The Society of Suriname (
Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of
Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...
's colony of
Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
. It had three participants, with equal shares in the costs and benefits of the society; the city of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, the family
Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, and the
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
. Only through mutual consent could these shareholders withdraw from the society.
Although the organization and administration was of the colony was limited to these three shareholders, all citizens of the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...
were free to trade with Suriname. Also, the planters were consulted in a
Council of Police, which was a unique feature among the colonies of Guyana.
[Buddingh, H. (1995) Geschiedenis van Suriname, p. 26.]
Its governors included
Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck,
Johan van Scharphuizen, and
Paulus van der Veen.
The Society was nationalized by the
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic (; ) was the Succession of states, successor state to the Dutch Republic, Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 after the Batavian Revolution and ended on 5 June 1806, with the acce ...
in November 1795, as the
Patriottentijd deemed the governing of colonies by chartered companies a thing of the past.
See also
*
List of colonial governors of Suriname
*
List of trading companies A trading company is a business that works with different kinds of product (business), products sold for consumer, business purposes. In contemporary times, trading companies buy a specialized range of products, broker, shopkeeper them, and coordina ...
*
Jeronimo Clifford
*
Society of Berbice
Notes
Sources
*
Aa, A.J. Beknopt Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden, Gorinchem 1851–'54.
* Winter, P.J. van (1987) De Westindische Compagnie ter kamer Stad en Lande, p. 201–4, 217.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Society of Suriname
Dutch West India Company
Chartered companies
Companies based in Amsterdam
Multinational companies headquartered in the Netherlands
Companies established in 1683
Trading companies
Dutch colonisation of the Guianas
1683 establishments in the Dutch Republic