Abstract
This chapter begins with the West Indian interests of the central government and then discusses the conflicts of interest between the provinces of Holland and Zeeland. It sheds light on how interest groups emerged at a local level in the Republic and how they defended their interests. The chapter discusses the alleged differences between the Republic and Great Britain and the role the States General played in balancing the different Atlantic interests in the Republic. In the 1730s, the Spanish navy captured several Dutch merchantmen in the Caribbean on suspicion of smuggling to the Spanish colonies. At the instigation of the West India Company (WIC), the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent one or two convoys to the West Indies per year after 1737 to protect merchants from Spanish confiscations. The States General took the petitions seriously, and commissioned the Admiralty of Amsterdam to restart the convoying of the West Indiamen. Keywords: Dutch; Holland; Spanish navy; West India Company (WIC); West Indian; Zeeland
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