According to an explicit " Eeport on the Condition of New Netherland," presented to the States-General in 163S, the company declared that up to that time it had suffered a net loss in its New Netherland enterprise; that it was utterly unable to people the country; and that " nothing now comes from New Netherland but beaver skins, minks, and other furs." Closely following the submission of this significant report came a new departure in policy as to colonization, which had far-reaching effects, and under which before long a tide of immigration began to roll into our section. Eealizing at last that the splendid scheme of patroonships, or a landed aristocracy, instituted in 1629, appealed only to a limited class of ambitious and wealthy men, who could never be relied upon to perform the tedious and financially hazardous work of settling the country with a purely agricultural population, the States-General on September 2,1038, at the instance of the company, made known to the world that henceforth the soil of New Netherland would be open to all comers, of whatever position in society, whether natives of the home country or inhabitants of other nations not at war with the Netherlands.
The specific terms attached to this very radical proposition were the following: " All and every the inhabitants of this State, or its allies and friends," were invited to take up and cultivate lands in New Netherland, and to engage in traffic with the people of that region. Per-, sons taking advantage of the offer of traffic were required to have their goods conveyed on the ships of the West India Company, paying an export duty of ten per cent, on merchandise sent out from the ports of the Netherlands, and an import duty of fifteen per cent, on merchandise brought thither from New Netherland.