[several lines lost] brought here [ ] of the Company [ ] uijt haalende, to pay [ to the director general ] and councilors or their receiver [ ] of all the goods and merchandise being transported from here to elsewhere by water or ship, which one percent on all such merchandise the director general and councilors—aware of the smuggling which would result from that, and many other inconveniences too long to elaborate here— until this date did not receive. But to avoid disturbance and decline, they tried and sought to find the equivalent from few and less necessary merchandises, such as wines and beers and distilled spirits, and only burden those, instead of all the others, with 2 or 3 guilders per ancker for Spanish wines, brandies, and spirits, and three guilders per tonne for domestically brewed beer. And whether the yield thereof, for reasons mentioned before only imposed on the wines and beers, would not level to fewer taxes for the merchant and less decline of trade, the yield which will be drawn with more trouble and discredit, and to a greater burden of the trader, and to which, according to the contract, the director general and councilors on account of one percent on all transported merchandise are entitled, [ and which ] therefore, to the convenience, advantage, and greater ease of the merchant, deliberately has not been drawn so far. But some worried minds, whose names the director general and councilors conceal for the sake of respect and peace, who have in mind neither the favor of the director general and councilors nor their own benefit and convenience, have, as it appears, more with appearance as a basis for a justified complaint, [ ] their [several lines lost] [ ] and in which place the [ ] wines was set, namely, [ ] of the one percent due, upon which then, last year, and now once again, followed [ an order ] of withdrawal, but with the stipulation and earnest recommendation of the collection of the one percent, according to contract. The director general and councilors (although, according to them, it tends to be more of a burden for the merchant, trouble and concern for the executor, and decline of the trade) in obedience to the aforesaid lords directors, intending to put this order into practice, initially, merely at the request to specifically declare the exported goods, met with unexpected opposition in an unbearable way. And whereas presently all the director general and councilors can see is that this novelty will not cause satisfaction for the English tobacco traders, but sooner displeasure and decline, and definite obstruction of trade, insomuch as the ordered one percent in question of all goods to be exported is collected from them, and [ it ] will not give the Dutch merchant any profit insomuch as, according to order, he has to pay that. Except for that, it will cause great trouble for the fiscal, tax collector, or executor, and loss of time for the departing skipper in inspecting the goods in order to prevent smuggling. In order to avoid this, and to remove the possibility of further complaints, the director general and councilors, before implementing the further practice regarding the introduction of the one percent instead of the imposition on wines only, for their better accountability, found it necessary, first, and before the more detailed advice of [several lines lost] of the sellers [ ] obligates the bringers [ ] to demand
[ ]; inasmuch as [ ] otherwise having [ ] to
be prepared for the sale [ ] barter of the goods brought by them against tobacco, and to let the English know what they have to pay to the director general and councilors in order to prevent all exceptions and discord.
Regarding the domestically brewed beers that are being transported out of this province, the director general and councilors consider that these, because they do not concern the contract and pay no recognition fees in the fatherland, are subject to the 8 percent, or at least to what was previously levied on that. After investigation of the above notification it is resolved to summon some of the most important merchants of this city to the meeting, to read this to them, and to hear their answers and claims. Done at the session of the honorable lord director general and councilors, held in Fort Amsterdam in N: Netherland, the 2nd of April 1658.
