This etching is by the Amsterdam publisher, engraver, globe-maker and art dealer, Johannes de Ram. De Ram was best known for his maps and atlases, some of which were based on the maps of other geographers, some of which were drawn by him. Similarly some of his illustrations were informed by the accounts of early European explorers to Asia, Africa and the New World. Each plate in this series shows two figures dressed in the costume of the country illustrated or in some cases in the costume worn by settlers. In the background are accurate topographical views of cities, in most instances showing a port and ships. These images of costumes of various countries would have appealed to the increasingly fashion-conscious public of the eighteenth century and the inclusion of representations of indigenous peoples would have contributed greatly to the interest and popularity of the series.

Dutch ships sailed across the world to the farthest continents. Trade extended to Asia, Africa and the New World. The Dutch East India Company (VOC), which in the coming two centuries would leave its mark on all of Asia, had been established in 1602 for Dutch trade in the Far East. The Company was directed by bodies of experienced businessmen driven purely by profit and not by missionary zeal. The Dutch were slow to develop trading interests in Africa but, following a series of conflicts with Portugal, gained possession of a number of slave depots on the West African coast. The Dutch West India Company was established in 1621 with jurisdiction over the Atlantic slave trade, the Caribbean and North America. The type of commodities traded by these companies included spices, ivory, tobacco, chocolate, ceramics, fur and in slaves to work the tobacco and cocoa plantations.

The image shows a Dutch man and woman in European dress. The woman is holding a box of tulips and the man is standing next to a barrel of tobacco leaves. Nieu Amsterdam or New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) was a seventeenth century Dutch colonial settlement on the island of Manhattan which served as the capital city of New Netherland. New Netherland had been discovered in 1609 by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch East India Company. The most important commercial product from the region was fur which was bought from the native Indians.