EUTopia CoLeCo Legal History: Collective and Individual Rights in Legal History

  The Legal Debate Around the Ostend Company (1722-1731) Introduction The Ostend Company (1723-1731), officially known as  The General Company Established in the Austrian Netherlands for Commerce and Navigation in the Indies,  reflects an interesting chapter in European history that intertwines with commerce, diplomacy, and international law. The focus of this blog post will be on the Ostend Company which sought to expand its trade into the far corners of the world which brought a heated legal debate across the continent. This was no small feat given the fact that the Ostend Company only existed for a short period. Within a decade of its establishment in 1723, the Ostend Company was able to take a formidable presence in the global tea trade. (1) Lettres Patentes, title page of the Company's 1722 foundation charter, source:  Europeana Background The 18 th  century is marked by shifting alliances and colonial rivalries. The two most important figures on the global market are the  VOC

I. The Central Level   The sovereign   In the Austrian Low Countries, monarchs did not bear the title of "Emperor or Empress of the Netherlands", but rather that of Duke of Brabant, Count of Flanders, Count of Namur, Count of Hainaut, Lord of Malines... and so on. This was so because the sovereign of the Netherlands ruled over a personal union composed of counties and duchies located in the Southern Netherlands. Their independence and individual constitutional incorporation were in theory guaranteed in this way, however, by having a common sovereign, similarities between those united in a personal union show.  Map of the Austrian Low Countries   (source: KBR )  Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740), who ruled (de facto) from 1716 on, had no male heirs to inherit the Habsburg hereditary lands, to protect the rights of his daughters, he enacted the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713 and had it recognized by the Estates of the Habsburg lands. This allowed his eldest daughter, archduchess Mari