The Dutch West India Company and the Protestant International

Stability, prosperity, and relative freedom made the seventeenth-century Netherlands an attractive destination for merchants, migrant workers, students, and refugees of the various religious conflicts that then ravaged Europe. With the exception of Lutherans and some of the more radical sects, the Dutch tended to welcome foreign Protestants, often incorporating them into the public Reformed church. In the long run the country boasted many French, German, and English congregations, one of which famously departed Leiden aboard the Mayflower. In these ways the Netherlands was an important religious, intellectual crossroads in early modern Europe.

In this paper I will examine the place of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) in this diverse spiritual community, often called the “Protestant international.” I will show, first, that many WIC directors were intimately familiar with the religious issues of the day because of their membership as elders and deacons on Reformed consistories, where they used their commercial expertise and connections to assist needy Calvinists in other countries. When foreign upheavals like the Thirty Years War drove Calvinist students and clergy to the Netherlands, the company “adopted” some of them, in a sense, by supporting them while they learned Dutch or studied theology for long periods at local universities—binding themselves to serve overseas in the process. English Puritans, French Huguenots, and others found their way into the WIC’s arms because of similar troubles at home. Some of the company’s best, longest-serving ministers were foreign, working alongside Dutch clergy in Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean.