This article examines the decision-making process for a new fort which the Dutch West India Company proposed to build near Takoradi in present-day Ghana in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. By closely following the process of design, evaluation, and redesign of the fort, this article argues that the WIC was institutionally incapable of coordinating and carrying out such a complex project. The original design for the new fort was made in 1774 by Johan Frederik Trenks, a Silesian-born engineer who, as it turned out, was not current with modern design practices and used Dutch examples from the first half of the seventeenth century. The design was sent to the Netherlands for evaluation and returned with scathing criticism. The long, drawn-out process of design, evaluation, and redesign of what was after all a relatively small fort show the institutional paralysis of the WIC in the years leading up to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–84). Though the fort would never be completed, construction did begin shortly before the war. The conflict, followed shortly thereafter by the dissolution of the WIC, meant the project would never be completed.

中文翻译：

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在黄金海岸设计新堡垒：Johan Fredrik Trenks、WIC 和 Takoradi 的新堡垒，1774-1791

本文考察了荷兰西印度公司于 18 世纪第三季度提议在现今加纳的塔科拉迪附近建造一座新堡垒的决策过程。通过密切关注堡垒的设计、评估和重新设计过程，本文认为 WIC 在体制上无法协调和执行如此复杂的项目。新堡垒的最初设计是由 Johan Frederik Trenks 于 1774 年设计的，他是一位出生于西里西亚的工程师，结果证明他并不适应现代设计实践，而是使用了 17 世纪上半叶的荷兰例子。该设计被送往荷兰进行评估，并遭到严厉批评。漫长而漫长的设计、评估、对毕竟相对较小的堡垒进行的重新设计表明，在第四次英荷战争（1780-84 年）之前的几年里，WIC 的制度瘫痪。虽然堡垒永远不会完工，但在战争前不久就开始建造。冲突之后不久 WIC 解散，这意味着该项目将永远无法完成。