Isaac Le Maire (c. 1559 – 20 September 1624) was a Dutch merchant, entrepreneur and investor. After building an extensive trading network linking Antwerp, Amsterdam, the Baltic, Russia and southern Europe, he became one of the principal investors in the pre-VOC trading companies and one of the largest individual shareholders in the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Following his forced resignation as a VOC director in 1605, he became the company's most persistent critic. His opposition to the VOC monopoly culminated in financing the 1615–1617 expedition of Willem Schouten and his son Jacob Le Maire, which discovered the Strait of Le Maire and rounded Cape Horn, establishing a new route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Early life
Isaac Le Maire was born in 1559 in Antwerp.His birth year is inferred from a document dated 21 October 1599, which states that Isaac le Maire was forty years old. Denucé, J. (1934) Oostersche Handel te Antwerpen in de 16e Eeuw. Antwerp: De Sikkel, p. 145. Poelhekke, J.J. (1924) "Isaac Le Maire." In: Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, vol. 6, pp. 812–816. His father Jacques Le Maire and his uncle Adam were merchants from Tournai who became citizens of Antwerp in 1555.Gelderblom, Oscar. (2013, ) Cities of Commerce: The Institutional Foundations of International Trade in the Low Countries, 1250–1650. Princeton University Press, p. 187. The Le Maire family traded with the Baltic port of Narva within a broader network of Tournai-origin merchant families, including the Van de Walle family.Wijnroks, E.H. (2013) Handel tussen Rusland en de Nederlanden, 1560–1640. Hilversum: Verloren, 2003, pp. 84–86. Isaac later became the brother-in-law of Jacques van de Walle, a trader in silk and a pioneer in the trade with Russia.Wijnroks, E.H. (2003).
Isaac had three brothers who were also merchants. Around 1600 his brother Pieter represented Isaac in Hamburg. David settled in Livorno in 1604, and after David's death in 1617 another brother, Salomon, took over the family's business there.Wijnroks, E.H. (2003), pp. 254–255. By 1584 he was registered in Antwerp as a wealthy grocer in de Kaasstraat, close to the Steen.Tom Dieusaert: Rond de Kaap. Isaac le Maire contra de VOC. Ertsberg, Deurne 2024 Poelhekke, J.J. "Isaac Le Maire," NNBW 6 (1924), p. 813. At the same time he served as captain of a company of the Antwerp schutterij.Denucé, J. (1934), p. 148. In 1584 he married Maria Jacobsdochter Walraven, with whom he had two children, according to Dieusaert, born before the family's departure.Tom Dieusaert: Rond de Kaap. Isaac le Maire contra de VOC. Ertsberg, Deurne 2024 After the Fall of Antwerp, he decided to move to the northern Netherlands.Israel, Jonathan. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477–1806. Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 213–215.
Amsterdam In 1586 the family settled in Warmoesstraat; archival records confirm the baptims of about 13 children of their children.Amsterdam Municipal Archives, Doopregisters (baptism registers). In 1592 his name appeared for the first time in Amsterdam records as a participant in one of the city's earliest documented marine insurance policies.Denucé, J. Oostersche Handel te Antwerpen in de 16e Eeuw. Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1934, pp. 201–202. In the following years he expanded his activities in European maritime trade.Israel, Jonathan. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477–1806. Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 220–221. Le Maire's career is firmly rooted in the world of prominent Flemish merchants. In 1593 his brother-in-law Jacques van de Walle encountered financial difficulties. Le Maire assumed responsibility for his outstanding debts and took over much of the family's trade with Russia, further strengthening his position in Baltic and northern European commerce. He was able to make substantial investments by securing warrant positions within his direct and extended family network.Gelderblom, Oscar. Cities of Commerce: The Institutional Foundations of International Trade in the Low Countries, 1250–1650. Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 189–190.
In 1595, Le Maire entered into partnership with Dirck van Os in organizing an expedition to obtain salt in Setúbal and transport it to Arkhangelsk. Together with Van Os he formed a company for trading with Russia.Wijnroks, E.H. Handel tussen Rusland en de Nederlanden, 1560–1640. Hilversum: Verloren, 2003, pp. 122–124. They shipped Baltic grain and timber to Spain, while ships carrying leather, wax, furs, and caviar were often destined for Venice and Livorno.Boxer, C.R. The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600–1800. Penguin, 1990, pp. 36–37. Their firm also traded in bills of exchange, engaged in chartering, and dealt in various forms of marine insurance.Gaastra, F.S. The Dutch East India Company: Expansion and Decline. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003, p. 24. Between 1594 and 1598 he also played a major role in the fish trade between British ports and Spain.Unger, Richard W. Netherlands Fishery in the Seventeenth Century. Brill, 1980, p. 51. In 1597 Le Maire entrusted his brother Pieter with the sale of most of his wife's houses and properties in Antwerp, bringing the family's remaining interests there largely to an end. The economic crisis of 1597 marked a turning point in Dutch overseas commerce. As access to Iberian markets became increasingly restricted, Dutch merchants sought direct access to Asian markets, creating new opportunities for investors such as Le Maire.
In 1598 Le Maire acquired land in Egmond aan den Hoef from the debt-ridden Lamoraal II van Egmont. The following year he purchased additional property in Huisduinen, a remote coastal village strategically situated near the approaches to the Texel roadstead, where returning East Indiamen passed before on their way to Amsterdam.Schoorl, J. Isaac le Maire en de ontdekking van Kaap Hoorn. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2000, pp. 176–177. In 1599 Le Maire became a principal investor in the New Brabant Company.Isaac Le Maire and the early trading in Dutch East India Company shares by J.G. van Dillen, Geoffrey Poitras and Asha Majithia The company's expedition to Asia, which departed in December 1599, proved highly profitable and greatly increased his fortune.Israel, Jonathan (1995), p. 225. Previous instructions stated to avoid Portuguese ships and not to engage in any battle, except in cases of self-defense.NA 5075-8- 196/140v-142, dd 4 december 1608; not J.F. Bruyningh
Although the Brabant Company had received permission to trade with China, its first expedition went no farther east than Bantam, where the company established a trading post. By the end of the sixteenth century Le Maire had become one of the leading private investors involved in the pre-VOC Asian trade. His investments in the Brabant Company, together with his established activities in the Russia trade and Baltic commerce, made him one of the most influential private entrepreneurs in Amsterdam on the eve of the foundation of the VOC.
It wasn’t until 1601 that he decided to become a burgher of Amsterdam, likely in connection with the merger of the Brabant Company and the Old Company into the First United East Indies Company.Gelderblom, Oscar (2013), pp. 191–192. This company, in which Le Maire was a major investor, equipped eight ships for the East Indies under the command of Jacob van Heemskerk, laying the foundations for his prominent role in the establishment of the VOC in 1602.Gaastra, F.S. (2003), p. 27. On December 4, 1602, the expedition’s insurers had a notary issue a demand for payment because several ships under Jacques Mahu had not returned within the agreed-upon three-year period. The deed indicates that Isaac and Salomon le Maire were also among the insurers involved.NA 5075-93-f. 90 His activities demonstrate how leading Amsterdam merchants combined European commerce, financial services, maritime trade and strategic investments in land and overseas ventures.
Shareholder of the Dutch East India Company
In 1602, at the insistence of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the Dutch trading companies active in the East Indies were united in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Le Maire subscribed 85,000 guilders, making him the company's largest individual investor. He was one of 1,143 subscribers to the capital of the Amsterdam Chamber, among whom 301 were immigrants from the Southern Netherlands, illustrating the prominent role played by Flemish and Brabantine merchants in the foundation of the company.Dillen, J.G. van (1958) Het oudste aandeelhoudersregister van de Kamer Amsterdam der Oost-Indische Compagnie. Le Maire became one of the Amsterdam Chamber's original directors (bewindhebbers).
Apart from its own fleets, the VOC also administered the accounts of Jacob van Heemskerck's expedition, which had been organized before the founding of the VOC in 1602. The expedition became controversial after Van Heemskerck captured the Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina near Singapore in 1603. A dispute over the administration and settlement of the expedition's accounts eventually led to Le Maire's resignation as a director in 1605. Under the terms of the settlement, he agreed not to compete directly with the company in the East Indies.Van Dillen, J.G.; Poitras, Geoffrey; & Majithia, Asha (2006). "Isaac Le Maire and the Early Trading in Dutch East India Company Shares." In: Geoffrey Poitras (ed.), Pioneers of Financial Economics, Volume I: Contributions Prior to Irving Fisher. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 45–63.
Opposition to the VOC monopoly
Despite his departure from the VOC, Le Maire remained in contact with leading government officials. In early January 1606 he supplied Johan van Oldenbarnevelt with recent political, financial and maritime intelligence received through his international correspondence network, including reports on the expected arrival of Spanish silver from the Indies, monetary developments in Brussels, and the financing of Ambrogio Spinola's war effort in the Low Countries.NA 3.01.14-517, Inventaris van het archief van Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, 1586–1619.
Le Maire also sought ways of participating in the Asian trade outside the VOC monopoly. One possibility was involvement in French attempts to establish direct trade with Asia. Such plans predated Le Maire's involvement: in 1605 Henry IV of France repeatedly asked the States General for permission to build or purchase ships in the Dutch Republic and recruit experienced captains, pilots and sailors for a French expedition to the East Indies.Deventer, Marinus Lodewijk van (1860), Gedenkstukken van Johan van Oldenbarnevelt en zijn tijd, verzameld en met inleiding en aanteekeningen, pp. 46–47. From at least 1608 Le Maire was involved in discussions concerning French participation in the Asian trade.Asher, G. M. (ed.), "A letter from President Jeannin to Henry IV of France, containing an account of his Negociation with Henry Hudson, through Isaac Le Maire", in: Henry Hudson the Navigator: The Original Documents in Which His Career Is Recorded, Cambridge Library Collection – Hakluyt First Series, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 244–253. The States General, however, were reluctant to permit Dutch maritime expertise and resources to be used for a potential competitor to the VOC.
In late 1608, while Henry Hudson was in Amsterdam, Le Maire approached him about undertaking a voyage in search of a northeast passage to Asia under French auspices. The Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC subsequently resumed negotiations with Hudson. On 29 December 1608 it appointed two committees to organize the expedition, and on 8 January 1609 Hudson signed a contract; the cartographer Jodocus Hondius assisted him as interpreter.Hart, S. (1959), "Amsterdam-Hudson, 350 jaar", Maandblad Amstelodamum, pp. 52–53.