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March 1594 some Dutch merchants founded a "Company of Far Lands" at Amsterdam,
their objective was to send two fleets to East Indies. The first fleet of four ships
reached Bantam and returned in the Netherlands in August 1597, only three ships with a
small cargo of pepper returned but it more than covered the cost of the expedition.
Following the steeps of this first enterprise five different companies (voorcompagniën)
were founded, in 1598 twenty two ships left Dutch ports for East Indies. In 1601 sixty
five ships left for the East Indies. As
early as 1598, the States General suggested that various companies should amalgamate. On
March 20, 1602, finally from a fusion of six small
Dutch companies the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was born, the unification into one company did not happen spontaneously, but was
enforced by the Dutch government. The charter (octrooi)
was valid for 21 years. The States General, granted a monopoly on
the trade in the East Indies to the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische
Compagnie or VOC), the area of trade granted to the company was
called the octrooigebied (trade zone). Its purpose was not only
trade; the Compagnie also had to fight the enemies of the Republic and prevent other
European nations to enter the East India trade. During its history of 200 years, the VOC
became the largest company of its kind, trading spices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and
pepper mainly) and other products (tea, silk and chinese porcelain). The VOC was virtually
a state within a state.
The new company was divided into six regional
boards (kamer) which were established in the former seats of the pioneer companies:
Amsterdam, Middelburg, Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen. Each of the regional
chambers of the VOC had a board of directors. The Heeren XVII, the government body of the
company, was a court of seventeen directors, they were chosen from among the regional
directors. Eight of the Heeren XVII represented the Amsterdam chamber, four the
Middelburg, and one representative from each of the other chambers (Delft, Rotterdam,
Hoorn and Enkhuizen), the seventeenth director was provided by rotation among all the
chambers save Amsterdam.
The company was from the start
very successfully, in 1605 the VOC captured Ambon and Tidore and drive the Portuguese from
the Moluccas, later in 1619 Batavia was founded. During the following years the Portuguese
power in the East was destroyed: the Dutch estabilished factories in Coromandel, Bengal,
Iran, Gujarat, Formosa (Taiwan), founded Cape Town as naval base along the route to the
East, conquered from the Portuguese Malacca (1641), Ceylon (1656-1658) and the Malabar
coast (1661-1663). The company extended its trade network from Africa, Arabia, Persian
Gulf, India, East Indies until China and Japan.
The total figures for the two
centuries of the Company's operations, for trade turnover, shipping and personnel, are
impressive. The business was on a much larger scale in the eighteenth century than it had
been in the seventeenth. In 1608 the Dutch had 40 ships manned by 5.000 men in Asia, 20
ships with 400 men off the coast of Guinea and 100 ships with 1.800 men in the West
Indies. In 1644 the VOC alone had 150 ships and 15.000 men and in the last quarter of the
17th century it had in the East Indies over 200 ships and 30.000 men. For instance, in
total the VOC fitted out some 4,700 ships, nearly 1,700
in the seventeenth century and a good 3,000 in the eighteenth. Between 1602 and 1700,
317,000 people sailed from Europe on these ships, while between 1700 and 1795 this total
reached 655,000. Trade figures confirm the growth of the business after 1700. The
expenditure on equipage, that is to say shipbuilding and outfitting as well as the money
and goods that were sent to Asia, reached the sum of fl. 370 million between 1640 and
1700, and fl. 1,608 million in the years 1700-1795. In these periods the purchase prices
of the return goods shipped home from Asia reached fl. 205 and fl. 667 million
respectively; the sales prices of these return wares were fl. 577 million in the first
period and fl. 1,633 in the second.
The VOC formally dissolved on 31
December 1795 and its debts and possessions taken over by the Batavian Republic.
Bibliography:
- Boxer, CH.R. "The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800" London, 1965
- Furber, Holden "Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600-1800" Minneapolis,
1976
- Gaastra, F.S. "VOC - ORGANIZATION" TANAP WEB Site http://www.tanap.net/content/voc/organization/organization_intro.htm
- Vinius, G. D. Vink, P. M. M. "The merchant-warrior pacified. The VOC and its
changing political economy in India" Delhi, 1991
BOOKS ABOUT DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY:
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