Dutch East India Company
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (October 2023) |
Native name |
|
---|---|
Company type | |
Industry | Proto-conglomerate |
Predecessor | Voorcompagnieën/Pre-companies (1594–1602)[b] |
Founded | 20 March 1602 States-General | ,
Defunct | 31 December 1799 |
Fate | Dissolved and nationalised as Dutch East Indies |
Headquarters |
|
Area served |
|
Key people | |
Products | slaves |
The United East India Company (
Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asian trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent nearly a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods and slaves. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly and slave trading activities through most of the 17th century.[11]
Having been set up in 1602 to profit from the
Weighed down by smuggling, corruption and growing administrative costs in the late 18th century, the company went bankrupt and was formally dissolved in 1799. Its possessions and debt were taken over by the government of the Dutch Batavian Republic.
Company name, logo, and flag
In Dutch, the name of the company was the Vereenigde Nederlandsche Geoctroyeerde Oostindische Compagnie (abbreviated as the VOC), literally the 'United Dutch Chartered East India Company' (the United East India Company).
Around the world, and especially in English-speaking countries, the VOC is widely known as the 'Dutch East India Company'. The name 'Dutch East India Company' is used to make a distinction from the [British] East India Company (EIC) and other East Indian companies (such as the Danish East India Company, French East India Company, Portuguese East India Company, and the Swedish East India Company). The company's alternative names that have been used include the 'Dutch East Indies Company', 'United East India Company', 'Jan Company', or 'Jan Compagnie'.[17][18]
History
Origins
Before the
In 1580, the
The stage was thus set for Dutch expeditions to the
In 1598, an increasing number of fleets were sent out by competing merchant groups from around the Netherlands. Some fleets were lost, but most were successful, with some voyages producing high profits. In 1598, a
In 1600, the Dutch joined forces with the Muslim Hituese on Ambon Island in an anti-Portuguese alliance, in return for which the Dutch were given the sole right to purchase spices from Hitu.[21] Dutch control of Ambon was achieved when the Portuguese surrendered their fort in Ambon to the Dutch-Hituese alliance. In 1613, the Dutch expelled the Portuguese from their Solor fort, but a subsequent Portuguese attack led to a second change of hands; following this second reoccupation, the Dutch once again captured Solor in 1636.[21]
East of Solor, on the island of Timor, Dutch advances were halted by an autonomous and powerful group of Portuguese Eurasians called the Topasses. They remained in control of the Sandalwood trade and their resistance lasted throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, causing Portuguese Timor to remain under the Portuguese sphere of control.[22][23]
Formative years
At the time, it was customary for a company to be funded only for the duration of a single voyage and to be liquidated upon the return of the fleet. Investment in these expeditions was a very high-risk venture, not only because of the usual dangers of piracy, disease and shipwreck, but also because the interplay of inelastic demand and relatively elastic supply[24] of spices could make prices tumble, thereby ruining prospects of profitability. To manage such risk, the forming of a cartel to control supply would seem logical. In 1600, the English were the first to adopt this approach by bundling their resources into a monopoly enterprise, the English East India Company, thereby threatening their Dutch competitors with ruin.[25]
In 1602, the Dutch government followed suit, sponsoring the creation of a single "United East Indies Company" that was also granted monopoly over the Asian trade.[26] For a time in the seventeenth century, it was able to monopolise the trade in nutmeg, mace, and cloves and to sell these spices across European kingdoms and Emperor Akbar the Great's Mughal Empire at 14–17 times the price it paid in Indonesia;[27] while Dutch profits soared, the local economy of the Spice Islands was destroyed.[why?] With a capital of 6,440,200 guilders,[28] the new company's charter empowered it to build forts, maintain armies, and conclude treaties with Asian rulers. It provided for a venture that would continue for 21 years, with a financial accounting only at the end of each decade.[25]
In February 1603, the company seized the Santa Catarina, a 1500-ton Portuguese merchant carrack, off the coast of Singapore.[29] She was such a rich prize that her sale proceeds increased the capital of the VOC by more than 50%.[30]
Also in 1603, the first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia was established in
VOC headquarters were located in Ambon during the tenures of the first three governors-general (1610–1619), but it was not a satisfactory location. Although it was at the centre of the spice production areas, it was far from the Asian trade routes and other VOC areas of activity ranging from Africa to India to Japan.[32][33] A location in the west of the archipelago was thus sought. The Straits of Malacca were strategic but became dangerous following the Portuguese conquest, and the first permanent VOC settlement in Banten was controlled by a powerful local ruler and subject to stiff competition from Chinese and English traders.[21]
In 1604, a second English
In 1620, diplomatic agreements in Europe ushered in a period of collaboration between the Dutch and English spice trades.[31] This ended with the notorious Amboyna massacre, where ten Englishmen were arrested, tried and beheaded for conspiracy against the Dutch government.[34] Although this caused outrage in Europe and a diplomatic crisis, the English quietly withdrew from most of their Indonesian activities (except trading in Banten) and focused on other Asian interests.
Growth
In 1619, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was appointed governor-general of the VOC. He saw the possibility of the VOC becoming an Asian power, both political and economic. On 30 May 1619, Coen, backed by a force of nineteen ships, stormed Jayakarta, driving out the Banten forces; and from the ashes established Batavia as the VOC headquarters. In the 1620s almost the entire native population of the Banda Islands was driven away, starved to death, or killed in an attempt to replace them with Dutch plantations.[35] These plantations were used to grow nutmeg for export. Coen hoped to settle large numbers of Dutch colonists in the East Indies, but implementation of this policy never materialised, mainly because very few Dutch were willing to emigrate to Asia.[36]
Another of Coen's ventures was more successful. A major problem in the European trade with Asia at the time was that the Europeans could offer few goods that Asian consumers wanted, except silver and gold. European traders therefore had to pay for spices with the precious metals, which were in short supply in Europe, except for Spain and Portugal. The Dutch and English had to obtain it by creating a trade surplus with other European countries. Coen discovered the obvious solution for the problem: to start an intra-Asiatic trade system, whose profits could be used to finance the spice trade with Europe. In the long run this obviated the need for exports of precious metals from Europe, though at first it required the formation of a large trading-capital fund in the Indies. The VOC reinvested a large share of its profits to this end in the period up to 1630.[37]
The VOC traded throughout Asia, benefiting mainly from
The Vietnamese
In 1640, the VOC obtained the port of
In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established a resupply outpost at the Cape of Storms (the southwestern tip of Africa, now Cape Town, South Africa) to service company ships on their journey to and from East Asia. The cape was later renamed Cape of Good Hope in honour of the outpost's presence. Although non-company ships were welcome to use the station, they were charged exorbitantly. This post later became a full-fledged colony, the Cape Colony, when more Dutch and other Europeans started to settle there.
Through the seventeenth century VOC trading posts were also established in
In 1663, the VOC signed the "Painan Treaty" with several local lords in the Painan area that were revolting against the Aceh Sultanate. The treaty allowed the VOC to build a trading post in the area and eventually to monopolise the trade there, especially the gold trade.[41]
By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen, with over 150 merchant ships, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, a private army of 10,000 soldiers, and a dividend payment of 40% on the original investment.[42]
Many of the VOC employees inter-mixed with the indigenous peoples and expanded the population of Indos in pre-colonial history.[43][44]
Reorientation
Around 1670, two events caused the growth of VOC trade to stall. In the first place, the highly profitable trade with Japan started to decline. The loss of the outpost on Formosa to
Even more importantly, the Third Anglo-Dutch War temporarily interrupted VOC trade with Europe. This caused a spike in the price of pepper, which enticed the English East India Company (EIC) to enter this market aggressively in the years after 1672. Previously, one of the tenets of the VOC pricing policy was to slightly over-supply the pepper market, so as to depress prices below the level where interlopers were encouraged to enter the market (instead of striving for short-term profit maximisation). The wisdom of such a policy was illustrated when a fierce price war with the EIC ensued, as that company flooded the market with new supplies from India. In this struggle for market share, the VOC (which had much larger financial resources) could wait out the EIC. Indeed, by 1683, the latter came close to bankruptcy; its share price plummeted from 600 to 250; and its president Josiah Child was temporarily forced from office.[46]
However, the writing was on the wall. Other companies, like the
Nevertheless, this lesson was slow to sink in and at first the VOC made the strategic decision to improve its military position on the
In the 1741 Battle of Colachel, warriors of Travancore under Raja Marthanda Varma defeated the Dutch. The Dutch commander Captain Eustachius De Lannoy was captured. Marthanda Varma agreed to spare the Dutch captain's life on condition that he joined his army and trained his soldiers on modern lines. This defeat in the Travancore–Dutch War is considered the earliest example of an organised Asian power overcoming European military technology and tactics; and it signalled the decline of Dutch power in India.[50]
The attempt to continue as before as a low volume-high profit business enterprise with its core business in the spice trade had therefore failed. The company had however already (reluctantly) followed the example of its European competitors in diversifying into other Asian commodities, like tea, coffee, cotton, textiles, and sugar. These commodities provided a lower profit margin and therefore required a larger sales volume to generate the same amount of revenue. This structural change in the commodity composition of the VOC's trade started in the early 1680s, after the temporary collapse of the EIC around 1683 offered an excellent opportunity to enter these markets. The actual cause for the change lies, however, in two structural features of this new era.
In the first place, there was a revolutionary change in the tastes affecting European demand for Asian textiles, coffee and tea, around the turn of the 18th century. Secondly, a new era of an abundant supply of capital at low interest rates suddenly opened around this time. The second factor enabled the company easily to finance its expansion in the new areas of commerce.[51] Between the 1680s and 1720s, the VOC was therefore able to equip and man an appreciable expansion of its fleet, and acquire a large amount of precious metals to finance the purchase of large amounts of Asian commodities, for shipment to Europe. The overall effect was approximately to double the size of the company.[52]
The tonnage of the returning ships rose by 125 percent in this period. However, the company's revenues from the sale of goods landed in Europe rose by only 78 percent. This reflects the basic change in the VOC's circumstances that had occurred: it now operated in new markets for goods with an elastic demand, in which it had to compete on an equal footing with other suppliers. This made for low profit margins.[53] The business information systems of the time made this difficult to discern for the managers of the company, which may partly explain the mistakes they made from hindsight. This lack of information might have been counteracted (as in earlier times in the VOC's history) by the business acumen of the directors. By this time these were almost exclusively recruited from the political regent class, which had long since lost its close relationship with merchant circles.[54]
Low profit margins in themselves do not explain the deterioration of revenues. To a large extent the costs of the operation of the VOC had a "fixed" character (military establishments; maintenance of the fleet and such). Profit levels might therefore have been maintained if the increase in the scale of trading operations that in fact took place had resulted in economies of scale. However, though larger ships transported the growing volume of goods, labour productivity did not go up sufficiently to realise these. In general the company's overhead rose in step with the growth in trade volume; declining gross margins translated directly into a decline in profitability of the invested capital. The era of expansion was one of "profitless growth".[55]
Specifically: "[t]he long-term average annual profit in the VOC's 1630–70 'Golden Age' was 2.1 million guilders, of which just under half was distributed as dividends and the remainder reinvested. The long-term average annual profit in the 'Expansion Age' (1680–1730) was 2.0 million guilders, of which three-quarters was distributed as dividend and one-quarter reinvested. In the earlier period, profits averaged 18 percent of total revenues; in the latter period, 10 percent. The annual return of invested capital in the earlier period stood at approximately 6 percent; in the latter period, 3.4 percent."[55]
Nevertheless, in the eyes of investors the VOC did not do too badly. The share price hovered consistently around the 400 mark from the mid-1680s (excepting a hiccup around the Glorious Revolution in 1688), and they reached an all-time high of around 642 in the 1720s. VOC shares then yielded a return of 3.5 percent, only slightly less than the yield on Dutch government bonds.[56]
Decline and fall
After 1730, the fortunes of the VOC started to decline. Five major contributing factors are attributed to its decay in the 50 years between 1730 and 1780:[57]
- There was a steady erosion of intra-Asiatic trade because of changes in the Asiatic political and economic environment that the VOC could do little about. These factors gradually squeezed the company out of Persia, Suratte, the Malabar Coast, and Bengal. The company had to confine its operations to the belt it physically controlled, from Ceylon through the Indonesian archipelago. The volume of this intra-Asiatic trade, and its profitability, therefore had to shrink.
- The way the company was organised in Asia (centralised on its hub in Batavia), that initially had offered advantages in gathering market information, began to cause disadvantages in the 18th century because of the inefficiency of first shipping everything to this central point. This disadvantage was most keenly felt in the tea trade, where competitors like the EIC and the Ostend Company shipped directly from China to Europe.
- The "venality" of the VOC's personnel (in the sense of corruption and non-performance of duties), though a problem for all East India Companies at the time, seems to have plagued the VOC on a larger scale than its competitors. To be sure, the company was not a "good employer". Salaries were low, and "private-account trading" was officially not allowed. It proliferated in the 18th century to the detriment of the company's performance.[58] From about the 1790s onward, the phrase perished under corruption (vergaan onder corruptie, also abbreviated VOC in Dutch) came to summarise the company's future.
- A problem that the VOC shared with other companies was the high mortality and morbidity rates among its employees. This decimated the company's ranks and enervated many of the survivors.
- A self-inflicted wound was the VOC's dividend policy. The dividends distributed by the company had exceeded the surplus it garnered in Europe in every decade from 1690 to 1760 except 1710–1720. However, in the period up to 1730 the directors shipped resources to Asia to build up the trading capital there. Consolidated bookkeeping therefore probably would have shown that total profits exceeded dividends. In addition, between 1700 and 1740 the company retired 5.4 million guilders of long-term debt. The company therefore was still on a secure financial footing in these years. This changed after 1730. While profits plummeted the bewindhebbers only slightly decreased dividends from the earlier level. Distributed dividends were therefore in excess of earnings in every decade but one (1760–1770). To accomplish this, the Asian capital stock had to be drawn down by 4 million guilders between 1730 and 1780, and the liquid capital available in Europe was reduced by 20 million guilders in the same period. The directors were therefore constrained to replenish the company's liquidity by resorting to short-term financing from anticipatory loans, backed by expected revenues from home-bound fleets.[59]
Despite these problems, the VOC in 1780 remained an enormous operation. Its capital in the Republic, consisting of ships and goods in inventory, totalled 28 million guilders; its capital in Asia, consisting of the liquid trading fund and goods en route to Europe, totalled 46 million guilders. Total capital, net of outstanding debt, stood at 62 million guilders. The prospects of the company at this time therefore were not hopeless, had one of the plans for reform been undertaken successfully. However, the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War intervened. British naval attacks in Europe and Asia reduced the VOC fleet by half; removed valuable cargo from its control; and eroded its remaining power in Asia. The direct losses of the VOC during the war can be calculated at 43 million guilders. Loans to keep the company operating reduced its net assets to zero.[60]
From 1720 on, the market for sugar from Indonesia declined as the competition from cheap sugar from
After the
Organisational structure
While the VOC mainly operated in what later became the
The VOC had two types of shareholders: the participanten, who could be seen as non-managing members, and the 76 bewindhebbers (later reduced to 60) who acted as managing directors. This was the usual set-up for Dutch joint-stock companies at the time. The innovation in the case of the VOC was that the liability of not just the participanten but also of the bewindhebbers was limited to the paid-in capital (usually, bewindhebbers had unlimited liability). The VOC therefore was a limited liability company. Also, the capital would be permanent during the lifetime of the company. As a consequence, investors that wished to liquidate their interest in the interim could only do this by selling their share to others on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.[68] Confusion of confusions, a 1688 dialogue by the Sephardi Jew Joseph de la Vega analysed the workings of this one-stock exchange.
The VOC consisted of six Chambers (Kamers) in port cities: Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam, Enkhuizen, Middelburg and Hoorn. Delegates of these chambers convened as the Heeren XVII (the Lords Seventeen). They were selected from the bewindhebber-class of shareholders.[25]
Of the Heeren XVII, eight delegates were from the Chamber of Amsterdam (one short of a majority on its own), four from the Chamber of Zeeland, and one from each of the smaller Chambers, while the seventeenth seat was alternatively from the Chamber of Middelburg-Zeeland or rotated among the five small Chambers. Amsterdam had thereby the decisive voice. The Zeelanders in particular had misgivings about this arrangement at the beginning. The fear was not unfounded, because in practice it meant Amsterdam stipulated what happened.
The six chambers raised the start-up capital of the Dutch East India Company:
Chamber | Capital (Guilders) |
---|---|
Amsterdam | 3,679,915 |
Middelburg | 1,300,405 |
Enkhuizen | 540,000 |
Delft | 469,400 |
Hoorn | 266,868 |
Rotterdam | 173,000 |
Total: | 6,424,588 |
The raising of capital in Rotterdam did not go so smoothly. A considerable part originated from inhabitants of Dordrecht. Although it did not raise as much capital as Amsterdam or Middelburg-Zeeland, Enkhuizen had the largest input in the share capital of the VOC. Under the first 358 shareholders, there were many small entrepreneurs, who dared to take the risk. The minimum investment in the VOC was 3,000 guilders, which priced the company's stock within the means of many merchants.[69]
Among the early shareholders of the VOC, immigrants played an important role. Under the 1,143 tenderers were 39
The Heeren XVII (Lords Seventeen) met alternately six years in Amsterdam and two years in Middelburg-Zeeland. They defined the VOC's general policy and divided the tasks among the Chambers. The Chambers carried out all the necessary work, built their own ships and warehouses and traded the merchandise. The Heeren XVII sent the ships' masters off with extensive instructions on the route to be navigated, prevailing winds, currents, shoals and landmarks. The VOC also produced its own
In the context of the
The seventeenth-century Dutch businessmen, especially the VOC investors, were possibly history's first recorded investors to seriously consider the problems of
In 1622, the history's first recorded
Main trading posts, settlements, and colonies
The company's global headquarters were in
VOC mentality
(...) I don't understand why you're all being so negative and unpleasant. Let's just be happy with each other. Let's just say "the Netherlands can do it" again: that VOC mentality. Look across our borders. Dynamism! Don't you think?
—Jan Pieter Balkenende referred to the pioneering entrepreneurial spirit and work ethics of the Dutch people and Dutch Republic in their Golden Age, he coined the term "VOC mentality" (VOC-mentaliteit in Dutch).[f] For Balkenende, the VOC represented Dutch business acumen, entrepreneurship, adventurous spirit, and decisiveness. However, it unleashed a wave of criticism, since such romantic views about the Dutch Golden Age ignores the inherent historical associations with colonialism, exploitation and violence. Balkenende later stressed that "it had not been his intention to refer to that at all".[85] But in spite of criticisms, the "VOC-mentality", as a characteristic of the selective historical perspective on the Dutch Golden Age, has been considered a key feature of Dutch cultural policy for many years.[85]Criticism
The company has been criticised for its quasi-absolute commercial monopoly,
bureaucratic organisational structure.[86]Batavia, corresponding to present day Jakarta, was the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and had a strict social hierarchy in the colony. According to Marsely L. Kahoe in The Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, "it is misleading to understand Batavia, as some scholars have, as representing a pragmatic and egalitarian order that was later corrupted by the colonial situation. In fact, the social stratification and segregation of Batavia derived in certain ways directly from its Dutch plan."[87]
There was an extraordinarily high mortality rate among employees of the VOC due to shipwrecks, illnesses such as scurvy and dysentery, and clashes with rival trading companies and pirates.[88] Between 1602 and 1795, about one million seamen and craftsmen departed from Holland, but only 340,000 returned. J.L. van Zanden writes that "the VOC 'consumed' approximately 4,000 people per year."[89]
Colonialism, monopoly and violence
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2018)Your Honours know by experience that trade in Asia must be driven and maintained under the protection and favour of Your Honours' own weapons, and that the weapons must be paid for by the profits from the trade; so that we cannot carry on trade without war nor war without trade.
—Lontor in 1621. 2,800 Bandanese were killed, mostly from famine, and 1,700 were enslaved during the attack.[93] The total population of the islands was estimated at 15,000 people before the conquest. Although the exact number remains uncertain, it is estimated that around 14,000 people were killed, enslaved or fled elsewhere, with only 1,000 Bandanese surviving in the islands, and were spread throughout the nutmeg groves as forced labourers.[94] The treatment of slaves was harsh and the native Bandanese population dropped to 1,000 by 1681.[91] 200 slaves were imported annually to sustain the slave population at a total of 4,000.[95]Dutch slave trade and slavery under the VOC colonial rule
By the time the settlement was established at the
Khoikhoi population, but the idea was rejected on the grounds that such a policy would be both costly and dangerous. Most Khoikhoi had chosen not to labor for the Dutch because of low wages and harsh conditions. In the beginning, the settlers traded with the Khoikhoi, but the harsh working conditions and low wages imposed by the Dutch led to a series of wars. The European population remained under 200 during the settlement's first five years, and war against neighbors numbering more than 20,000 would have been foolhardy. Moreover, the Dutch feared that Khoikhoi people, if enslaved, could always escape into the local community, whereas foreigners would find it much more difficult to escape and survive or avoid recapture.[96]Between 1652 and 1657, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain men from the Dutch East Indies and from Mauritius. In 1658, however, the VOC landed two shiploads of slaves at the Cape, one containing more than 200 people brought from Dahomey (later Benin), the second with almost 200 people, most of them children, captured from a Portuguese slaver off the coast of Angola. Except for a few individuals, these were to be the only slaves ever brought to the Cape from West Africa.[96] From 1658 to the end of the company's rule, many more slaves were brought regularly to the Cape in various ways, chiefly by Company-sponsored slaving voyages and slaves brought to the Cape by its return fleets. From these sources and by natural growth, the slave population increased from zero in 1652 to about 1,000 by 1700. During the 18th century, the slave population increased dramatically to 16,839 by 1795. After the slave trade was initiated, all of the slaves imported into the Cape until the British stopped the trade in 1807 were from East Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, and South and Southeast Asia. Large numbers were brought from Ceylon and the Indonesian archipelago. Prisoners from other countries in the VOC's empire were also enslaved. The slave population, which exceeded that of the European settlers until the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was overwhelmingly male and was thus dependent on constant imports of new slaves to maintain and to augment its size.[96]
By the 1660s the Cape settlement was importing slaves from Ceylon, Malaya (Malaysia), and Madagascar to work on the farms.[97] Conflict between Dutch farmers and Khoikhoi broke out once it became clear to the latter that the Dutch were there to stay and that they intended to encroach on the lands of the pastoralists. In 1659 Doman, a Khoikhoi who had worked as a translator for the Dutch and had even traveled to Java, led an armed attempt to expel the Dutch from the Cape peninsula. The attempt was a failure, although warfare dragged on until an inconclusive peace was established a year later. During the following decade, pressure on the Khoikhoi grew as more of the Dutch became free burghers, expanded their landholdings, and sought pastureland for their growing herds. War broke out again in 1673 and continued until 1677, when Khoikhoi resistance was destroyed by a combination of superior European weapons and Dutch manipulation of divisions among the local people. Thereafter, Khoikhoi society in the western Cape disintegrated. Some people found jobs as shepherds on European farms; others rejected foreign rule and moved away from the Cape. The final blow for most came in 1713 when a Dutch ship brought smallpox to the Cape. Hitherto unknown locally, the disease ravaged the remaining Khoikhoi, killing 90 percent of the population.[96] Throughout the eighteenth century, the settlement continued to expand through internal growth of the European population and the continued importation of slaves. The approximately 3,000 Europeans and slaves at the Cape in 1700 had increased by the end of the century to nearly 20,000 Europeans, and approximately 25,000 slaves.[96]
Archives and records
The VOC's operations (trading posts and colonies) produced not only warehouses packed with spices, coffee, tea, textiles, porcelain and silk, but also shiploads of documents. Data on political, economic, cultural, religious, and social conditions spread over an enormous area circulated between the VOC establishments, the administrative centre of the trade in
Memory of the World Register.[99]See also
- East India Company (disambiguation)
- Muscovy Company
- Levant Company
British East India Company- Danish East India Company
- Dutch West India Company
- Portuguese East India Company
- French East India Company
- Danish West India Company
- Hudson's Bay Company
- Mississippi Company
- South Sea Company
- Ostend Company
- Swedish East India Company
- Emden Company
- Austrian East India Company
- Swedish West India Company
- Russian-American Company
Notes
- ^ The direct translation of the Dutch name Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie is "United East-India Company". For the VOC's different English-language trade names, see articles: East India Company (disambiguation); Greater India; East India; East Indies; Dutch East Indies; Dutch India; Voorcompagnie; List of Dutch East India Company trading posts and settlements.
Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie, Magelhaensche Compagnie/Rotterdamse Compagnie, Middelburgse Compagnie, Veerse Compagnie (Zeeland, 1597), Verenigde Zeeuwse Compagnie (Middelburg & Veere, 1600), Compagnie van De Moucheron (Zeeland, 1600), and Delftse Vennootschap. Niels Steensgaard (The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century, 1973) notes, "the voorcompagnieën were not incorporated, but were run by a number of bewindhebbers, who were joined together like partners in a simple company, i.e. traded on joint account".- ^ As the VOC's board of directors
chief executives- ^ Jan Peter Balkenende: "Ik begrijp niet waarom u er zo negatief en vervelend over doet. Laten we blij zijn met elkaar. Laten we zeggen: 'Nederland kan het weer!', die VOC-mentaliteit. Over grenzen heen kijken! Dynamiek! Toch?" [Original in Dutch, loosely translated from footage]
- ^ Balkenende: "Let us be optimistic! Let us say, 'It is possible again in The Netherlands!' That VOC mentality: looking across borders with dynamism!" [translated from the original text in Dutch].[84]
References
- ^ "The Dutch East India Company (VOC)". Canon van Nederland. Archived from the original on 1 December 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
- ^ "Exchange History NL – 400 years: the story". Exchange History NL. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ Fergusson, Niall. The Ascent of Money – A Financial History of the World (2009 ed.). London: Penguin Books. pp. 128–132.
- ^ "VOC Knowledge Center – VOC Beginnings". VOC-Kenniscentrum (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ Fergusson, Niall. The Ascent of Money (2009 ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 129.
[a monopoly on] all Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan- ^ Fergusson, Niall. The Ascent of Money – A Financial History of the World (2009 ed.). London: Penguin Books. pp. 129–133.
- ^ "Slave Ship Mutiny: Program Transcript". Secrets of the Dead. PBS. 11 November 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
- ^ Ames, Glenn J. (2008). The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500–1700. pp. 102–103.
National Library of the Netherlands(in Dutch)- ^ Updated 10.19.2016, Ben Phelan | Posted 01 07 2013 |. "Antiques Roadshow | PBS". Antiques Roadshow | PBS. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)- ^ Van Boven, M. W. (2006). "Memory of the World – Archives of the Dutch East India Company: Nomination Form – VOC Archives Appendix 2". Archived from the original on 20 October 2016.
- ^ Vickers (2005), p. 10
- ^ Fergusson, Niall. The Ascent of Money (2009 ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 129.
[which cites Note 11: Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rouke, 'Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millenium' (Princeton, 2007), page 178)]- ^
ISBN 1-84668-120-0- ^ Zuber, Charles. "VOC: The logo that lasted". Designonline.org.au. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
- ^ Tim Treadgold (13 March 2006). "Cross-Breeding". Forbes. Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
- ^ The Dutch East India Company Archived 6 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, European Heritage Project
- ^ Crump, Thomas (1 March 2006). "The Dutch East Indies Company – The First 100 Years [Transcript]". Gresham College (gresham.ac.uk). Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
ISBN 0-521-57061-1.- ^
ISBN 0-333-57689-6.- ^
ISBN 0-333-57689-6.- ^ (in Portuguese) Matos, Artur Teodoro de (1974), Timor Portugues, 1515–1769, Lisboa: Instituto Histórico Infante Dom Henrique.
- ^ (in Dutch) Roever, Arend de (2002), De jacht op sandelhout: De VOC en de tweedeling van Timor in de zeventiende eeuw, Zutphen: Walburg Pers.
- ^ In the medium term, as new suppliers could enter the market. In the short term the supply was, of course, also inelastic.
- ^ a b c De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 384–385
- ^ Octrooi verleend door de Staten-Generaal betreffende de alleenhandel ten oosten van Kaap de Goede Hoop en ten westen van de Straat van Magallanes voor de duur van 21 jaar [Patent granted by the States General concerning exclusive trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magallanes for a period of 21 years] (in Dutch). Amsterdam. 1602 [20 March 1602]. p. 5. Archived from the original on 22 April 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022 – via Nationaal Archief.
'Dese vereenichde Compaignie sal beginnen ende aenvanck nemen met desen Jaere xvi C ende twee ende sal gedurende den tyt van eenentwintich Jaren achter (This United Company shall commence operations in the year of 1602, and shall continue for a period of twenty-one consecutive years)'- ^ Reid, Anthony (1993). Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 290.
- ^ Bruce, John (1810). Annals of the Honorable East-India Company. Black, Parry, and Kingsbury. p. 28.
- ^ Boxer, C. R. (1948). Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550–1770. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. p. 50.
ISBN 978-0-8018-8754-3. Archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2016.- ^
ISBN 0-333-57689-6.- ^ Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630–1720 (Princeton University Press, 1985)
- ^ William De Lange, Pars Japonica: the first Dutch expedition to reach the shores of Japan, (2006)
ISBN 967-65-3099-9. ISBN 0-333-57689-6.- ^ The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800, page 218
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, page 386
- ^ Ames, Glenn J. (2008). The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500–1700. p. 115.
- ^ Hertroijes, Frasie (2011). "Meeting the Dutch: cooperation and conflict between Jesuits and Dutch merchants in Asia, 1680–1795" (PDF). Paper Presented at the Conference of ENIUGH, London: 10. Retrieved 28 July 2018.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Andrade, Tonio (2005). How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. Columbia University Press. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- ^ "170 tahun kepahlawanan minangkabau". Majalah Tempo Online (in Indonesian). 31 July 1982. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ The share price had appreciated significantly, so in that respect the dividend was less impressive
- ^ De Witt, D. "The Easternization of the West: The Role of Melaka, the Malay-Indonesian archipelago and the Dutch (VOC). (International seminar by the Melaka State Government, the Malaysian Institute of Historical and Patriotism Studies (IKSEP), the Institute of Occidental Studies (IKON) at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the Netherlands Embassy in Malaysia. Malacca, Malaysia, 27 July 2006". Children of the VOC at. Archived from the original on 14 August 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
- ^ Blusse, Leonard. Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. (Dordrecht-Holland; Riverton, US, Foris Publications, 1986. xiii, 302p.) number: 959.82 B659.
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 434–435
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 430–433
Nine Years' War, the French and Dutch companies came to blows on the Indian Subcontinent. The French sent naval expeditions from metropolitan France, which the VOC easily countered. On the other hand, the VOC conquered the important fortress of Pondicherry after a siege of only 16 days by an expedition of 3,000 men and 19 ships under Laurens Pit from Nagapattinam in September 1693. The Dutch then made the defenses of the fortress impregnable, which they came to regret when the Dutch government returned it to the French by the Peace of Ryswickin exchange for tariff concessions in Europe by the French. Chauhuri and Israel, page 424- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 433–434
- ^ Chaudhuri and Israel, pages 428–429
waragainst the Mughals; Chaudhury and Israel, pages 435–436- ^ It was also helpful that the price war with the EIC in the early decade had caused the accumulation of enormous inventories of pepper and spices, which enabled the VOC to cut down on shipments later on, thereby freeing up capital to increase shipments of other goods; De Vries and Van der Woude, page 436
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 436–437
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 437–440
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 441–442
- ^ a b De Vries and Van der Woude, page 447
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, page 448
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 449–455
- ^ A particularly egregious example was that of the "Amfioen Society". This was a business of higher VOC-employees that received a monopoly of the opium trade on Java, at a time when the VOC had to pay monopoly prices to the EIC to buy the opium in Bengal; Burger, passim
- ^ Gaastra, Femme (2003), The Dutch East India Company: Expansion and Decline (Zutphen: Walberg Pers).
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, pages 454–455
- ^ Kumar, Ann (1997). Java and Modern Europe: Ambiguous Encounters. p. 32.
ISBN 978-90-474-2179-5, retrieved 27 January 2024- ^ "VOC – United Dutch East India Company | Western Australian Museum". museum.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ TANAP, The end of the VOC
- ^ Anderson, Clare; Frykma, Niklas; van Voss, Lex Heerma; Rediker, Marcus (2013). Mutiny and Maritime Radicalism in the Age of Revolution: A Global Survey, page 113-114
- ^ De Vries, Jan; Van der Woude, Ad (1997). The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815, page 462
- ^ Howard, Michael C. (2011). Transnationalism and Society: An Introduction, page 121
- ^ De Vries and Van der Woude, page 385
- ^ Ames, Glenn J. (2008). The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500–1700. p. 103.
Hanna, Willard A.(1991). Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands. Bandanaira: Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira.- ^ Ames, Glenn J. (2008). The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500–1700. p. 111.
ISBN 9090170677)- ^ Lukomnik, Jon: Thoughts on the Origins and Development of the Modern Corporate Governance Movement and Shareholder Activism (chapter 22, page 450–460), in The Handbook of Board Governance: A Comprehensive Guide for Public, Private and Not – for – Profit Board Members, edited by Richard Leblanc (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016)
- ^ Gelderblom, Oscar; De Jong, Abe; Jonker, Joost (2010). Putting Le Maire into Perspective: Business Organization and the Evolution of Corporate Governance in the Dutch Republic, 1590–1610, in J. Koppell, ed., Origins of Shareholder Advocacy. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan)
- ^ McRitchie, James (6 October 2011). "Will UNFI Go Virtual-Only Again? Not if Shareowners Just Say No". CorpGov.net. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
- ^ Mueller, Dennis C. (ed.), (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Capitalism, page 333. (New York: Oxford University Press)
- ^ Frentrop, Paul (2009). The First Known Shareholder Activist: The Colorful Life and Times of Isaac le Maire (1559–1624), in Frentrop/Jonker/Davis 2009, 11–26
- ^ Frentrop, Paul; Jonker, Joost; Davis, S. (ed.), (2009). Shareholder Rights at 400: Commemorating Isaac Le Maire and the First Recorded Expression of Investor Advocacy (The Hague: Remix Business Communications, 2009)
- ^ Hansmann, Henry; Pargendler, Mariana (2013). The Evolution of Shareholder Voting Rights: Separation of Ownership and Consumption. (Yale Law Journal, Volume 123, pages 100–165, 2014)
- ^ Soll, Jacob (27 April 2014). "No Accounting Skills? No Moral Reckoning". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
- ^ De Jongh, Matthijs (2010). Shareholder Activism at the Dutch East India Company 1622–1625, in Origins of Shareholder Advocacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
ISBN 9789089643537), page 252- ^ Jonsson, Stefan; Willén, Julia (eds.): Austere Histories in European Societies: Social Exclusion and the Contest of Colonial Memories. (London: Routledge, 2016), page 67
- ^ Boerhout, Laura; Jung, Mariska; Marcinkowski, Paul (2012). "Zwarte Piet, a Bitter Treat? Racial Issues in The Netherlands and the U.S." HumanityInAction.org. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ^ a b Kooiman, Mirjam (23 September 2015). "The Dutch VOC mentality. Cultural Policy as a Business Model". L'internationale (internationaleonline.org). Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ^ Shorto, Russell (2013). Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City.
- ^ "Dutch Batavia: Exposing the Hierarchy of the Dutch Colonial City". Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ "Shipwreck, sickness and pirates: the dangers of working for the East India Company". www.rmg.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- )
ISBN 9781107084834), page 109- ^
ISBN 978-0-521-66370-0. Archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2021. ISSN 0191-6599. ISBN 9789087047023. Archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 17 June 2020.Om hierin naar behooren te voorzien is het noodig dat Banda t'eenemaal vermeesterd en met ander volk gepeupleerd worde. hdl:10125/4207.- )
- ^ a b c d e Byrnes, Rita (1996). South Africa: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. pp. Establishing a Slave Economy. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9. Archived from the originalon 7 April 2022. ISBN 9789004163652)- ^ "Archives of the Dutch East India Company [Documentary heritage submitted by Netherlands and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2003]". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 6 July 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dutch East India Company.Dutch Wikisource has original text related to this article:
- VOC voyages – online database of voyages of VOC ships
- Atlas of Mutual Heritage – online atlas of VOC and GWC settlements
- (in Dutch) Database of VOC crew members Archived 22 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- VOC Historical Society Archived 27 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- VOC Warfare
- VOC archive from the Indonesian national archives