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1648-1790
II - Dutch Trade Emporium
"In a short time, the WIC transformed our island into a transit
port, where merchandise from Europe and slaves from Africa were unloaded,
and boatloads of products from the Americas and the Caribbean were
loaded... From an isolated Spanish ranch, our island became a major center
of sailing and transit trade. These activities were accompanied by
contraband, piracy and a marginal amount of agriculture."[1]
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Merchant houses along Punda's main streets
typically had shops and warehouses on the ground floor and the living
quarters upstairs. |
Once
peace was established between Spain and the Netherlands in 1648, Curaçao
was no longer necessary to the Dutch as a military base. By then, however,
the island had already proven its worth as a major regional trade center.
Over the next hundred years, the Dutch were at their apex as a world
commercial power, and Willemstad served as the capital of their empire in
the Americas. Along with the West India Company (WIC), Curaçao's
independent Dutch and Sephardic Jewish merchants played a pivotal role in
the island's trade sector, which extended its reach not just around the
Caribbean but also north to the |
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British American colonies, south to the Spanish American mainland, and
across the entire Atlantic to the distant coasts of northern Europe and
southern Africa. This far-flung commercial network depended on a highly
successful local shipping sector (see Chapter 8). |
Although Curaçao was no longer primarily a naval station, Willemstad was
especially vulnerable to attack by two rising world powers which struggled
to establish dominance over Caribbean trade routes, the British and the
French. By the eighteenth century international trade had become the
cornerstone of European might; the many wars which broke out in distant
Europe in this period were fought primarily for markets, not for kings.
These wars resulted in frequently shifting political alliances, sometimes
turning allies into enemies almost overnight. The Caribbean was the site
of a particularly intense power struggle and its islands changed ownership
with great frequency. WIC vessels also faced attack by Spanish galleons,
as they aggressively pursued unauthorized trade with Spanish America in
direct defiance of the Treaty of Munster.
| This was the golden age of privateering and piracy in the Caribbean.
European countries outfitted vessels of privateers to launch assaults
against their rivals' ships and outposts throughout the region, claiming a
percentage of the spoils when they were successful and ignoring them when
they were |
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Attacks by pirates, buccaneers and
privateers were a constant treat to seaborne trade, espacially in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a free port, Curaçao was not
immune to such attacks and island defense was a major concern (CHA).
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not.
Outlaw British, French and Spanish pirates, on the other hand, were
accountable to no one, often flying the skull and cross bones as a symbol
of their allegiance to no nation. Both groups swarmed in Caribbean waters,
ruthlessly attacking Dutch ships at sea, sometimes venturing into St. Anna
Bay, and occasionally even storming the island. To ward off attackers the
WIC Director strung an iron chain across St. Anna Bay in 1701; in 1704
sturdy walls were erected around the core of Punda, to protect Ft.
Amsterdam and the nucleus of merchant houses. Aware that assaults would
harm their economic interests, local merchants often contributed to the
cost of these fortifications. At other times, defenses were sorely
neglected as the WIC and independent merchants disputed their
responsibility. In spite of the
overall prosperity of this period, the island's economic fortunes
fluctuated widely according to the changing international tides of warfare
and trade. When commerce waned, many of the richest merchants migrated to
other Caribbean islands, where they already had well |
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established business contacts, and sometimes even family, returning when
the situation improved. In the mid eighteenth century Curaçao experienced
an economic depression, with drought and slave uprisings on the home
front, and war between France and the Netherlands disrupting trade routes.
By the end of the century, Great Britain had eclipsed the Netherlands as
the world commercial power and Curaçao faced the end of its days as a
Dutch trade emporium. |
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Curaçao Chamber of Commerce & Industry
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