Lobbying in Company: Economic Interests and Political Decision Making in the History of Dutch Brazil, 1621-1656

In Lobbying in Company, Joris van den Tol argues that people made a difference in the Dutch West India Company colony in Brazil (1630-1654). Through a combination of petitions, personal relations, and public opinion, individuals were able to exercise influence on the decision-making process regarding Dutch Brazil. His thorough analysis of these different elements offers a new perspective on the Atlantic and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century as well as a better understanding of lobbying in the early modern period.

Joris van den Tol (Ph.D., Leiden 2018) is a visiting postdoctoral scholar at Harvard’s History Department on a NWO Rubicon fellowship. He has published on petitions in relation to the colonies in Brazil, New Netherland, and Taiwan and on smuggling.