Academic Journal of Suriname 2011, 2, 150 - 167 Social Sciences Full-length paper A new look on the economic history of Suriname* including a methodology to calculate reparations for damage caused by Dutch colonial rule. Armand Zunder Abstract Suriname was created by design by merchant bankers and members of the Dutch elite in the Dutch Government, the elite in the City of Amsterdam and the elite of the other major Cities at that time. All services to produce and sell the commodities would be supplied by the merchant bankers. The Dutch elite in the Central Government and City Governments profited indirectly from the Colony by gathering taxes from the merchant bankers. Besides this employment opportunities were created in the harbours and other locations, all related to the original business from Suriname. During the period of the plantation-economy the amount of goods shipped from Suriname amounted to 1.763.442.000 florins, of which around 76% was shipped to the Netherlands (mainly Amsterdam). The remaining 24% was shipped to England and the USA. The net present value of the goods imported in the Netherlands in the period 1683-1939 amounts to €. 126 billion at year end 2006. People were enslaved on the African West coast and shipped to Suriname to work on plantation estates. Meanwhile production took place under circumstances of extreme Human Rights abuses, where Mental Slavery was also systematically practised as a tool of total control towards the enslaved. Following the Durban conference 1 I published a book on reparations. In this book a methodology to calculate reparations in the Suriname case was introduced. In this article the focus is on the production, the value of the production and the major beneficiaries in the plantation-economy of Suriname. Key words: colonialism, slavery, slave trade, merchant bankers, reparations, plantation-economy Correspondence to: Armand Zunder, Economist & Management Consultant, Kersten Mall, Unit nr. 1, Paramaribo, Suriname. Tel 597 - 8654072. E-mail: [email protected] Available on-line: 25 July, 2011 * Picture taken by Armand Zunder of the Scale used to weigh the slaves in the Dutch Colony in the period 1828. A copy of this Scale is in the hall of the Waag building, which is now a restaurant, at de Waterkant in Paramaribo, Suriname. 1 The United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa from August 31th – September 8 th 2001 Acad J Sur 2011 (2) 150 - 167 Methodology to calculate reparations for damage caused by Dutch colonial rule 151 Introduction Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck 4, was the sole owner of the Colony. From 1797-1802 and 1804- When the Spanish expansionists 1816 Suriname was also temporarily colonized rediscovered 2 Suriname at the end of the 15 th by English expansionists, who returned the Century they encountered the Indigenous people Colony to the Dutch in 1816. From that time as original inhabitants of Suriname. The Spanish until 1940 the plantation economy was under called the Territory ‘The Wild Coast’. At that sole control of Dutch expansionists. time the number of the Indigenous people was around 70,000 The Spanish expansionists took The massive forced migration of the land of the Indigenous people and afterwards enslaved Africans to Suriname was initiated enslaved them. After the Spanish expansionists around 1630 by the West Indian Company and left, because the goldmines that they were lasted until 1740. It was later continued by looking for were not readily available, they were private shipping companies. During this period replaced by French, British and Dutch of more than two hundred years the enslaved expansionists. From 1667 Dutch expansionists Africans were cut off from their families, their took over the Colony, at that time called homeland and their languages. They were Suriname. furthermore heavily restricted to practice their original African cultures and religions. The Netherlands lacked natural resources before they entered their Colonial Around Emancipation Day, July 1 st adventure, but still they were able to become the 1863 merchant bankers and plantation owners centre of World trade in the 17 th Century, the so received compensations from the Dutch called Dutch Golden Age How did they do that? Government for the release of the enslaved Was it because of their excellence in navigation, persons who were considered their assets. The manufacturing, financial and other services? Or enslaved people received nothing, not even a were there other reasons that are not quite known penny, or a piece of land, or agricultural tools, or yet. In this paper I will reveal the Dutch’s Best any training to start a living or a business. Kept Secret. After Emancipation in 1863 the formerly enslaved people were still not really free. They The plantation economy in Suriname were obliged to sign a ten year contract to work was introduced by British expansionists 3 who for a few pennies in the same oppressive entered Suriname from the Caribbean hub island plantation system. of Barbados in 1650. They were accompanied by Jewish planters and their slaves. At a later stage Experiments with indentured workers the plantation society was strengthened by other started in 1853 when the first Chinese contract mainly Jewish emigrants who entered Suriname workers arrived in Suriname. In 1873 after an after the Dutch expansionists were driven out of agreement between the Dutch and English North Brazil by Portuguese expansionists. expansionists was reached, mass immigration followed from India to Suriname. From 1882 the The plantation economy in Suriname Dutch Government in cooperation with Dutch covers the period 1650 till 1940 (start of the merchant bankers also initiated mass Second World War). The core objective of the immigration of indentured workers from Java. plantation economy was to produce agricultural The aim was that these workers would become crops on plantation estates and other raw the major workforce in the plantation economy, materials almost solely for the commodity replacing the enslaved African-Surinamese. markets in the Netherlands and especially to the Immigration from Asia lasted until the start of Amsterdam Commodity Bourse. World War II (1939), which also more or less marked the end of the plantation production From 1683 until 1792 the period in Suriname. “Geoctroyeerde Societeit van Suriname”, a merger between the West Indian Company, the 4 th City of Amsterdam, and the Dutch noble man Van Sommelsdijck is registered as the 17 richest person of the Dutch Golden Age (The 17 th Century). Part of his fortune was accumulated in Suriname. In 2 As a matter of fact Suriname was discovered by the 1682 he acquired a third part of the Colony Suriname Indigenous people of Suriname some 7,000 years ago. for the amount of 86,667 florins (net purchasing value 3 The leading expansionist was Lord Francis of € 1,952,842 at year end 2010), while his family sold Willoughby, Earl of Parham and Governor of that investment in 1770 to the WIC for the amount of Barbados, who arrived from the than British Colony, 700.000 florins (net purchasing value of € 13,665,568 Barbados with planters and enslaved Africans. at year end 2010) . Zandvliet K., page 42, De 250 Versteegh A., Suriname voor Columbus, Stichting rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw, Rijksmuseum, Surinaams Museum, Paramaribo, 2003 Amsterdam, 2006 Acad J Sur 2011 (2) 150 - 167 152 Armand Zunder So the Surinamese society of the past company, called the West-Indian Company 6 has been a Dutch creation, but from the (WIC). This Company was licensed to trade, to perspective of the ancestors of the current conduct piracy and set up military posts. The Surinamese people, not such a pleasant one. The major investors in this Company were located in Surinamese society was created by merchant Amsterdam (40%), while the Government of the bankers and their associates in the public sector Netherlands also had a stake of 7% in the to benefit to the maximum of what the Colony Company. In addition the Government would could produce for exports to the Netherlands. To lend substantial funds to the WIC during the a certain extent raw materials imported from the course of its existence. Surinamese economy were processed in sugar, coffee and cacao processing industries in the The territorial scope of the WIC covered Netherlands and then re-exported to Germany, the Netherlands, the West Coast of Africa and the East-Sea countries and the Dutch Colonies, the North East Coast of the America’s. Private by companies where the same merchant bankers entrepreneurs, merchants and other business were the major investors. service providers, later identified as merchant bankers were allowed to trade under the In this paper I will focus on what has ‘umbrella’ of the WIC territory. These private been produced, the value of the production and entrepreneurs paid a commission, called the major beneficiaries in the plantation- ‘recognition fee’ to the WIC. This fee was paid economy of Suriname. The other side of the for the trading of enslaved people as well as for Dutch Colonial success story has to do with trading of material goods. human rights abuses during the period of the plantation economy. I.e. how the ancestors of In January 1624 the Dutch gathered current people of Suriname and these of similar several fleets near the Cape Verde Islands. Their countries in the world produced under conditions intention was to implement the so called ‘Great of forced labour. The second element in this Design’. This was the plan that the Dutch had paper is how the Surinamese people and the designed to conquer San Salvador the largest Dutch people can proceed towards the future. sugar harbour of Brazil and at the same time This approach will bring us to the centre of the attack Sao Paolo de Loando, the largest slave debate on the subject matter of Reparations.