On the Duties of Merchants

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In 1602 the States General of the new Dutch Republic established the United East India Company. This first multinational corporation dominated international trade for nearly two centuries. The Dutch Reformed minister Daniel Souterius (1571-1634) dedicated his De officiis mercatorum (1615) to its directors. Translated here for the first time, this work is an apology for commerce from the early days of the Dutch Republic. It precedes the famous oration On the Wise Merchant from Caspar Barlaeus by almost two decades and shows no traces of what has been called the "embarrassment of riches." In addressing all Christian merchants, it frees itself of interconfessional controversy and outlines a set of norms to evaluate commercial activity. Souterius's book adopts the humanist method of "patchwork" introduced by Justus Lipsius, combining well-chosen quotations from a wide range of classical and Christian authors. This translation sheds new light on the early history of Dutch economic thought and on the ethics of commerce in the early modern period.