First and only edition of the Dutch translation of a polemic in defence of the Ostend Company, a short-lived but politically significant rival to the Dutch East and West India Companies. Written by the Irish jurist Patrick MacNeny and translated from his original French text, the work challenges the legal and moral grounds on which the VOC and WIC claimed exclusive trading rights in distant territories - particularly in light of Articles 5 and 6 of the Treaty of Münster (1648). MacNeny argues on behalf of the Emperor's Catholic subjects in the Southern Netherlands, asserting their right to engage freely in overseas commerce.
The Ostend Company was established in 1722 under the Austrian Habsburgs and rapidly became a flashpoint in European trade politics. Backed by imperial charter, it posed a direct threat to the monopolistic control long held by the Dutch VOC and WIC over Asian and Atlantic trade routes. The company's emergence triggered diplomatic protests and economic pressure from the Dutch Republic and Britain, eventually leading to its suspension in 1727 and dissolution in 1731. MacNenys treatise is a rare and articulate voice from the early phase of this commercial rivalry.
Patrick MacNeny (1676-1745) was an Irish-born cleric and political observer whose writings offer rare insight into early 18th-century maritime commerce and colonial enterprise. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, MacNeny spent time in the Low Countries during the height of the Dutch East India Company's influence and the brief rise of the Ostend Company. Fluent in several European languages, he compiled reports and reflections on trade policy, mercantile rivalries, and colonial governance, often from a clerical and moral perspective. His surviving manuscripts are valued for their unique vantage point on the economic ambitions of smaller Catholic states and the tensions between Protestant and Catholic maritime powers.
The binding is very slightly scuffed, mainly along the spine, internally slightly foxed and browned. Otherwise in very good condition. Landwehr VOC, 28; Knuttel 16595; Sabin 102442; STCN 154093912 (11 copies); WorldCat 66160383 (18 copies); cf. for the original French eds. published in Brussels and The Hague: Knuttel 16593 & 16594; for the "Lettres Patentes d'Octroy" see Sabin 40712; for the English edition see: ESTC T96367; Goldsmith's Library of Economic Literature, 6290.