Early edition of a splendid satire of the 4 mayors and 29 council members of the city of Amsterdam, presented and by many contemporaries accepted as an official resolution of the city government concerning the West India Company (WIC)'s troubles with the Portuguese in Brazil. Our edition is an unrecorded variant in Knuttel, who lists an edition with the following checkpoints as being the first edition: without address, the title consisting of 8 lines and with 'Burgemee-' on the third line (later editions have 9 lines and the word 'Burgemeesters') and finally page 15 consisting of 38 lines (later editions with 40 lines). Our copy has all the points mentioned above, apart from the final one: page 15 of our copy has 40 lines.
At the time this fake pamphlet was written, the Portuguese had retaken Brazil and other possessions from the WIC and there was a great debate in the Netherlands as to whether the government should step in to support the WIC and if so how far they should go. Many investors stood to loose everything if the WIC permanently lost its trade in Brazil. The present fake resolution gives a statement from each of the Burgomasters and Councillors (under their real names). The first urges that all means be used to reinstitute the WIC in Brazil, declaring that if they fall the Amsterdam trade and industry will fall with them, "because I myself have repeatedly tried to sell them 700 or 800 head of cattle and now they haven't a stuiver to buy one, and I certainly don't want to accept their credit." The second says he would agree if he thought there was any chance of salvaging the WIC, but he concludes it is hopeless and would just be throwing good money after bad. The statements continue in this vein through 29 members (1 more is listed as absent and 2 as deceased). Many at the time apparently thought the resolution genuine and were furious at the authorities, who were not amused. They immediately published an Examen vande Valsche Resolutie ... (Examination of the False Resolution ...) accusing the anonymous perpetrators of the hoax of deliberately trying to turn the populace against the Council. This may have merely served to advertise the original pamphlet as a satire, for it was reprinted at least twice soon after the original appeared.
A marvellous hoax concerning the WIC in Brazil, perpetrated at the expense of the Amsterdam Council.
A few markings in the text in pen or pencil, otherwise in very good condition. Alden & Landis 649/4 (5 copies); Asher 250; cf. Knuttel 6469 and 6470; Muller, America, 428 (listing the Utrecht edition as being the first edition); Rodrigues 745; Sabin 16732 & 102889; Tiele, Pamphletten, 3522; STCN (6 copies); cf. Borba de Moraes, pp. 211-212 (Utrecht ed.); JCB I, p. 383 (Utrecht ed.); not in Bosch.