the Rede van Texel

SPEECH BY TEXEL:
The Rede van Texel has played an important role in maritime history for four centuries.
From the fifteenth century, the Southeast side of Texel was visited by merchant ships, fishing boats and warships.
On the Rede the departing ships lowered their anchors and waited for the wind to come from the right direction to take them to distant destinations.
The growth of shipping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries caused a lot of activity on the Rede. More ships and ships of larger size appeared empty off the coast of Texel.
The greater draught of the ships made sailing the shallow Zuiderzee difficult.
As a result, the chartering, supply and embarkation moved from the port cities on the Zuiderzee to the Rede van Texel.
It gave the Rede van Texel a lively look. It was a coming and going of ships. Minor repairs to ships were made, cargoes were checked, barrels were loaded and sheep were hoisted on board. Relatives and friends of merchants came to visit and painters came to the Reason to immortalize the fleet of the Republic.

HISTORY of the VOC (Dutch East India Company):
Trade with Asia was a Portuguese affair in the sixteenth century.
Enterprising Dutch merchants see enormous opportunities in direct trade with Asia.
Between 1596 and 1602, dozens of expeditions to Asia were carried out by various companies.
The competition between them is fierce.
In 1602, the States-General forced the merchants to cooperate and the Dutch East India Company was founded.
The VOC is the only company allowed to trade on the East.
The VOC is entitled to conclude agreements with princes on behalf of the States General, to build forts, to wage war and to install local governments.

View of Batavia
The VOC was given offices in six Dutch and Zeeland cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Middelburg.
A chamber was governed by administrators, which was a fixed number of persons per room.
In each chamber, the directors elected a number of delegates two or three times a year who took part in meetings in Amsterdam or Middelburg to determine the central policy.
This college, the Heren XVII, consisted of eight Amsterdam administrators, four from Zeeland and one from each of the smaller chambers. The seventeenth member was delivered by Zeeland or one of the smaller chambers in turn. Amsterdam therefore did not have a decisive vote.
Amsterdam administrators in meeting with Stadtholder William V in 1771
Detail of a print by J. Smit after a drawing by S. Fokke
Netherlands Maritime Museum
The VOC has existed for almost two centuries.
The traces of the VOC can still be discovered in countless places.

EvieDeCoene