Plane nostris moribus: customary financing on future salary by the Dutch East India Company

Abstract

Transferring claims has traditionally been a dogmatic near impossibility in the civilian institutional tradition. In practice, however, contractual creativity provided space to develop a variety of mechanisms for transferring claims. Our paper explores such a mechanism, which financed the seamen of the Dutch East India Company (voc), on the basis of their claims to future salary. The associated document, the so-called transportbrief, started from a seaman’s debt, which by mandate the Company accepted to pay to the bearer of the document, if conditions as performance of labor obligations were met. Payment practice itself was carefully orchestrated by resolutions of the voc board, the Heeren xvii, thereby tailoring market and law according to the various interests involved.