ments and by the Company's trade monopoly.[1] Information of the feeble state of the settlement was brought to the States General, who, on April 26, 1638, directed the Assembly of the XIX. of the West India Company to take effectual steps in the settlement of their colony by inviting all good inhabitants of the Netherlands by suitable inducements to populate those parts.[2] This action upon the part of the States General had a most beneficial effect upon the future policy of the Company and the welfare of their colony. In the following September trade with the colony was thrown open to all inhabitants of the Netherlands and their allies. Each settler was promised as much land as he and his family could cultivate,[3] while the new freedom of trade made it possible for him to stock his farm and secure supplies from Europe. In these orders, however, there was no provision for local popular government, for all political power, except upon the patroon estates, still remained in the hands of the Company's officials.
The first step toward local self-government came shortly after the orders of 1638. In 1640 the patroon concessions of 1629 were materially modified by a curtailment of the powers and territory of the patroons, by the addition of inducements to smaller colonists, and by the promise of local political privileges.[4] The provisions respecting town government were based upon the customs of Holland, where the form prevailed of nominating a double or triple number of candidates for the village offices, from which the local lord or authority selected a single number to fill the positions. The new provision reads:
"And should it happen that the dwelling-places of private colonists become so numerous as to be accounted towns, villages or cities, the Company shall give orders respecting the subaltern government, magistrates, and ministers of justice, who shall be nominated by the said towns and villages in a triple number of the best qualified, from which a choice and selection is to be made by the Governor and Council; and those shall determine all questions and suits within their district."
This order was subsequently modified so that
