Maurice, Prince of Orange
The Pagets became wealthy. They owned at least two houses in Amsterdam and bought shares in the Dutch West India Company, launched with the backing of the States General of the Netherlands in 1621, and part of a new aggressive turn in Dutch foreign policy promoted by powerful Amsterdam merchants, the Counter-remonstrants or extreme Calvinists and Maurice, Prince of Orange. Their investment was part of their political stance, as the Company was involved in an offensive against Catholic Spain and Portugal. However, after a huge 75% dividend for the year 1629–30, it yielded little or no income: its defence costs far outstripped its receipts from the Atlantic slave trade and the sugar and dyewood produced by plantation slavery.