Complaints by shareholders of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) of mismanagement on the part of the directors of the company had a long history. Already around 1610, shareholders had alleged in print and through official petitions that the company was building too expensive fortresses in India and failed to issue new shares in 1612, as had originally been agreed. Excessive spending on defensive buildings, they argued, would chip away at the profit share particularly of small shareholders while the failure to issue new shares would allow longstanding shareholders to reap more of the increasing income produced by the company.
In the end, the protest of the shareholders uttered in this and similar pamphlets was successful. the directors' powers were somewhat curtailed when the patent for the VOC was renewed in 1623. Their tenure as directors was limited to three years and it was explicitly stated that directors were only allowed to trade goods from India, Batavia and Bangladesh at public auctions under the same conditions as all others.
Good condition, small damage of removed label on paper wrapper binding. Asher 83; Knuttel 3537; Landwehr, VOC, 903; E. Laspeyres, Geschichte der volkswirthschaftlichen Anschauungen der Niederländer und ihrer Literatur zur Zeit der Republic, p. 296, No. 56; STCN 860871568; USTC 1033594.