history

Dirk Van OS, Antwerp Native in the Dutch East India Company

After the Fall of Antwerp in 1585, thousands of people from the Southern Netherlands migrated north, with many settling in Amsterdam. One of them was Dirk van Os, an enterprising Antwerp native who played a role in the founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the draining of the Beemster Lake, contributing to the development of Amsterdam and the expansion of the Dutch Republic in the sixteenth century.

At the end of 1585, Dirk van Os, then twenty-nine years old, came to the conclusion that his native city of Antwerp no longer held a future for him. The city had resisted the rule of the Spanish monarch Philip II, but was ultimately defeated. Van Os had joined the opposition against the regime and built a career within it. He was part of the thirteen-member delegation that, in August 1585, signed the treaty in which the city’s government surrendered. Now that the pro-Spanish faction was back in power, Dirk realised that his role in the city had come to an end. Moreover, as a Calvinist, there was no longer a place for him in Catholic Antwerp.

From Antwerp to Amsterdam

Dirk van Os made a radical decision. His father earned a living by selling raw materials for the carpet industry as well as sought-after woven goods such as cushions and hearth rugs. It is likely that Dirk and his in-laws also worked in the business. However, due to his role in the opposition, Dirk found himself in a different milieu. He became acquainted with members of major trading houses and noticed that these merchants were now flocking to Amsterdam en masse. The city was favourably located on the Zuiderzee (now the IJsselmeer) and thus offered opportunities for sailing to the Baltic Sea and even Russia. Several Antwerp merchants had already successfully undertaken this journey. There was significant profit to be made there by selling luxury fabrics, exotic spices and precious stones, which the local elite did not yet have but were eager to acquire. An additional advantage is that the ships could bring back a variety of sought-after furs on their return journey, as well as potash, an ingredient needed to make soap.

After a brief stay in Middelburg, Dirk travelled to Amsterdam and got engaged there in 1588. After a while, he settled with his Antwerp-born love, Margriete van der Piet, on Nes, a street that extends from the prestigious Warmoesstraat. This area was close to the harbour, where the warehouses of the merchants were located. Dirk quickly noticed the differences between his native Antwerp and his new home. The chapel of the nearby St. Peter’s Monastery served as a meat market, with merchants setting up their stalls on the street between the butcher halls. This was a stark contrast to Antwerp’s seven-storey Vleeshuis (Butcher’s Hall), which closely resembled a Gothic church.

As a merchant, Dirk naturally noticed that the city lacked a stock exchange building and that foreign traders stayed at inns rather than in dedicated accommodations, as was the case in Antwerp. This was understandable. Amsterdam was much smaller, with just over thirty thousand inhabitants, whereas Antwerp had already surpassed one hundred thousand. The merchants in Amsterdam primarily traded in bulk goods such as grain, which they purchased from the Baltic countries and exported to Southern Europe. Others earned their living from the herring trade, timber imports, brewing beer and so on.

New markets

Although Amsterdam merchants feared competition from Antwerp traders, their trade was not what Dirk was after. His sights were set further afield: on Russia and Italy. In the latter country, there was a great demand for grain, but many Amsterdammers considered the journey through Gibraltar too risky. Dirk became a charterer to Russia and Italy and soon formed an alliance with another Antwerp trader, Isaac Le Maire. Le Maire had also been part of the opposition in Antwerp. Moreover, Dirk saw that Isaac had the drive to make money and, above all, the willingness to take risks for that. Both men were also concerned with the question of how to make money with money. Isaac, along with several Antwerp traders, ventured into maritime insurance based on premium payments, which was still relatively uncommon in Amsterdam. For their policy, naturally, they used an Antwerp model. But another, even more profitable trade beckoned: that of spices. Spices were becoming scarce because the Spanish king Philip II regularly seized ships from the Republic.

The solution was obvious: send ships to the Indies themselves. The route to the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope formally belonged to the Portuguese, as they were the first to sail it. However, after Philip II conquered Portugal in 1580, the route also came under Spanish control – and the Republic was at war with that country. This raised the question of whether the Indies might also be reachable via the north. Dirk van Os helped finance Willem Barentsz’s first expedition and possibly a second one as well. All attempts – three in total – ended in failure.

Dirk realised that he had to change his approach. He had long since concluded that trade with Russia and Italy offered few opportunities for expansion. At the same time that he was investing in expeditions “via the North”, he joined the Compagnie van Verre (Long-Distance Company) in 1594, a group of young, ambitious merchants who were determined to reach the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, even if it meant using force. Since the route along the Cape of Good Hope was controlled by the Spanish, battles with enemy ships were inevitable. This meant war, and therefore, permission from the States General was needed to arm the ships. Dirk realised that the Antwerp traders did not yet have a network that granted them access to the States General, but those from Amsterdam did.

‘Two peoples’

By joining the Compagnie van Verre, Dirk became the first Southern Netherlander to partially break away from the Antwerp trading circuit early on and gain access to Amsterdam’s economic elite. However, Dirk preferred to continue working with those he truly trusted – those from his homeland and, ideally, family. Throughout his life, Dirk shared his business with his brother Hendrik. Unlike Dirk, Hendrik was not a businessman; he collected art. But he participated in the business financially, and Dirk involved him in business decisions.

Dirk’s approach fits into a pattern. The top entrepreneurs from the Southern Netherlands collaborated with Amsterdam merchants where it was advantageous, but they remained a separate group. Their sons and daughters married partners from within their own circle, strengthening the mutual (trade) ties. The Amsterdammers, in turn, were reserved towards the uytheemschen (foreigners). Their lifestyle and luxurious clothing provoked resistance, as the Amsterdammers preferred to characterise themselves as “sober”. Jealousy was not unfamiliar to them: the wealthy Antwerp merchants bought the best houses and shops on the fashionable Warmoesstraat.

The Amsterdammers feared economic dominance, as the Antwerp merchants had far more knowledge of trade techniques and financial transactions than they did. Until the 1630s, they prevented immigrants from obtaining a place in the city government. Preachers from the Southern Netherlands were also viewed with suspicion. There was a need for these clergy because Calvinism took hold later in the Northern Netherlands, meaning there were still few native preachers. Yet even in this regard, voices continued to insist that church council should remain primarily in the hands of ingeboorne landtsaten (native-born citizens).

The VOC: Registering at Dirk van Os’s Home

When the ships of the Compagnie van Verre returned from their long voyage to the Indies, Dirk van Os heard about everything that went wrong. Two-thirds of the crew had perished, mainly due to disease and a lack of knowledge about food preservation. During expeditions to obtain or purchase food, the crew behaved shamelessly towards the local inhabitants on both the outward and return journeys. The management lacked a code of conduct for dealing with the trade-savvy Indians, resulting in overpayment for pepper. Moreover, upon arrival back home, the pepper turned out to be mixed with small black stones – something the crew had failed to notice.

Nevertheless, the voyage had been a success: it had now been proven possible to sail to the Indies via the southern route, promising great profits. Naturally, other merchants thought of this as well, and new trading companies sprang up like mushrooms. The danger loomed that they would start competing with one another. Thanks to the efforts of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the most powerful statesman in The Hague, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) was eventually established after much bickering.

Dirk van Os played a pivotal role in the lead-up to the founding of the VOC. There were six branches: Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Rotterdam, Delft, Middelburg and Amsterdam (the most powerful by far). In Amsterdam, Dirk van Os’s home served as the place where people could register. The financing method was undeniably ingenious and could only have originated from the minds of the Antwerp merchants who were highly experienced in financial transactions. It is likely that Dirk van Os played a part in devising this system.

Residents of the Republic did not have to invest money immediately; instead, they signed up for a certain amount. Only later would they be asked to deposit part of this. When the books closed, it became clear that in Amsterdam, the Southern Netherlanders contributed half of the total capital, despite being in the minority (195 Southern Netherlanders compared to 271 Dutch and a few foreign investors). Therefore, the Southern Netherlanders were also well represented in the company’s administration.

The VOC was a remarkable company. On the one hand, it was a state-approved and subsidised war machine, as battles were being fought in the Indies against the Spanish and the Portuguese. On the other hand, it was a private enterprise. The biggest financiers were on the board, the Heren XVII (Seventeen Lords), while the other “shareholders” had no say. Before long, discontented voices were heard. Moreover, profits turned out to be disappointing. The back-and-forth voyages of the ships to Asia were inefficient, so fortified trading posts had to be built there, sometimes against the wishes of the local inhabitants. Internally, the administration proved to be flawed, soon leading to the first fraud with shares.

Draining of the Beemster

Although Dirk remained a director of the VOC until the end of his life, even serving several times as chairman of the Heren XVII, he must have felt constrained as an entrepreneur. Decisions were made in meetings by fellow directors with sometimes conflicting interests. He had to wait and see what the ships would bring back from Asia, and profits were skimmed off by the costs of the crew and on-site.

He turned his attention to a new project and invested most of his money into it. Together with a select group of entrepreneurs and directors, he formed a consortium that secured a patent for the draining of a large lake, the Beemster. If all went well, this would yield more than seven thousand hectares of land – ideal for large-scale grain production. Van Os managed to persuade numerous Southern Netherlanders and family members to take part in the project.

Unfortunately, there were considerable setbacks. In 1610, a severe northwesterly storm broke the newly constructed ring dikes, refilling the entire lake. Instead of abandoning the project, Van Os decided to invest even more money into the drainage efforts, and by 1612, the lake was dry. The land proved unsuitable for arable farming, leading to the establishment of large cattle farms with stolpboerderijen (traditional Dutch farmhouses with a pyramid-shaped roof), which later became quite famous. This would be his final project, as Dirk passed away in 1615. By then, Amsterdam had already developed into a major financial trading hub, boasting its own Exchange Bank (Wisselbank), Stock Exchange (Beurs) and Pawn Bank (Bank van Lening).

Dirk’s death in 1615, along with that of his Antwerp contemporaries, marked the end of an era in which Southern Netherlanders had played a significant role in Amsterdam’s development and the expansion of the Dutch Republic. As soon as opportunities arose, native Amsterdammers filled the vacancies in the VOC’s administration. Similarly, Southern Netherlanders saw their influence diminish in subsequent land reclamation projects, though they continued to thrive in trade. Over time, they integrated with the local population in the traditional way – through marriage and assimilation.

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