Peter Minuit , Pierre Minuit , or Peter Minnewit (between 1580 and 1585 - August 5, 1638) is a Walloon of Wesel, in present North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is part of the Duchy of Cleves. His family name means "midnight" in French. He was Director of the Dutch colony of the North American New Netherland from 1626 to 1631, and founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden on the Delaware Peninsula in 1638.
Minuit is generally credited with orchestrating the purchase of Manhattan Island to the Dutch from Native American Lenape. Manhattan then became the location of the Dutch city of New Amsterdam, and the Manhattan district of modern New York City. A general account states that Minuit buys Manhattan worth $ 24 worth of trinkets. A letter written by Dutch merchant Peter Schaghen to the directors of the Dutch East India Company declared that Manhattan was purchased "at a value of 60 guilders" in the form of goods, an amount valued at approximately $ 1,050 in 2015 dollars.
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Biography
Initial life
Peter Minuit was born between 1580 and 1585, becoming a Calvinist family who moved from the city of Tournai (now part of Wallonia, Belgium) in the South of Holland, to the Wesel in Germany, to avoid the Spanish Catholic colony, which was disliked in exile to Protestantism.
His father, Johan, died in 1609 and Peter took over the management of his father's household and business. Peter has a good reputation in Wesel, evidenced by the fact that he was appointed several times as a guardian. He also helped the poor during the Spanish occupation of 1614-1619.
Minuit married Gertrude Raedts on August 20, 1613. Gertrude came from a wealthy family and he probably helped Peter Minuit establish himself as a broker. A determination made in 1615 in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, called "Peter Minnewit" as a diamond cutter. Whether he trades in other goods is unknown.
In 1624, the city suffered an economic downturn and in 1625, he abandoned the Wesel and like the others, going to the Netherlands. At first, Gertrude went to live with his relatives in Cleve.
As director of New Netherland
Minuit and his family joined the Dutch West India Company, probably in the mid-1620s, and sent to New Netherland in 1625 to search for tradable goods other than fur which later became the main product originating from New Netherland. He returned the same year, and in 1626 was appointed as new director in New Netherland, taking over from Willem Verhulst. He sailed to North America and arrived at the colony on May 4, 1626.
Minuit is credited with purchasing Manhattan Island from Native Americans in exchange for traded goods worth 60 guilders. According to author Nathaniel Benchley, Minuit made deals with Seyseys, the chief of the Canarsees, who were only too happy to receive valuables instead of an island largely controlled by Weckquaesgeeks.
The figure of 60 guilders came from a letter by a representative of the Dutch State-General and a member of the board of the West Indies Company, Pieter Janszoon Schagen, to the General-State in November 1626. In 1846, the New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the Fl 60 (or 60 guilders) to US $ 23. The popular account rounded this up to $ 24. In 2006, sixty guilders in 1626 were worth about $ 1,000 in current dollars, according to the Institute for the Social History of Amsterdam.
According to the researchers at the National Library of the Netherlands, "The natives of the area are not familiar with the idea of ​​Europe and the definition of property rights For Indians, water, air and land can not be traded.This exchange will also be difficult in practical terms because many groups migrate between their summers and winters. "It can be concluded that both parties may come home with a very different interpretation of the sales agreement."
A contemporary rights purchase in nearby Staten Island, which is also a Minuit is a party, which involves backpacks, metal kettles, ax heads, hoes, wampum, drilling rounds, "Jewish harp", and "other diverse items". "If similar merchandise is involved in Manhattan arrangements," Burrows and Wallace suspect, "then the Netherlands is involved in the transfer of high-end technology, handing over very large utility equipment in various tasks ranging from clearing land to wastewater drilling."
Minuit does politics in the size of democracy in the colony during his time in New Netherland. He was the highest judge in the colony, but in civil and criminal affairs he was assisted by the council of five colonists. This advisory body will advise the director and together with him will develop, organize, and prosecute a legal entity to help organize the colony. In addition there is a schout-fiscal, half sheriff, half attorney general, and customs officers. During the Minuit administration, several factories were built, trade grew exponentially, and the population grew to nearly 300.
In 1631, the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) suspended Minuit from his post for unclear reasons, but possibly because (perhaps inadvertently) conspiring with the landowning patrons involved in the illegal fur trade and otherwise enriching themselves against the interests and orders of the Company West India. He arrived back in Europe in August 1632 to explain his actions, but was dismissed and replaced as a director by Wouter van Twiller. It is possible that Minuit has become a victim of internal disputes over rights established by the board of directors.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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