Dutch Notarial Acts Relating to the Tobacco Trade of Virginia, 1608-1653

Abstract

T t HE Notarial Archives of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which form a part of those cities' Municipal Archives, contain valuable information on the early commercial relations of Holland and Virginia-information that has so far been little used by historians of North America. It is the intent of this note to call attention to the utility and availability, for scholarly purposes, of those notarial acts-a small proportion of the original total-that have survived the ravages of fire and water, and damage resulting from poor storage. The Dutch notary of the seventeenth century performed most of the minor functions of the modern lawyer. He drew up wills, contracts, testimonies, and a variety of other legal documents. Some of the more important Dutch cities possessed a dozen or more notaries whose clerks drew up many documents every day, sometimes employing the services of interpreters when a language other than Dutch was desired, as it often was for transactions relating to Holland's international trade. An important element in Holland's remarkable economic expansion, beginning in the late sixteenth century, was the tobacco trade with the New World. Before i6io Dutch merchants were buying tobacco in the Indies, Brazil, and the Orinoco region, as a profitable addition to the trade in sugar, indigo, slaves, and other commodities. When Virginia began growing tobacco in sizable quantities for export, these merchants were quick to take advantage of this new market for European goods. The first contacts between Holland and Virginia were made by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of Middelburg before i620. (The Middelburg notarial archives were destroyed during the bombing of that city in May I940.) When the Middelburg merchants moved to Rotterdam in the i630s, the latter city became the center of Holland's trade not only with Virginia but with the West Indies generally, that term covering in Dutch usage-the imprecision of which is reflected in the notarial actsall the New World lands and islands lying south of Newfoundland.