Short notes on the VOC
(Dutch East Indian Company)
After the Portuguese had lost their controll over trade with the East indies, the Dutch saw an enormous opportunity to take over business.
Amsterdam, also under the influence of their new inhabitants, the traders from Antwerp, were the first to venture to the Indies. The profits it brought was the start of a vigorous 'race' for those riches.
The resulting competition among themselves, at that time, was a serious risk that had to be avoided. So the foundation of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) was chartered in 1602.
Founded on this charter the company got six Chambers: Amsterdam, Zeeland, Rotterdam and in the cities that organized expeditions of their own: Delft, Hoorn and Enkhuizen.
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Profit and cost were proportionally devided according to a fixed ratio (Amsterdam, Zeeland, the smaller Chambers Rotterdam, Delft, Hoorn and Enkhuizen all 1/16). The six Chambers all got their own board of directors, the socalled Rulers.
The Zeeland Chamber was located in Middelburg. since most rulers of the chambers demanded demanded a seat in the board, the VOC started off with 76 directors, which gradually was reduced to 60, but still a rather board of directors.
The renewal of the charter largely depended on the support of the State and the counties of Zeeland and Holland. For that reason the knighthood of Holland obtained a seat in the board.
Between 1613 and 1665 a.d. several cities got a hold on affairs in the VOC. The had the right for a post in the respective chambers. next to that local chambers were expanded with several extra-ordinairy seats for rulers without the right to vote. Gouda was a city that managed to get such a seat in the board of Amsterdam.
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The main board of directors would consist from directors from the respective chambers.
In this Board of Seventeen, also known as De heren XVII, Amsterdam took eight seats, Zeeland four and each of the smaller chambers one. The position of Amsterdam in this board clearly was strong, but not formally. The seventeenth seat would be taken in turn by each of the chambers.
The board gathered a couple of times a year to negotiate the state of affairs.
The meetings had a fixed agenda, with topics like the numbers of ships to be built and sent for Asia, and the amount of money to be given to the fleet for purchasing the goods in the East. In fact, this board took care of all the aspects of the trade with Asia: from auctions till the exact route to be taken to Asia.
The Advocat, the secretary of the Amsterdam Chamber, prepared each meeting, which resulted in its dominant position.
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The VOC had a strong influence on many aspects of Dutch society in those days: not only were products traded and profits made but like a pebble thrown in a pond the effects stretched from distribution till local industries.
60percent of all goods were traded for further export to companies abroad. The rest reached customers throughout the Netherlands by retailers. grocers, tailors, tea merchants and many other retailers were dependent on the imports by the VOC.
The VOC was a private stock company empowered to trade, make treaties, build fortressess, maintain troops and operate courts of law in all the East Indies lands.
The VOC gradually developed into a true multinational with dependencies in over 10 Asian countries. halfway through the 18th century the company employed 25.000 men (3.000 in Holland alone: clerks, carpenters, porters, the directors and stockholders ). The VOC built its own ships, up to a total of 1.500, which altogether managed 5.000 journeys to the East. This all meant that many people on shore depended on the ventures the traders and bold sailors took to the potentially dangerous journeys to those remote parts far far away.
Generally ships assembled fleets to set sail for the Indies, mainly in order for protection when danger would rear its ugly head. often the ships were accompanied by heavily armed warships to frighten off any ships with hostile intentions.
Once there the cargo carried to the east would be traded to purchase goods for the Asian market, which was just as important as trade between Asia and Europe.
By the time enough products were ready for shipment tp Holland, Patria as people used to call it in those days, it was time assemble another fleet for the journey back home.
The VOC has had trade missions (fortified factories) in Cape Goede Hoop, in Arabian countries like Jemen and Irak, and Iran (Persia) and India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Burma (Arrakan), Thailand (Siam), Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. Not necessary to say that many of those missions were lost and gained from time to time. In this light many missions in India were lost to the British during the Fourth English war (1780-1784).
In most places the Dutch were very welcome and could by means of profitable contracts with local rulers perform their businessess undisturbed.
Asia wasn't very interested in European products, which was the main reason why the ships always carried loads of gold and silver. In order to restrain these unwelcome costs the VOC joined local and interregional trade networks. This was one of the main reasons why the VOC kept a local fleet of some 80 smallers vessels in order to take care of local ties.
At the cost of silver cotton was bought in India and traded for spices in Indonesia. Weat, balms and cloth from Siam and Arrakan made a good deal of gold and silver in Japan. Pepper was used to buy coffee at the Arabian peninsula. In spite of the severe measures taken by local Arabs the Dutch were able to smuggle some coffee plants which were successfully planted in Indonesia and Ceylon.
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Internal Indonesian dynasties, continually feuding amongst themselves, were easy prey for such a strong external force, and by the mid-17th century the Dutch found themselves the new masters of huge amounts of unintended and unexpected territory. When sultans asked for Dutch arms and assistance to help put down arival sultan or usurper, the Dutch would always comply. Thus they gained more land in the bargain. Using a combination of arms treaties, treachery and puppets, they became increasingly more involved in the internal affairs of Indonesian states.
The Dutch did everything they could to isolate this closed insular world from all outside contact. They gained their first foothold in Batavia in the early 17th century. Within 10 years they were sinking all non-Dutch vessels they found in Indonesian waters. To protect their interests the Dutch opened strategic fortified "factories", or trading posts, over the length of the archipelago. As a result they became bitter rivals of the English east India Company, who had similar ambitions in the same region.
Merely reaping and collecting the products that were so profitable in the Netherlands wasn't enough to satisfy the VOC. So they sought controll over the sources of production, in which they only succeeded at Java and the Moluccan archipelageo. New crop plants were introduced and plantation agriculture was established and expanded. During their efofrts to develop coffee crops in West Java in 1723, the Dutch appointed supervisors to organize production. This was the beginning of a Dutch administrative system in Indonesia.
The Asian region was way too large for the VOC to maintain a monopoly there and the Dutch had to endure competition from Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Arabian traders, and competion from other European companies that were founded after the Dutch example.
Although trade was restricted by many regulations in order to protect Dutch interests, this was widely embassled by the ship's crews, who often had an agenda of their own. Who was going to controll it? The journey back home was long and offered many opportunities to get rid of these goods before Holland was reached. This eventually led to the bankruptcy of the VOC.
The bankruptcy of the VOC in 1799, due to this corruption and mismanagement, was gradually replaced by industrionalized imperialism in the form of huge burocracy of colonial civil servants. The commercial enterprise had become a colonial empire.
It was only untill the Second World War when the Indonesian discovered that the Dutch were not some sort of suoperbeings, and that they very easily be swept away by an invading force like the Japanese. These finding lead, after the war had ended to a struggle for independence, which after a dirty war was finally achieved.
In these "Police Actions", as Dutch politicians liked to called them, Dutch soldiers proved to be able to behave in just the same brutal way as the hated Nazi-occupiers had demonstrated during the five-year occupation.
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disclaimer:
Parts translated from the Dutch Automobile Association (ANWB) site
©Rick Vermunt