Lambert van Tweenhuysen

Lambert van Tweenhuysen (1564 in Zwolle – 1625 in Amsterdam) was a prominent Lutheran merchant at Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century. Born of a well-known patrician family, he had contacts ranging from Archangel and Spitsbergen to North America, and from Northwest Africa to Istanbul. He traded in a wide variety of items, including salt, corn, wine, wood, linseed, textiles, tar, soap, furs, spices, and pearls. He had trade connections in the Baltic, France, Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean.^[1]

In 1612 Van Tweenhuysen was the investor/administrator of a company in Amsterdam that sent the first Dutch walrus-hunting expedition to Spitsbergen under the command of Willem Cornelisz. van Muyden. The following year he again sent Van Muyden to Spitsbergen, this time on a whaling expedition.^[2] In 1614 he was among the founders of both the New Netherland Company (Nieuw-Nederland Compagnie) and the Northern Company (Noordsche Compagnie). The former was created to monopolize trade with Native Americans in the newly formed Dutch colony of the same name; while the latter was formed to monopolize whaling in the Arctic, in particular at Spitsbergen (Svalbard). For years Van Tweehuysen collaborated with Samuel Godijn, both pioneers.

Footnotes

References

• Mehmet Bulut Ottoman-Dutch economic relations: in the early modern period 1571-1699 Uitgeverij Verloren, 2001 ISBN 90-6550-655-1
• Dalgård, Sune (1962). Dansk-Norsk Hvalfangst 1615-1660: En Studie over Danmark-Norges Stilling i Europæisk Merkantil Expansion. G.E.C Gads Forlag.