Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age
In Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age, Elizabeth A. Sutton explores the fascinating but previously neglected history of corporate cartography during the Dutch Golden Age, from ca. 1600 to 1650. She examines how maps were used as propaganda tools for the Dutch West India Company in order to encourage the commodification of land and an overall capitalist agenda. Building her exploration around the central figure of Claes Jansz Vischer, an Amsterdam-based publisher closely tied to the Dutch West India Company, Sutton shows how printed maps of Dutch Atlantic territories helped rationalize the Dutch Republic’s global expansion. Maps of land reclamation projects in the Netherlands, as well as the Dutch territories of New Netherland (now New York) and New Holland (Dutch Brazil), reveal how print media were used both to increase investment and to project a common narrative of national unity. Maps of this era showed those boundaries, commodities, and topographical details that publishers and the Dutch West India Company merchants and governing Dutch elite deemed significant to their agenda. In the process, Sutton argues, they perpetuated and promoted modern state capitalism.
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Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age
In Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age, Elizabeth A. Sutton explores the fascinating but previously neglected history of corporate cartography during the Dutch Golden Age, from ca. 1600 to 1650. She examines how maps were used as propaganda tools for the Dutch West India Company in order to encourage the commodification of land and an overall capitalist agenda. Building her exploration around the central figure of Claes Jansz Vischer, an Amsterdam-based publisher closely tied to the Dutch West India Company, Sutton shows how printed maps of Dutch Atlantic territories helped rationalize the Dutch Republic’s global expansion. Maps of land reclamation projects in the Netherlands, as well as the Dutch territories of New Netherland (now New York) and New Holland (Dutch Brazil), reveal how print media were used both to increase investment and to project a common narrative of national unity. Maps of this era showed those boundaries, commodities, and topographical details that publishers and the Dutch West India Company merchants and governing Dutch elite deemed significant to their agenda. In the process, Sutton argues, they perpetuated and promoted modern state capitalism.
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Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age
In Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age, Elizabeth A. Sutton explores the fascinating but previously neglected history of corporate cartography during the Dutch Golden Age, from ca. 1600 to 1650. She examines how maps were used as propaganda tools for the Dutch West India Company in order to encourage the commodification of land and an overall capitalist agenda. Building her exploration around the central figure of Claes Jansz Vischer, an Amsterdam-based publisher closely tied to the Dutch West India Company, Sutton shows how printed maps of Dutch Atlantic territories helped rationalize the Dutch Republic’s global expansion. Maps of land reclamation projects in the Netherlands, as well as the Dutch territories of New Netherland (now New York) and New Holland (Dutch Brazil), reveal how print media were used both to increase investment and to project a common narrative of national unity. Maps of this era showed those boundaries, commodities, and topographical details that publishers and the Dutch West India Company merchants and governing Dutch elite deemed significant to their agenda. In the process, Sutton argues, they perpetuated and promoted modern state capitalism.
Elizabeth Sutton is assistant professor of art history at the University of Northern Iowa.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Capitalism, Cartography, and Culture Early Modern Capitalism and Cartography Theorizing Capitalist Cartography Chapter Outlines Chapter 2. Amsterdam Society and Maps The Market for Maps Organization of Government and the WIC Pictorial and Intellectual Foundations Social Organization and Hierarchy Conclusion Chapter 3. Capitalism and Cartography in Amsterdam The Virtuous Merchant and the Republic Visscher and the Amsterdam Map Tradition The Beemster The Grid, Private Property, and the Commonwealth Chapter 4. Profit and Possession in Brazil Visscher’s WIC-Authorized Map of Pernambuco Johan Maurits and the Development of Recife and Mauritsstad Blaeu and Barlaeus’s Representation of Brazil Possession According to Grotius Natural Rights, Sugar, and Human Exploitation Trying Times: 1648 Chapter 5. Marketing New Amsterdam Picturing New Amsterdam WIC Colonial Policies 1629-49: Possession, Boundaries, Patroons, and Natives The 1649 Affair New Amsterdam Renewed Conclusion Chapter 6. Capitalism and Cartography Revisited Acknowledgments Bibliography Index
