ABSTRACT
The Chartered West India Company of the Netherlands was first projected in 1607. The Executive Committee was the Assembly of Nineteen to which reference is so frequently made in the Company's proceedings. In 1632 the Assembly of Nineteen, seeing that Essequibo had made but little progress since its settlement, proposed its abandonment, but the Zeeland Chamber opposed this and resolved to continue at its own cost the upkeep of the colony. The leading shareholders of each of these Chambers—that is to say those who held a certain fixed minimum interest—elected a number of directors who managed the affairs of the Chamber and were generally referred to as the Chamber itself. In 1791 the rule of the West India Company came to an end and the administration of the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo was entrusted to a Council appointed by the Government.
