MDMD(5): The V.O.C. - general overview

[Michel Ryckx]

The Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie: some general history

Those who want to understand what the V.O.C. really was, let's dive into
politics, religion and thus ideology; we have to take look at Holland in
the 17th century first.  I could not help but see some parallells with
our times.  Again, I agree with John Bailey: this novel is about many
times.

Two problems lie at the origin of the V.O.C.:
- The merchantmen from the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, trading
with the Indies (which were all regions east of the Cape of Good Hope),
were concurring each other to death; and
- They had to compete with other countries (Britain, France, . . .)
which caused tremendous safety problems, ranging from semi-clandestine
piracy to open war.

This had to stop, according to the 'Staten-Generaal' of the Seven
Provinces, the highest political authority of the young Republic. On
March, 20, 1602 (some say 30th), representatives of the Provinces
granted the V.O.C. a monopoly on the trade with the Indies.  The State
also granted the V.O.C. the right to conduct war in those areas in order
to (1) prevent other European countries to trade in the East and (2)
fight the enemies of the Republic --which was, in fact, the same.
Imagine: this is the 17th century and a state gave its right to fight
wars, conduct political negociations and the right to conclude treaties
to a private company.  They were ahead of their time.

The firm went broke in 1799, but during nearly two centuries they were
the largest firm of their time, not only bringing enormous wealth to the
Republic (the 17th century is their 'Golden Century'; see their art: Jan
Steen, Vermeer, Rembrandt, . . .), but also war, destruction and slavery
to other parts of the world. At the same time Holland was the most
hospitable country of the Western world, offering freedom to jews
(Spinoza), radical thinkers (Descartes wrote in Holland), French
Huguenots --many of these fled France for the Cape), and many, many
others.  If you'd ask me, quite a schizophrenic situation: freedom and
wealth based on slavery and war; a situation a rich Calvinist, being
Elect, could easily cope with.

Holland was, in many ways, the US of its time.

The V.O.C. was structured around six regional chambers in Amsterdam,
Middelburg, Rotterdam, Delft, Hoorn and Enkhuizen.  Those chambers sent
17 representatives to Amsterdam, so they were called 'Heren XVII', the
17 Sires.  ('Herren' (58.15) is clearly a misprint for it is German, not
Dutch). The main headquarters in the East were in Batavia (before that:
Jayacarta, and now again Jakarta), named for the 'Batavi', the name of
the inhabitants in nowadays Netherlands during Roman time.  They had
outposts in Japan (Desjima), Yemen (Mokka), Persia (Surat) and many
other places.  One of these was the Cape, since ships had to take in
refreshments.

There were about 30 expeditions annually.  In sum, they had had 1,772
ships built; those ships in turn travelled 4,789 times to the East and
back.  One safe return meant usually a profit up to 800 percent.  The
main products were nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and other
consumer products like tea, silk and china.

See:
J.R. Bruijn, F.S. Gaastra, I. Schöffer, 'Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the
17th and 18th centuries', Vol. 1 The Hague, 1987.

Some documents concerning the V.O.C. are in the official Dutch Archive
at:

www.archief.nl/rad/thema/voc1/htm (in Dutch, but rather disappointng)
www.indonesiaheritage.com offers information in English, from an
Indonesian point of view.