Violent episodes from the early history of the Dutch East India Company, including its violent depopulation of the Banda Islands in 1609-1621 in order to gain exclusive control over nutmeg, have... Show moreViolent episodes from the early history of the Dutch East India Company, including its violent depopulation of the Banda Islands in 1609-1621 in order to gain exclusive control over nutmeg, have received increasing public and scholarly attention. However, the wider conflicts in the region over cloves, which continued for decades afterwards and were mainly centred around Ambon, received less attention as yet. In this dissertation, Tristan Mostert examines these seventeenth-century spice wars, and the influence of both environmental factors and the political dynamics of the region, from the arrival of the first Dutch ships in the area to the establishment of colonial control over Ambon, Hoamoal and the surrounding islands around 1656. The dissertation explores how the escalating conflict triggered wider regional power dynamics in which Gowa (Makassar) and Ternate were heavily involved. It also shows how the VOC turned to increasingly extreme tactics in its attempts to achieve its monopoly: deliberate environmental destruction, driving out and deporting the population, dismantling existing political and social structures. It contents that in order to understand how the VOC eventually established its monopoly, one should not look for traditional military explanations, but rather to this policy of environmental warfare and colonial control, through which it transformed the landscape of the region. Show less
Lawmaking in Dutch Sri Lanka: Navigating Pluralities marks a break in understanding the history of Roman-Dutch law in Sri Lanka. Methodologically, it challenges socio-legal studies that concentrate... Show moreLawmaking in Dutch Sri Lanka: Navigating Pluralities marks a break in understanding the history of Roman-Dutch law in Sri Lanka. Methodologically, it challenges socio-legal studies that concentrate on major jurisdictional conflicts alone, emphasizing the lived experience of everyday practices of judicial forums. It uncovers the navigation of plural practices in the Landraad, a judicial forum set up by the Dutch East India Company in seventeenth-century Sri Lanka. A choice of laws came into play in that forum, that choice being significant at varying degrees for different areas of the law such as evidence, inheritance, land, and marriage law. While there was inevitable conflict, the local normative order was as much a social fact for the early colonial rulers as Roman-Dutch law. This is contrary to the received wisdom of the ages that Roman-Dutch law was imposed on the Sinhalese of the maritime provinces under Dutch control. When translated into everyday lives, such adoption of plural practices could rebound on coloniser and colonised in unexpected ways, revealing the complexities of colonial law in practice. Show less
There is a growing body of bioarchaeological research on eighteenth and nineteenth century colonial Cape Town, a significant node in the transportation networks of both the Indian and Atlantic... Show moreThere is a growing body of bioarchaeological research on eighteenth and nineteenth century colonial Cape Town, a significant node in the transportation networks of both the Indian and Atlantic oceanic slave trades, attempting to shed light on the lives of enslaved persons. Here, a preliminary archaeological isotopic dietary baseline for the colonial Cape is presented. It is apparent from the data that cattle tended to graze far inland from Cape Town in an arid C-3-C-4 to purely C-4 biome. Sheep/goats grazed close to the settlement or some distance away in C-3 to C-3-C-4 biomes. A qualitative comparison of the baseline data to that of enslaved persons at The Cape suggests that this population did not consume large amounts of marine protein as has been concluded in the past. The archaeological baseline data was utilised, in combination with published modern data, to create a quantitative dietary reconstruction of a subset of this population using a Bayesian multi-source diet mixing model (FRUITS). The reconstruction confirms that the Cape's enslaved did not consume much marine protein but relied predominantly on terrestrial C-3 plant protein. Show less
The VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports... Show moreThe VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports exposed several illegal practices of the officials and the growth of Dutch nabobs who lived elite lifestyles under the Mughal administration in Bengal. Consequently, a few officials were charged with corruption and put to trial at the Company’s court. But instances of corrupt behaviour were not reduced in the subsequent years. What was the purpose of sending the committee then and what was the conduct that the VOC directors expected of their officials, both in the Dutch Republic and its factories in Mughal Bengal? This dissertation answers such questions by studying the committee’s operations in Bengal, located at the interface of two very different political settings: the Dutch Republic and the Mughal Empire. It concludes that the socio-political developments in the Dutch Republic and the regional politics in Mughal Bengal affected the situation in the VOC and its policies against corruption of its officials. Show less
Could early modern chartered companies effectively ensure that their agents overseas were working in the best interests of the firm rather than in their own personal interests? This prin-cipal... Show moreCould early modern chartered companies effectively ensure that their agents overseas were working in the best interests of the firm rather than in their own personal interests? This prin-cipal-agent problem has been the topic of a number of important studies in early modern economic history. This article contributes to the debate by elaborating on two case-studies from the two large Dutch chartered trading companies, the East- and the West India Compa-nies (VOC and WIC respectively). Exploration of the careers of two individuals within these companies shows that supervision – and indeed career-making – was frequently a matter of unwritten rules and codes of conduct. While formal written rules might be found lacking, control could still be exerted through patronage or family ties. But this presented the com-panies with other challenges as well. In studying principal-agent problems, researchers in economic history need to be aware of informal mechanisms of control as well as formal on Show less
The Fourth Dutch-Anglo War (1780-1784) weakened the Dutch East India Company so much that it turned for financial and military support to the highest political institution in the Dutch Republic:... Show moreThe Fourth Dutch-Anglo War (1780-1784) weakened the Dutch East India Company so much that it turned for financial and military support to the highest political institution in the Dutch Republic: the States General. It was decided that an independent Military Commission should carry out a thorough military investigation of the Dutch overseas possessions. The Prussian-born military engineer Carl Friedrich Reimer became a member of this Commission. He kept a diary of the journey for his superiors in Batavia. An extract of this diary is preserved at the National Archives of The Netherlands. It is a valuable source since it contains not only observations on the primary activities of the Military Commission, but also of many remarkable occurrences during the trip. The manuscript includes reflections on the size and origins of Hindu monuments on Java, remarks on the use of locally cultivated gambir at Riau (Tanjung Pinang), espionage activities during a visit to Madras (Chennai), where the English fortifications were observed and the crops in the botanical garden of EIC-surgeon James Anderson were discussed. Reimer even added his personal thoughts about slavery in the diary, reasoning why, in his opinion, many Javanese were unfit as slaves, describing them as «children of nature». These subjects had little to do with the main tasks of the Military Commission. Yet, C.F. Reimer gathered all this information for his superiors to judge on its «usefulness». Also, there are indications that he may have wanted to publish some of his findings. This paper will highlight some extracts from the diary and discuss the reasons behind this kind of intelligence gathering, the choice of keeping a diary, and the possible reasons why this manuscript, and its content, remained unknown. Show less
Ethnopharmacological relevanceFrom 1640–1796, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) occupied the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Several VOC officers had a keen interest in the medicinal application... Show moreEthnopharmacological relevanceFrom 1640–1796, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) occupied the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Several VOC officers had a keen interest in the medicinal application of the local flora. The Leiden University Library holds a two-piece codexentitled: Icones Plantarum Malabaricarum, adscriptis nominibus et viribus, Vol. I. & II. (Illustrations of Plants from the Malabar, assigned names and strength). This manuscript contains 262 watercolour drawings of medicinal plants from Sri Lanka, with handwritten descriptions of local names, habitus, medicinal properties and therapeutic applications. This anonymous document had never been studied previously.Aim of the studyTo identify all depicted plant specimens, decipher the text, trace the author, and analyse the scientific relevance of this manuscript as well as its importance for Sri Lankan ethnobotany.Materials and methodsWe digitised the entire manuscript, transcribed and translated the handwritten Dutch texts and identified the depicted species using historic and modern literature, herbarium vouchers, online databases on Sri Lankan herbal medicine and 41 botanical drawings by the same artist in the Artis library, Amsterdam. We traced the origin of the manuscript by means of watermark analysis and historical literature. We compared the historic Sinhalese and Tamil names in the manuscript to recent plant names in ethnobotanical references from Sri Lanka and southern India. We published the entire manuscript online with translations and identifications.ResultsThe watermarks indicate that the paper was made between 1694 and 1718. The handwriting is of a VOC scribe. In total, ca. 252 taxa are depicted, of which we could identify 221 to species level. The drawings represent mainly native species, including Sri Lankan endemics, but also introduced medicinal and ornamental plants. Lamiaceae, Zingiberaceae and Leguminosae were the best-represented families. Frequently mentioned applications were to purify the blood and to treat gastro-intestinal problems, fever and snakebites. Many plants are characterised by their humoral properties, of which ‘warming’ is the most prevalent. Plant species were mostly used for their roots (28%), bark (16%) or leaves (11%). More Tamil names (260) were documented than Sinhalese (208). More than half of the Tamil names and 36% of the Sinhalese names are still used today. The author was probably a VOC surgeon based in northern Sri Lanka, who travelled around the island to document medicinal plant use. Less than half of the species were previously documented from Ceylon by the famous VOC doctor and botanist Paul Hermann in the 1670s. Further archival research is needed to identify the maker of this manuscript.ConclusionsAlthough the maker of this early 18th century manuscript remains unknown, the detailed, 300-year-old information on medicinal plant use in the Icones Plantarum Malabaricarum represents an important ethnobotanical treasure for Sri Lanka, which offers ample opportunities to study changes and continuation of medicinal plant names and practices over time. Show less
The thesis discusses sugar trade in the Persian Gulf in the eighteenth century. The existing historiography of the region still stresses eighteenth-century imperial and economic decline. But the... Show moreThe thesis discusses sugar trade in the Persian Gulf in the eighteenth century. The existing historiography of the region still stresses eighteenth-century imperial and economic decline. But the study argues a maintained vitality of the Gulf trade by illuminating remarkable changes in the relationship between trade and consumption in the context of the Persian Gulf and beyond, namely that of the Indian Ocean. Show less
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, three Dutch playwrights who are not known to have ventured beyond the precincts of Europe dramatized historical events which occurred in Asia. The... Show moreIn the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, three Dutch playwrights who are not known to have ventured beyond the precincts of Europe dramatized historical events which occurred in Asia. The episodes which became the plots for their plays were either contemporaneous or occurred very close to their own times. This study analyses these plays, namely Joost van den Vondel’s Zungchin (1667), Frans van Steenwyk’s Thamas Koelikan (1745) and Onno Zwier van Haren’s Agon (1769). It studies the information networks which made these literary endeavours possible and evaluates the role played by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in transferring information about these historical events from Asia to the Dutch Republic. This study also appraises how Asia was represented in these plays and how these characterizations were influenced by its channels of information transfer. This study concludes that these plays revolved around the idea of transfer and the information that the playwrights used originated in the archives of the VOC. This information consequently featured in popular printed works in the Republic which provided the playwrights with the necessary fodder for their plays. This study argues that the striking feature of this transcontinental passage of information was the metamorphosis of Oriental imagery Show less
Housing the largest Dutch East India Company (VOC) and Dutch West India Company (WIC) archive, the National Archives of the Netherlands also preserves many hand drawn maps, plans and topographical... Show moreHousing the largest Dutch East India Company (VOC) and Dutch West India Company (WIC) archive, the National Archives of the Netherlands also preserves many hand drawn maps, plans and topographical views of the Dutch overseas settlements. Between 2005 and 2012 these were reproduced in the monumental series of the Comprehensive Atlas of the VOC and WIC. Nevertheless, a hitherto unknown plan was recently uncovered from obscurity. Show less
This thesis is about the gentleman-lawyer Falck, his period in office as Governor of Ceylon from the age of 28 and his surroundings. The historian Stapel described him as the last great figure in... Show moreThis thesis is about the gentleman-lawyer Falck, his period in office as Governor of Ceylon from the age of 28 and his surroundings. The historian Stapel described him as the last great figure in the Company. He differentiated from his contemporaries and predecessors. The research pays extensive attention to his networks, new insight into the relations between the qualified servants of the Company in Asia and the State. Falcks'administrative vision amd political strategy was directed at keeping the British and French at safe distance in South India. Therefore a balance had to be maintained between the various parties over there. His ideas were at odds with the strictly neutral policy of the Republic and Batavia. Thanks to the support of Mysore and the French fleet, the security of Ceylon could be greatly assured during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. The Company governors were always extremely satisfied with him; he w as highly respected by all even in Kandy. In 1783 he declined the honour of becoming director-general; he was very sisappointed about the lack of support, exhausted and and suffered from a poor health. During twenty years he gave impetus to the construction of cinnamon gardens. Show less
The ship's surgeons in the employ of the Dutch East India Company were responsible for the healthcare on board the ships and in the hospitals founded by the Company in a vast geographical area... Show moreThe ship's surgeons in the employ of the Dutch East India Company were responsible for the healthcare on board the ships and in the hospitals founded by the Company in a vast geographical area expanding from South Africa to Japan. They were not highly regarded by their contemporaries, who criticised them for being little more than barbers or loblolly boys. The author of this fascinating study paints the true picture of the profession, drawing on her analysis of data for some 3,000 ship's surgeons in the Company's service, and including the recruitment policy of the Company, the career of the surgeons, their geographical origins, their life expectancy, to mention but a few. The results of her analysis, based on many hitherto unpublished sources, show this negative image to be a myth. The surgeons were, as a rule, fairly well educated according to the standards of their time. The tragic fact that they were confronted with diseases unknown in Europe and incurable at the time contributed to the sailors' and the society's dismissive attitude to their skills Show less
This case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic... Show moreThis case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic in the second half of the eighteenth century. It focuses on the questions why and how the tea trade was taken out of the hands of the High Government in Batavia in 1757 and put under the supervision of the newly established China Committee in Amsterdam, and explains in detail what factors contributed to the phenomenal rise of this trade and its sudden decline in the 1780s. Show less
