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The East India Company

[1605-51

Dutch hands, the only relics of the possessions of the first West India Company.

The story of the Netherlanders in the East, the beginnings of which have been already told, was no less eventful, and much more prosperous, than in the West. The East India Company trusted to trade and not to buccaneering for its profits, and its profits were enormous. For the forty-three years, 1605-48, the average annual return upon the capital amounted to 22 per cent. From the earliest days the control of the group of the Moluccas, and with it the monopoly of the spice trade, was the mainstay of the Company's well-being.

The Portuguese were ousted by force of arms, and gradually by means of treaties with the native chiefs, Amboina, Ternati, Tidor, Banda, and the smaller neighbouring islands passed into the hands of the Dutch. These treaties (and they were the model that was followed generally in the East Indies) took the form of a guarantee to defend the territory in question against Portuguese attack, in exchange for the right to erect forts and factories, and the exclusive privilege of trade. In the Moluccas to such a pitch was the spirit of monopoly carried, that the quantity of spices grown was carefully restricted in order to keep up the price. Particular spots were selected suitable for the purpose, and elsewhere, as far as possible, the trees were destroyed. Thus cloves were cultivated at Amboina, and nutmegs in the Banda Islands. In prolific seasons a portion of the crop would sometimes be burnt. By this means the market was starved, and the limited supply commanded very high prices. Thus firmly established in the Moluccas the activities of the Company with marvellous rapidity overspread the entire East. Already in 1619 it was found necessary to create a capital of the Dutch East Indies, which should at once serve as an administrative centre of government and be a general emporium of traffic. The factory of Jacatra in Java was chosen as the site of an oriental Amsterdam, and received the name of Batavia (March, 1619). From this centre, not without considerable opposition and some serious fighting, but slowly and surely, partly by conquests, partly by alliances, the Dutch dominion was established over the richest and most beautiful island of the Malayan archipelago.

The supreme administration of the Company in the East was vested in a Governor-General of the Indies appointed by the Council of Seventeen for five years, and whose official residence was Batavia. He was assisted by a Council, also nominated by the home authorities. The first councillor bore the title of Director-General, and discharged the functions of Minister of Commerce. There was however practically but little restraint upon the autocratic powers of a strong Governor-General. Under him were seven (after the foundation of Cape Colony in 1651, eight) local Governors, armed with considerable powers in their own districts, but in all matters of high policy purely subordinates. The Governor-General, with his command over all the forces of the Company

1617-62] Administration of the Dutch East Indies

711

by land and sea and his unrestricted control of finance, in fact exercised, if he willed, an almost absolute sway, which made him appear a mighty potentate to the rulers of the innumerable petty Eastern States, who looked to him as the arbiter of their fortunes. It was a great position, and it had a succession of worthy occupants. The holders of the office during the period under consideration were Jan Pieterszoon Koen, 1617-22, and again 1628-9; Pieter Carpentier, 1622-8; Jacob Specx, 1629-32; Hendrik Brouwer, 1632-6, and Anthoni van Diemen, 1636-45. All these five were men of energy and capacity, but the names of Koen and van Diemen stand out preeminent. To Koen's resolute courage and somewhat truculent vigour the Company owed in no small measure the establishment of their power in the East. Under the active and statesmanlike administration of van Diemen that power was consolidated and extended. In his days the affairs of the Company reached perhaps their highest point of material prosperity. It is impossible here to trace out, even in outline, the story of Dutch enterprise in the East Indies; it must suffice for us to give a brief review of the results, taking in order the various centres of the Company's political and commercial influence.

It has already been mentioned that the seat of government had been in 1619 fixed at Batavia, in Java; and from this time the island, though its actual conquest took many years, may be regarded as a Dutch possession. In the two large adjoining islands of Sumatra and Borneo a number of factories were established under agreements with the native chiefs, and a thriving trade carried on. More important was the treaty which in 1636 Governor van Diemen concluded with the chief ruler in Ceylon, the King of Candy. It was drawn up on the usual lines, a monopoly of commerce in exchange for protection against the Portuguese, who had long had possessions in the island. Already some of their forts had been captured by the Dutch, and a conquest taken in hand which was to give to the Company, for a century and a half, their most valuable colony, next to Java, in the East. On the mainland of India a footing was early gained both on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. 1640, under the auspices of van Diemen, Malacca was conquered, giving to the Dutch the command of the straits. With Siam trading relations had existed since 1613, and continued to flourish. A factory was placed at Ajudia, the old capital, and smaller trading posts at other places. From 1605 onwards, Macassar, the chief place of Celebes, was frequented by Netherlanders, though its ruler was not till 1662 finally compelled by force of arms to submit to the Company's dominion.

In

The supremacy of the Dutch over all European rivals was specially marked in the extreme East. In 1623 an expedition sent out by Governor-General Koen, under the command of Willem Bontekoe, made the conquest of the large and fruitful island of Formosa. The possession was secured by the building of Fort Zelandia, a Governor

712 The Dutch in Formosa, Japan, and Persia; [1609-45 was appointed, and negotiations were opened with the Chinese for the interchange of commodities. Formosa soon became a very flourishing entrepôt, as may be gathered from the fact that in 1627 the export of Chinese silk from Formosa to Batavia reached the value of 559,493 florins, to Japan 621,655, or a total of 1,181,148 florins. Formosa became also the chief mart for the export of tea, a luxury at that time, which the Dutch had been the first to introduce into Europe.

The mention of Japan suggests a brief summary of one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of the Dutch East India Company. So early as 1609 a famous traveller, Pieter van den Broeck, had visited Japan on an official mission and been received in friendly fashion by the Shogun at Yeddo; and in the following year two envoys bearing credentials from Governor-General Pieter Both were able to obtain permission for the Dutch under close restrictions to trade with Japan. The Portuguese had been their predecessors here as elsewhere, and had for some sixty years held a privileged position in the island empire, and by the zeal of their missionaries (foremost among these the famous Francis Xavier) had succeeded in converting a considerable part of the population to the religion of the Cross. Later, however, a reaction set in, fierce persecution arose, and finally the Portuguese were entirely expelled (1637-42) and Japanese Christianity extinguished in blood. The Netherlanders had to accommodate themselves to the new situation by many humiliations. They were required to choose between giving up their trade and renouncing all public profession of their creed. Their factory was removed from Firando, near Nagasaki, on the mainland, to the small neighbouring islet of Desima, to which they were confined almost like prisoners. They submitted, however, to all the inconveniences of the position, and in the face of many difficulties were able under a most capable and enterprising director, Francis Caron, to recoup themselves for the insults and contumely they had at times to endure by a most thriving trade. The annual imports of silk and other commodities amounted on the average to a value of 6,000,000 florins, together with 1200 to 1400 chests of silver worth another 5,000,000 florins. For upwards of a century the Dutch were the only Europeans who had any intercourse with Japan.

To the west of Hindostan openings for the extension of trade were seized with no less avidity. It was again Pieter van den Broeck, who in 1616 by his skill and enterprise first opened up friendly relations with the Arabs and Persians. A trading post was established at Gambron (Bender Abbas) on the Persian Gulf, with a dependency at Ispahan. In 1645 the informal privileges hitherto enjoyed were placed on a permanent basis by a treaty with the Shah, which conceded to the Netherlanders complete freedom of trade in the Persian Empire. On the Arabian coast Mocha and other places were regularly visited. Just as the Dutch had brought the first tea to Europe from China in 1610,

1542-1651] in Arabia, Cape Colony, and Australasia

713

so they introduced coffee from Mocha in 1616. As a station of call a settlement was in 1638 made upon the island of Mauritius. The superior advantages of Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope were however obvious, and in 1651 an expedition under Antoni van Riebeek laid the foundation of Cape Colony as a half-way house on the voyage to Batavia.

Thus it has been seen that during the first half of the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company had succeeded in monopolising a very large part of the trade of the entire Orient. It is unnecessary here to dwell upon its relations with its only serious rival, the English East India Company, or upon the many bickerings and collisions between them, culminating in the so-called " Massacre at Amboina." The international aspect of commercial expansion in the Eastern seas is treated elsewhere. In their search for fresh avenues for trade Netherlanders made important additions to geographical knowledge. The circumnavigations of the globe by Spilbergen, 1614-5, and by van Schouten and Le Maire, 1615-6, stand in the foremost rank of famous voyages. To the latter two belongs the honour of the discovery of the Straits of Le Maire between Staten Island and Tierra del Fuego, of the passage round Cape Hoorn (so named by Schouten from his birthplace), and of numerous islands in the Pacific. Schouten and Le Maire were the first to explore the northern coast of New Guinea. Other Dutchmen had meanwhile been rediscovering the vast Australian continent (first sighted by a Portuguese vessel in 1542), to which they gave the name of New Holland, which it bore until the middle of the nineteenth century. Visits to the western coast in 1605, 1609, and 1619 are still perpetuated in Duifken and Coen Points, Dirk Hartog and Rottenest Islands, the Swan River, and other relics of this earliest nomenclature. The northern portion was first explored in 1627-8 under the auspices of Governor-General Carpentier, whose memory is preserved in the Gulf of Carpentaria. More important still were the voyages of Abel Tasman in the days of Governor-General van Diemen, 1642-4. To Tasman the world is indebted for its first knowledge of the southern and eastern coasts of New Holland, and for the discovery of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), of New Zealand, and of the Fiji and Friendly Islands. Headlands, bays, rivers, and islands in many parts of the Australian continent still record the fact that they were discovered in the stadholderate of Frederick Henry, by the enterprise of Governor van Diemen and by the ships of the great seaman Abel Tasman.

It is time now to return to the history of the negotiations for peace which hinged so largely upon the question of the Indies. To this question, as has already been pointed out, the outbreak of the revolution in Lisbon, December, 1640, and the proclamation of the Duke of Braganza as King of Portugal, gave an altogether new aspect. At

714

Effects of the Portuguese revolt

[1641-6

first the Dutch hailed the tidings that a new ally had arisen to help them in their protracted struggle with their ancient foe. To quote the words of a contemporary writer: "In 1641 the King of Portugal was cherished here [in Holland] like a dearly-loved child." But this could not last. A treaty was indeed concluded (June 22, 1641) between Portugal and the United Provinces, in which the two Powers agreed to assist each other in their contest for independence against a common enemy. In regard to Brazil it was agreed that the conquered Captaincies should be handed over to the Dutch in return for their active help in Europe. But John IV, in concluding this treaty, did not reckon with those most interested in the matter-the Portuguese colonists in Brazil. These under the leadership of some men of rare capacity and energy, Vieira, Vidal, and others, rose in revolt against the Dutch intruders. It was a time, when, after the return of Joan Maurice, the counsels of the Netherlanders were weak and divided; and the efforts of the insurgents were crowned with considerable success. And as in Pernambuco, so in the Portuguese settlements in Africa and the East Indies. Everywhere the colonists, roused by the news from the mother-country, were eager to acclaim the accession of the House of Braganza, but in the East as well as in the West they found themselves confronted, not by the hated Castilian, but by the Netherlander. It was a strange situation and a very difficult one. The tidings of the Portuguese risings were received in the Netherlands with something like angry consternation. Dutch pride and Dutch pockets were touched in their tenderest and most sensitive place, and with the feeling of indignation and enmity against Portugal sprang up at the same time a sense that the turn which affairs had taken after 1641 had lessened, if not removed, many of the differences in the way of an agreement with Spain. The Spanish King no longer felt the same interest in the fate of the East Indies, Guinea, and Brazil; his own supreme desire was to stamp out rebellion in his own peninsula. The Netherlander, in his turn, unexpectedly called upon to fight for his lately-made conquests, began to look upon the Spaniard as less dangerous to his hopes of commercial profit than the upstart Portuguese.

Thus it seemed at last that the bitter opponents of well-nigh eighty years might possibly be drawn together by the fact that they had now a common enemy. The chief obstacle in the way of a separate truce or peace between Spain and the United Provinces lay in the treaty concluded between the States General and the King of France in 1635, by which it was agreed that neither the King nor States should make any peace, truce, or armistice, except together and by common consent. This led to negotiations between Madrid and the Hague being conducted at first, so far as possible, secretly, though it was not long before the French, having become aware of what was going on, used all their influence and all the resources of diplomacy to thwart proceedings so inimical to their interests. Progress therefore was slow, but the