Isaac Le Maire

Isaac Le Maire (c. 1559 – 20 September 1624) was a Dutch merchant, entrepreneur and investor. After building an extensive trading network linking Antwerp, Amsterdam, the Baltic, Russia and southern Europe, he became one of the principal investors in the pre-VOC trading companies and one of the largest individual shareholders in the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

Following his forced resignation as a VOC director in 1605, he became the company's most persistent critic. His opposition to the VOC monopoly culminated in financing the 1615–1617 expedition of Willem Schouten and his son Jacob Le Maire, which discovered the Strait of Le Maire and rounded Cape Horn, establishing a new route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Early life

Isaac Le Maire was born in 1559 in Antwerp. His father Jacques Le Maire and his uncle Adam were merchants from Tournai who became citizens of Antwerp in 1555. The Le Maire family traded with the Baltic port of Narva within a broader network of Tournai-origin merchant families, including the Van de Walle family. Isaac later became the brother-in-law of Jacques van de Walle, a trader in silk and a pioneer in the trade with Russia.

Isaac had three brothers who were also merchants. Around 1600 his brother Pieter represented Isaac in Hamburg. David settled in Livorno in 1604, and after David's death in 1617 another brother, Salomon, took over the family's business there. By 1584 he was registered in Antwerp as a wealthy grocer in de Kaasstraat, close to the Steen. At the same time he served as captain of a company of the Antwerp schutterij. In 1584 he married Maria Jacobsdochter Walraven, with whom he had two children, according to Dieusaert, born before the family's departure. After the Fall of Antwerp, he decided to move to the northern Netherlands.

Amsterdam In 1586 the family settled in Warmoesstraat; archival records confirm the baptims of about 13 children of their children. In 1592 his name appeared for the first time in Amsterdam records as a participant in one of the city's earliest documented marine insurance policies. In the following years he expanded his activities in European maritime trade. Le Maire's career is firmly rooted in the world of prominent Flemish merchants. In 1593 his brother-in-law Jacques van de Walle encountered financial difficulties. Le Maire assumed responsibility for his outstanding debts and took over much of the family's trade with Russia, further strengthening his position in Baltic and northern European commerce. He was able to make substantial investments by securing warrant positions within his direct and extended family network.

In 1595, Le Maire entered into partnership with Dirck van Os in organizing an expedition to obtain salt in Setúbal and transport it to Arkhangelsk. Together with Van Os he formed a company for trading with Russia. They shipped Baltic grain and timber to Spain, while ships carrying leather, wax, furs, and caviar were often destined for Venice and Livorno. Their firm also traded in bills of exchange, engaged in chartering, and dealt in various forms of marine insurance. Between 1594 and 1598 he also played a major role in the fish trade between British ports and Spain. In 1597 Le Maire entrusted his brother Pieter with the sale of most of his wife's houses and properties in Antwerp, bringing the family's remaining interests there largely to an end. The economic crisis of 1597 marked a turning point in Dutch overseas commerce. As access to Iberian markets became increasingly restricted, Dutch merchants sought direct access to Asian markets, creating new opportunities for investors such as Le Maire.

Le Mairs polder near Den Helder. Map from 1641 by Claes Jansz. Visscher. (view from the north)

In 1598 Le Maire acquired land in Egmond aan den Hoef from the debt-ridden Lamoraal II van Egmont. The following year he purchased additional property in Huisduinen, a remote coastal village strategically situated near the approaches to the Texel roadstead, where returning East Indiamen passed before on their way to Amsterdam. In 1599 Le Maire became a principal investor in the New Brabant Company. The company's expedition to Asia, which departed in December 1599, proved highly profitable and greatly increased his fortune. Previous instructions stated to avoid Portuguese ships and not to engage in any battle, except in cases of self-defense.

Although the Brabant Company had received permission to trade with China, its first expedition went no farther east than Bantam, where the company established a trading post. By the end of the sixteenth century Le Maire had become one of the leading private investors involved in the pre-VOC Asian trade. His investments in the Brabant Company, together with his established activities in the Russia trade and Baltic commerce, made him one of the most influential private entrepreneurs in Amsterdam on the eve of the foundation of the VOC.

It wasn’t until 1601 that he decided to become a burgher of Amsterdam, likely in connection with the merger of the Brabant Company and the Old Company into the First United East Indies Company. This company, in which Le Maire was a major investor, equipped eight ships for the East Indies under the command of Jacob van Heemskerk, laying the foundations for his prominent role in the establishment of the VOC in 1602. On December 4, 1602, the expedition’s insurers had a notary issue a demand for payment because several ships under Jacques Mahu had not returned within the agreed-upon three-year period. The deed indicates that Isaac and Salomon le Maire were also among the insurers involved. His activities demonstrate how leading Amsterdam merchants combined European commerce, financial services, maritime trade and strategic investments in land and overseas ventures.

Shareholder of the Dutch East India Company In 1606/07 Le Maire lived in part of this complex at Kalverstraat, later the Burgerweeshuis and now the Amsterdam Museum. Drawing by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode (1631)

In 1602, at the insistence of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the Dutch trading companies active in the East Indies were united in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Le Maire subscribed 85,000 guilders, making him the company's largest individual investor. He was one of 1,143 subscribers to the capital of the Amsterdam Chamber, among whom 301 were immigrants from the Southern Netherlands, illustrating the prominent role played by Flemish and Brabantine merchants in the foundation of the company. Le Maire became one of the Amsterdam Chamber's original directors (bewindhebbers).

Apart from its own fleets, the VOC also administered the accounts of an expedition that had been organized before the founding of the VOC in 1602. In 1605 a dispute concerning these accounts led to Le Maire's resignation as a director. Under the terms of the settlement, he agreed not to compete directly with the company in the East Indies.

Opposition to the VOC monopoly

Despite his departure from the VOC, Le Maire remained in contact with leading government officials. In early January 1606 he supplied Johan van Oldenbarnevelt with recent political, financial and maritime intelligence received through his international correspondence network, including reports on the expected arrival of Spanish silver from the Indies, monetary developments in Brussels, and the financing of Ambrogio Spinola's war effort in the Low Countries.

Le Maire also sought ways of participating in the Asian trade outside the VOC monopoly. One possibility was involvement in French attempts to establish direct trade with Asia. Such plans predated Le Maire's involvement: in 1605 Henry IV of France repeatedly asked the States General for permission to build or purchase ships in the Dutch Republic and recruit experienced captains, pilots and sailors for a French expedition to the East Indies. From at least 1608 Le Maire was involved in discussions concerning French participation in the Asian trade. The States General, however, were reluctant to permit Dutch maritime expertise and resources to be used for a potential competitor to the VOC.

In late 1608, while Henry Hudson was in Amsterdam, Le Maire approached him about undertaking a voyage in search of a northeast passage to Asia under French auspices. The Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC subsequently resumed negotiations with Hudson. On 29 December 1608 it appointed two committees to organize the expedition, and on 8 January 1609 Hudson signed a contract; the cartographer Jodocus Hondius assisted him as interpreter.

The competition over Hudson coincided with Le Maire's opposition to attempts to extend the geographical scope of the VOC monopoly. Late January 1609 he submitted a remonstrance to Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, arguing that routes and regions outside the company's existing monopoly should remain open to other merchants. Although directors of the Zeeland Chamber proposed on 14 March that the agreement with Hudson should be terminated, the Amsterdam directors nevertheless decided to proceed with the expedition. Hart connected their decision with their greater knowledge of Le Maire's activities. Hudson sailed from Amsterdam aboard the Halve Maen on 4 April 1609.

His remonstrance came amid wider discontent among Amsterdam merchants about the VOC's management and increasingly aggressive military policy. Le Maire's appeal to freedom of trade came during the negotiations for the Twelve Years' Truce, when overseas trade had become a major point of contention. In 1609 Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum similarly defended freedom of navigation and trade, specifically challenging Portuguese claims to exclude the Dutch from trade with Asia. Later that year, Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge advocated a different course, proposing a stronger and more centralized VOC presence in Asia, with a permanent headquarters, a governor-general and an intra-Asian trading network.

According to Le Maire, the VOC should concentrate on its existing sphere of activity in Asia, while other regions and alternative routes should remain open to other merchants. After leaving the VOC, Le Maire resumed his European trading activities and increasingly sought opportunities outside the geographical limits of the VOC charter.

Le Maire meanwhile continued the French project. After losing Hudson to the VOC, he supported an expedition under Melchior van den Kerckhove, who departed on 5 May 1609 in another attempt to find a north-eastern passage. The expedition failed to find a navigable route. Efforts to establish a French East India Company continued, but ultimately failed amid mutual distrust and came to an end after the assassination of Henry IV in 1610.

In 1608 Le Maire also purchased a vacant plot at the corner of the Kalverstraat and the Heiligeweg, reflecting his continued interest in Amsterdam real estate. Records of the Bank of Amsterdam identify him as the bank's largest account holder in 1609 and again in 1611. In 1610 Le Maire also invested in an early Dutch whaling venture in which his son Jacob was involved, reflecting his continuing search for new commercial opportunities beyond the VOC.

Speculator against the Dutch East India Company

In 1609, during the negotiations that led to the Twelve Years' Truce, uncertainty arose over the future of the VOC. The company's monopoly depended on the continuing war against Spain and Portugal, and some investors feared that peace would reduce its commercial advantages. Le Maire, drawing on his experience as a former director, expected the price of VOC shares to fall.

Historic houses on the Slotweg in Egmond aan den Hoef. Le Maire's house stood a short distance away.

Together with eight other merchants he formed a private consortium, later known as the Grote Compagnie, to speculate on a decline in the company's share price. The syndicate sold VOC shares short through forward contracts, expecting to acquire the shares later at a lower price before delivery became due.

The directors of the VOC accused the consortium of deliberately depressing the share price by spreading unfavourable rumours and petitioned the States-General of the Netherlands to prohibit such transactions. Le Maire and his associates replied that the decline reflected the company's own policies rather than market manipulation and defended the freedom to trade in shares. The expedition was placed under the command of his son Jacob Le Maire, while Willem Schouten served as captain. The official sailing instructions expressly forbade passage through the Strait of Magellan, even if no alternative route could be found, and prohibited trade at places already occupied by the VOC.

Like many contemporaries, Le Maire also believed in the existence of a vast southern continent (Terra Australis Incognita), which might provide new commercial opportunities. Above all, however, the expedition was intended to demonstrate that the VOC monopoly could be lawfully circumvented. In confidential instructions to his son, Isaac advised him to explain to the VOC authorities in the East Indies that the expedition had not violated the company's charter because it had sailed neither via the Cape of Good Hope nor through the Strait of Magellan. If permission to trade were nevertheless refused, Jacob was instructed to seek the support of Governor-General Gerard Reynst, a former associate from the Brabant Company. To strengthen his case, he offered Reynst free transport for valuable goods destined for his son-in-law Samuel Blommaert, in the hope of securing official recognition of this interpretation of the VOC charter.

On 14 June 1615 the Eendracht and the Hoorn departed from Texel. The expedition succeeded in discovering a new passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific south of South America, now known as Cape Horn, thereby demonstrating that an alternative route to the East Indies existed beyond those specified in the VOC charter. Although the expected southern continent was not found, the expedition achieved its principal objective by establishing an alternative route to the East Indies. Isaac Le Maire's confidential instructions could not be carried out, however, because Governor-General Gerard Reynst had died before the expedition reached Asia.

After the expedition had left, the VOC became aware of its intended purpose and instructed its officials in the East Indies to seize the ships on their arrival for violating the company's charter. The Eendracht was confiscated at Jacatra, and Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten were sent back to the Dutch Republic to defend their case. Jacob Le Maire died during the homeward voyage near Madagascar in December 1616. Willem Schouten eventually secured the release of the expedition's journals and charts, but for many years the discoveries were associated primarily with his name rather than with Isaac Le Maire's enterprise.

Aftermath

Following the return of the expedition, Le Maire spent the remainder of his life seeking legal recognition of its achievements and compensation for the seizure of the Eendracht. In 1619 the Court of Holland ruled that the VOC had unlawfully confiscated the ship. The company was ordered to return the journals, charts and other documents relating to the voyage, and to pay compensation to Le Maire. The court also confirmed that the discovery of the route around Cape Horn had not violated the geographical limits of the VOC charter. He commissioned the construction of a farmhouse on his lands along the Hoevervaart.

In 1622 Le Maire published the Spieghel der Australische Navigatie, describing the voyage of his son Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten, thereby securing public recognition of their discoveries. Although the judgment established the legality of the new route, it did not restore Le Maire's commercial ambitions. The Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621, received a monopoly that included the Strait of Magellan and the newly discovered route around Cape Horn, effectively closing the legal opening that Le Maire had created.

Isaac Le Maire died on 20 September 1624 and was buried in the church at Egmond-Binnen. According to the inscription on his tomb, he had lost 1.5 million guilders during the previous thirty years, "except his honour". Nine children were still living and were named in his will. His heirs continued the legal proceedings on behalf of the Australian Company, but in 1644 the States-General finally upheld the Dutch West India Company's monopoly.