At the Zeeland Archives in Middelburg, you’ll find one of the most confronting collections in the Netherlands: the archive of the Middelburg Commerce Company (MCC). This trading company was active in the transatlantic slave trade during the 18th century. Its archive offers a rare, complete, and unflinching look into the inner workings of this system.
The collection includes logbooks, travel reports, financial records, and correspondence. It is one of the most comprehensive archives on the history of the slave trade anywhere in the world, and has therefore been recognised as part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The archive sheds light on daily life aboard slave ships, the economic reasoning behind this inhumane trade, and the suffering of tens of thousands of people who were forcibly transported.
The MCC archive reveals how economic expansion, landscape, and human lives are deeply interconnected.
The harbours, shipyards, and warehouses of the delta were part of a global trade network, with lasting consequences. These archives hold the evidence: that prosperity often came at a cost, and that the landscape still bears the scars of the past.