Although the colony is nowadays primarily associated with Atlantic slave trade, this was not the reason for the first Dutch traders to trade with the Gold Coast. Barent Eriksz made a profit trading gold, ivory, and West African pepper, and these products remained the primary trading goods in the early 17th century. According to Joannes de Laet, the Dutch West India had transported West-African goods worth 14 million Dutch guilders to the Dutch Republic by 1637, of which the most important was the trade in gold.