisis and Security Management at Leiden University. She hopes to continue her study of the history of tourism in archives of Zeeland in the future. K B (Te Hague, ) is a student at University College Roosevelt, expected to graduate in the summer of with a major in History and Philosophy and a minor in Economics. He is currently () working on a methodology to interpret the th century bookkeeping of the Middelburgse Commercie Compagnie . He plans to continue his studies in a graduate program in Economic History in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. L B (Heerenveen, ) completed her BA in social sciences with a minor in history at UCR in . She is doing an MA in Comparative Politics, Public Administration and Society at Radboud University in Nijmegen, hoping to graduate in . Coming from a small village in Friesland and then living in Zeeland for three years has peaked her interest in the political and human geographical dimensions of local history. A C graduated from University College Roosevelt (UCR) in . He majored in Art History and Film, Teatre and Media. He is enrolled in the two-year research master’s program Art in the Low Countries at Utrecht University. A D (Terneuzen, ) holds a PhD in History from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (). He was a postdoctoral fellow at Ant- werp University (VNC) and Ghent University (FWO) from -, and a Fulbright Junior Scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles in /. He is a Special Professor of History at Utrecht University appointed by the Familiefonds Hurgronje and has taught history at UCR since .

D G (Haarlem, ) graduated (cum laude) from UCR in with a major in the Social Sciences (Human Geography and Economics), and minors in History and Methods & Statistics. After his graduation he took a gap year to travel in South-East Asia. He plans to enrol in a Human Geography research master’s program in the Netherlands or abroad in . G H (Wijnjewoude, ) graduated as a History, Intern ational Relations and English Linguistics major from UCR in . She is now following the master’s program International Relations in His torical Perspective at Utrecht University, and is studying Russian at the Utrecht U niversity Language Institute. M H (Breda, ) graduated from UCR in with majors in History and Philosophy. She is currently () doing a History MA in Holo- caust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She acquired her rst experience in working with historical sources at the Zeeuws Archief both as a student and an employee. M K is an MA student at Utrecht University pursuing a Legal Re- search degree, alongside her work as a research assistant at RENFORCE, the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement and at UCWOSL, the Utrecht Centre for Water Oceans and Sustainability Law. Born in Zagreb, Croatia (), she has pursued higher education in the Netherlands, graduating from UCR in with a double major in Law and Politics and a minor in History. A N G is a Portuguese national born and raised in Belgium, Brussels (), where she attended the European school of Brus- sels II. In she graduated from UCR, majoring in History and Art History. She completed a master’s in Modern Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art (Lon- don), graduating in . She is currently () living in Portugal, Lisbon and hopes to pursue a career in the art world, possibly in the editorial domain. J S (Amsterdam, ) graduated from University College Roosevelt in with a major in History and Art History and a minor in Po- litical Science. After nishing UCR, he was accepted into the master’s program Media Studies Film and Photography, which he will start in February . He is currently doing an internship with an editing and production company.

M T (Utrecht, ) graduated from UCR in , with an inter- departmental major in History, Linguistics and Economics. He then enrolled in the master’s program in International Journalism at the University of Gron- ingen. Following an internship at the Dutch national daily newspaper de Volk- skrant , he obtained his MA in July . C U holds a Bachelor of Arts of UCR (), with majors in History and Political Science. In she joined a -month European Vol- untary Service (EVS) project in Ferrol (Spain), working at a non-prot organi- zation called Xeración. She aims to obtain her master’s degree in the eld of indigenous studies (either in Canada or Norway). J M .D. V graduated from UCR in with Psychology and Anthropology as her majors. She then moved to South Africa and Israel, working with children in orphan care, disability centres and hospitals / rst aid units. She is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in Child Development for Developing Countries at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Introduction A D On the th of July, , at Christie’s Old Master Pictures a uction (sale ), a small painting, oil on canvas, attributed t o the painter Adriaen Verdoel was sold for , pounds. It is now in an unknown private collection. Te work was signed “A.verdoel.Fcit Anno. ” on the plinth of a statue of Hope at the centre of the painting. Te au ction catalogue describes it as: A capriccio of a Mediterranean harbour with merchants, an elegant couple on the quayside, before a statue of Hope and a baroque church, a lighthouse, a Dutch man-o-war, and other shipping beyond, . 1 Te baroque church has been identied as a highly re alistic representation of the Oostkerk of Middelburg; its re-location to a Me diterranean harbour is only one of the various surprises. Te elegant couple, for example, is accompanied by a young black servant in red livery. A group of thre e men, two of whom may be captains and the other a more elegantly dressed you ng man, are grouped around a man with a turban in oriental dress, reading and m aybe discussing a letter. In the near distance in the middle of the harbour a fu lly armoured frigate is an- chored which is ying the Dutch ag from its stern a nd what appears to be the ag of the city of Middelburg, red with a castle in yellow. Activities surrounding the ship on the water and on land indicate that it i s being prepared for its next voyage. Beyond it, across the harbour a Mediterranea n landscape unfolds with buildings, a lighthouse, and in the distance a risi ng mountain top. Across the wa- ter into the sea ships under sail are leaving and a galley is approaching. Towards the church, behind the statue of Hope, a ship under sail and a smaller ship are 1 Christie’s Images/ Bridgman Images no. CH. Wrongly attributed to Adriaen Verdoel I who died in .

docked. Two men are carrying a bag and a barrel towards a sloop waiting to leave for the Dutch frigate. Te barrel and several bags a nd packages are marked with the letters FC and numbers (which, for expert viewer s, could point to the freight list that one of the sailors in the sloop may be ho lding in his hand). Te realism of the scene contrasts with its obviously unrealistic elements, suggesting that this capriccio was given additional symbolic meaning. Te Oostkerk for instance has become a Mediterranean church. Te realistic en- trance of the church has been extended with a rising open structure on red marble pillars and a tympanum carrying an (illegible) text and three statues: two classical gures (possibly philosophers or apostles) and on top a male gure with a pilgrim’s-sta accompanied by a dog (possibly a reference to St Rochus). Moreover, two obelisks are rising between the open hall and the statue of Hope. Apart from their size, they are strikingly reminiscent of the small obelisks that in reality are part of the stairs leading to the main entrance of the Oostkerk. Finally, a man who seems to be a beggar is seated in the shadow of a building to the left, with a cannon barrel to his right. Te entire setting of a Middelburg building which itself is referencing classical antiquity, in a cityscape loaded with more references to that paradigm of wealth, power and splendour, combined with references to poverty and war on the one hand and foreign trade on the other, is most certainly meant to invoke reections on the part of the viewer. Te statue of Hope in the middle embodies these contrasting and paradoxical themes: on its pedestal two satyrs are pouring water into a basin of which two sides show scenes of warfare. Te re-location of Middelburg and its trade to a classicizing landscape, in combination with the statue of Hope, could very well be symbolizing the hope for prosperity through foreign trade, for himself, his family and his city, of the unknown commissioner of the painting. Te presence of the initials FC on barrels and pack ages may well be an indica- tion for the identity of this patron. It is unlikel y that such initials had been added if the painting had been produced for the market. Te O ostkerk and the references to foreign trade add further clues that the paintin g must have been commissioned in Middelburg. Given the fact that the painting was signed by Adriaen Verdoel in , it must have been produced by Verdoel II (his father died in ). Verdoel I was active in Vlissingen, but the son became a me mber of the guild of St Luke in Middelburg in . His capriccio belongs to a g enre of architectural fantasy pioneered by mid-seventeenth century Italian painte rs. It combines actual and c- tional buildings, ancient ruins and statues in fant astical scenes. Verdoel junior’s

capriccio may have been inspired by similar capricc io-paintings of his Amsterdam colleague Abraham Storck. As the painting was made in Middel burg in with a strong reference to the city, we can assume that its patron must be sought in the Middelburg scene of wealthy ship-owners and merchan ts.2 Fortunately, the initials FC are not too common in the commercial world of Middelburg around . In fact, the only likely candidate seems to be the Middelburg ship-owner, merchant and fabricant Francois Christiaensen (- ). He was a well-connected gure, who in was in a business associa- tion with Johan Boudaen Courten and Johan Walrand Sandra. He produced and sold gunpowder, had a bookkeeping oce, and was engaged in privateer- ing and in illicit trade on the African coast. He was also active in the Mediter- ranean trade and in he was a co-founder and rst member of the Directie van de Levantsche Handel , a new corporation modelled on similar ones in Am- sterdam and Rotterdam, meant to stimulate Middelburg’s trade in the Medi- terranean. What is more, he co-owned a ship with his cousin Pieter de la Ruë senior. Coincidence or not, this ship was called de Hoop.3 If the wider context is taken into account, the capriccio can be seen as an ex- pression of the aspirations of the cluster of a few dozen families that dominated economic, political, cultural and even religious life of Middelburg (and by ex- tension Zeeland, the Dutch Republic, the wider North Sea region and even parts of the world) at the time. A similar aspiration was certainly expressed in the founding documents of the Commercie Compagnie der stad Middelburg (now known under its VOC- and WIC-inspired acronym the MCC). Te com- pany was incorporated by the city of Middelburg on July , , during the height of the South Sea Bubble, upon the initiative of a group of local mer- 2 See A. Jager, ‘“Galey-schilders” en “dosijnwerck”: De productie, distributie en consumptie van goedkope historiestukken in zeventiende-eeuws Amsterdam’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, ), -; Adriaan van der Willigen and Fred Meijer, A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters working in oils, - (Leiden: Primavera Press, ), ; A. Bredius, ‘De gildeboeken van St. Lucas te Middelburg’, Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis , (-), -, esp. -. I owe these references to Pepijn Suurmeijer’s ‘Adriaen Verdoel II, the Forgotten Paulus Potter. Lost in the Shadow of his Father’ (Undergraduate research paper, UCR Middelburg, ). 3 Johan Francke, “Utiliteyt voor de gemeene saake.” De Zeeuwse commissievaart en haar achterban tijdens de Negenjarige Oorlog, - (Middelburg: KZGW, ), - ; M. van der Bijl, Idee en Interest. Voorgeschiedenis, verloop en achtergronden van de politieke twisten in Zeeland en vooral in Middelburg tussen en (Groningen: Wolters-Noordho, ), in particular appendix XVIII: genealogy of the De la Rue, Christiaense-Van de Putte families.

chants. Hermanus Christiaensen, son of the probable patron of the Verdoel capriccio, Pieter de la Ruë sr (cousin of his father Francois Christiaensen), and Hermanus van de Putte (uncle of Hermanus Christiaensen, brother-in-law of his father Francois), were among the initiators of the project.4 Unlike most of the projects that were initiated in on both sides of the North Sea in England, Holland, and Zeeland, the MCC survived the collapse of the Bubble and became deeply embedded in the economy of the island of Wal- cheren and in the labour markets of the region. Te motives behind the estab- lishment of the company have not been deeply investigated, but several of the openly stated ones can be related to a hope for prosperity through foreign trade similar to that expressed in the capriccio. Tey may well be the expression of a much more deeply rooted set of ideas on how to generate and retain prosper- ity developed in the region that remain likewise un-investigated. Historians of the Republic have been more interested in uncovering the private interests of individuals and powerful or aspiring families, than in investigating the develop- ment of ideas and projects focused on the common good. 5 Te study of the MCC clearly shows this preference as well. Yet its wider econom- ic, political, and cultural contexts call for a mor e in-depth study not only of how pri- vate and public interests intersected in practice, but also of how they were perceived to do so at the time. After all, the seventeenth an d eighteenth century saw the rise of political economy as a eld of inquiry, and it has recently become more evident that the Low Countries had a long history of thinking ab out ways to perfect the genera- tion and maintenance of prosperity, stretching back at least to seminal works such as Dye Cronycke van Zeelandt published in Antwerp in , written by the Veere phar- macist Jan Jansz Reygersberch van Cortgene or the Descrittione dei tutti Paesi Bassi, also published in Antwerp, on the eve of the Revolt in , written by the Florentine merchant and long-time resident of Antwerp, Ludovic o Guicciardini.6 A chronicle, a 4 R. Paesie, Geschiedenis van de MCC . Opkomst, Bloei en Ondergang (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, ), -. See also Helen J. Paul, Te South Sea Bubble. An Economic History of its Origins and Consequences (London/ New York: Routledge, ). 5 See however Oskar Gelderblom (ed.), Te Political Economy of the Dutch Republic (Aldershot: Ashgate, ). 6 See Arjan van Dixhoorn, ‘De metamorfosen van Zeeland: Dye Cronyke van Zeelandt () als lososch traktaat’, in: Johanna Bundschuh (ed.), Literatuur en kennis, special issue of Internationale Neerlandistiek , () , -; idem, ‘Te Prosperity of Belgica and the Virtues of Antwerp: Guicciardini´s Descrittione di tutti Paesi Bassi’, in: Christine Göttler, Bart Ramakers, and Joanna Woodall (eds.), Trading Values. Cultural Translation in Early Modern Antwerp , special issue Netherlands Yearbook for the History of Art (), -.

cosmography, a small capriccio painting possibly co mmissioned by a Middelburg businessman, documents related to the founding of a company such as the MCC, a collection of prints mocking and criticizing the nancial projects of the Bubble of , 7 or the frontispiece and introductory sections of t he Verhandelingen , the journal of the Zeeuwsch Genootschap (a learned society from Vlissingen that was recognized by the States of Zeeland in ), these are tra ces from the past, that allow us to reconstruct how creating prosperit y was envisioned and put into practice and, also, what role knowledge was awarded i n this cycle. In the social history of knowledge, each of these traces (on pape r or on canvas) are seen as little tools with which knowledge about (an aspect o f ) the world can be created, re-shaped, organized, inscribed, stored and passed on for future use.8 Te idea of the “interest of Zeeland,” which came to a full development at the end of the th century, 9 was grounded in a cosmographical-chorographical tradition starting with Dye Cronycke van Zeelandt by Jan Jansz Reygersberch. Te book, a philosophical text shaped as a chronicle, uses the method of chro- nology and the study of documents and witnesses to determine how the people of Zeeland and their government should best deal with the nature of the region in order to create and sustain security and prosperity. Reygersberch dened the nature of the region as the metamorphosis of land into sea, and sea into land, in a never-ending cycle of giving and taking. It was the responsibility of the inhabitants of the region to use the gifts of nature (deep harbours or fertile lands, good shing waters) to their advantage, and prevent disaster through good governance (work in harmony, protect land and ports, and use foresight). Te text deeply inuenced thinking about the nature of the region, creating an idea of its relationship between land and sea, danger and prosperity that is used to dene its characteristics up till today. Yet, between , and today, a series of signicant shifts have also altered some of the elements of the grand narra- tive created by Reygersberch. Most importantly, when Reygersberch wrote his book, he was deeply aected by the devastating oods of recent decades, in particular the ood of which destroyed his native town of Cortgene and 7 See Goetzman, W.N., Catherine Labio, K. Geert Rouwenhorst and Timothy G. Young (eds.), Te Great Mirror of Folly. Finance, culture, and the crash of (New Haven/ London: Yale University Press, ). 8 Peter Burke, What is the History of Knowledge? (Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press, ). 9 See for example Joseph Hill, Te Interest of these United Provinces being a Defence of the Zeelanders Choice [...] (Middelburg: Tomas Berry, ).