Willem Hendrik Lans (1798-1852).

Proeve over de oorzaken van verval en de middelen tot herstel der Surinaamsche plantaadjen.

Den Haag & Amsterdam, Gebroeders van Cleef, 1829.

8°. [4], 70, [2] pp. including publisher’s ad.

Stiff paper wrappers.

Rare, little-known analysis of the economic decline of colonial Suriname, authored by Willem Hendrik Lans, a white colonial notary and civil servant based in Paramaribo. Biographical information on Lans is scarce; even his full name is not widely known—he is listed by the Dutch National Library (KB) only as "H.W. Lans." However, our archival research confirms his full name as Willem Hendrik Lans (1798–1852). This is his earliest known publication. Two later works on Suriname followed: Bijdrage tot de kennis der kolonie Suriname (The Hague, 1842) and Schets van een ontwerp tot behoud van Suriname: met planteekeningen (The Hague, 1847).
Through our own research, we have been able to establish further biographical details. Lans spent most of his life in Suriname but, as Carl Haarnack has pointed out, he was on leave in the Netherlands in 1828 and again in 1842. Issues of the Surinaamsche Courant between 1834 and 1837 mention Lans as a colonial official, holding the position of civil curator (curator en weesmeester van het departement der onbeheerde boedels der weezen), or “curator of the colony” (Kurator dezer kolonie). We also uncovered additional slavery-related records: Lans manumitted a woman named Susanna Cornelia Buillab on 20 February 1845, and the Archives of Suriname record him as a citizen of Paramaribo who owned eight enslaved persons in 1846. His death certificate, held in the Haags Gemeentearchief, states that he died in 1852 at the age of 54 in The Hague, while on leave from the colony.

In this work, Willem Hendrik Lans offers a data-driven and deeply racialised analysis of the decline of colonial Suriname, attributing its economic downturn to poor land selection, planter vanity, overinvestment in lavish buildings, and irresponsible credit practices. Drawing on his experience as a tax official, he contrasts past and present export figures to illustrate the colony’s decline, while asserting that its survival depends entirely on slavery. He dismisses free labour as unworkable, argues that enslaved Africans are not overworked, and blames demographic imbalances for the falling slave population. Lans presents white Europeans as unfit for physical labour in the tropics, depicts Indigenous people as extinct or unemployable, and describes Maroons and free people of colour in demeaning terms. He condemns plantation administrators for prioritising personal profit and urges absentee owners in the Netherlands to take direct control. The book is framed as a patriotic intervention in the so-called “Surinaamsche quaestie”, with Lans claiming to act in the colony’s best interest based on his 24 years of experience.

Very rare: no copies recorded at auction, none in the trade, not in JCB.

Condition: Ex-libris “Van Cys” on back of front cover. Note in pencil on half-title. Spine worn. Contents in very good condition.

Reference: Doorne/Kempen 3880; Knuttel 25858.

For bio of Lans see:

Haags Gemeentearchief te Den Haag, BS Overlijden / Ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand van de gemeente 's-Gravenhage, 's-Gravenhage, archief 0335-01, inventaris­num­mer 1251, 07-02-1852, Overlijdensakten Den Haag, aktenummer 193.

Carl Haarnack, Buku – Bibliotheca Surinamica, “Proeve over de oorzaken van verval. W.H. Lans (1829)”, November 11, 2018. See: bukubooks.wordpress.com

Nationaal Archief), Suriname: Vrijgelaten slaven en hun eigenaren (manumissies), Voornaam: Susanna Cornelia. Online at: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/index/nt00340/130c90a7-e9ec-4091-9108-2ed6c2e1dbcd

Nationaal Archief Suriname, Wijkregister Paramaribo. Online at: https://www.openarchieven.nl/nas:1b0066c0-daab-37ab-e30e-1c35cda3f4c4/nl.