ABSTRACT
From the late sixteenth century onwards, when international trade was increasingly viewed as crucial to the wealth and power of states, commercial knowledge became an object of desire and debate throughout Europe for merchants and rulers alike. Border-crossing trade had become a reason of state, and knowledge of trade was thus not only a merchant’s but also a statesman’s business. Knowledge of goods, markets, and the reputation of trading partners could decide the success or failure of a trading company. Willem Usselincx belonged to the group of Calvinist merchants who fled the Southern Netherlands after the fall of Antwerp in 1585. According to his Sommier Verhael, Usselincx first travelled and traded in Spain, Portugal, and the Azores, before moving to Middelburg and then to Amsterdam. Usselincx consequently became one of the first Dutch authors to formulate a Calvinist ideology in which commercial and political interests were merged.
