The West India Company's initial opposition to slave trading is distinguished from the interests of the wider Dutch commercial world. Its early plan is presented as an attempt to disrupt the traffic in enslaved people and paralyze the plantation economy. Other merchants involved in the wider Groot Desseyn wanted the trade's profits. The company's own entry into slave trading is dated to after 1635, with earlier involvement in adjacent commerce. Company policy therefore did not determine how all Dutch traders behaved.
Notable Point · 21:03-22:43
Company policy and Dutch slave-trading interests
Early West India Company objections to slave trading coexisted with merchants seeking profits from the same trade.