Dutch East-India Company

The Dutch East India Company or in modern spelling Dutch East India Company, abbreviated VOC, was a private Dutch trading company with a monopoly on overseas trade between the Dutch Republic and the area east of the Cape of Good Hope and west from the Strait of Magellan .

The VOC was established in 1602 as the General Vereenichde Chartered Company.  It was the largest trading company in the world and was the first public companywith freely tradable shares . The VOC is often cited as the first company which had branches in several countries.

The Dutch East India Company established a trading network between the various trading posts in the Asian region . This intra-Asian trade took many years for large profits. The VOC thereto closed at will treaties with oriental potentates and princes. The company hit its own coins, because in Asia was hardly demand for European products, apart from weapons, scientific instruments and medical textbooks.

The VOC had its own army and warships to maintain or expand its position and to enforce, if necessary, trade with the locals. The company collapsed in the early years of costly military campaign to oust the Portuguese from Asian trading posts and other competitors to keep a distance. By 1700 half the number of employees was a soldier.

Within the Asian factories and its controlled area arranged the company management and law. There was trade (sometimes short) including Mokka , Persia , Gujarat ,Malabar , Ceylon, the Coromandel , Bengal , Ayutthaya , Cambodia , Burma , Vietnam , Formosa , China , Japan , Java and the Moluccas where long been the most profit was created.

The VOC stimulated exploration in hopes of faster connections, new business contacts and products, language study with the intention to bring the Christian faith to the attention of locals and ethnobotanical research to reduce the number of casualties among its employees.

At the height of its power, the VOC had 25,000 employees in Asia in the service. In the Netherlands, the VOC had some 3,000 employees and indirectly in the supply many were economically dependent on it. From high to low kept the workers engaged in smuggling to supplement their meager salaries.

The VOC had suffered greatly from the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784), when the English were taken several trading posts and full merchant ships were hijacked.The losses are estimated to be sixty million dollars. During the Batavian Republic the company, power symbol of the "ancien regime", in March 1795 nationalized . The debt amounted to 120 million guilders a year later taking over the state. [7] The patent was further extended twice to settle the pending cases. The VOC held officially to exist on December 31, 1799.

Contents
[ hide ]
 * 1 History
 * 2 Foundation and board
 * 2.1 Patent
 * 2.2 Directors
 * 2.3 Rooms and Gentlemen XVII
 * 2.4 Capital
 * 2.5 Board of India
 * 3 Early Years
 * 4 Trade Area
 * 4.1 Barter
 * 4.2 Monopoly
 * 4.3 Decline trade
 * 4.4 Waiver
 * 5 Others
 * 6 See also
 * 6.1 Writing ministers, surgeons and other VOC officials
 * 7 Bibliography
 * 8 External links

History
Between 1498 and 1595 was the spice trade in the East Indies entirely in the hands of the Portuguese, covered by the papal Treaty of Tordesillas . After Portugal withSpain - which the Dutch Republic was at war - one country had become, it was banned the Dutch to do with Spanish and Portuguese ports. It was then in the republic decided to spice itself up for the East Indies.

There emerged from 1595 with several companies of trade in the East Indies. Raadpensionaris Johan van Barneveld was not the only one who found the competition crowds profits. In addition, the companies of small could play no role in the fight against the king of Spain. A large united company would contrast his eyes are a powerful military and economic weapon, and forced to merge, the companies. The income that the VOC in the form of various taxes and duties for the state would generate, were considered for the country of great importance for the financing of the Eighty Years War . That proved in practice to be so. [8] At the end of his life, Van Barneveld said that in setting him the national interest outweighed those of the shareholders.

Patent
In 1602 went to six companies on the VOC. [9] On 20 March 1602 the States General a patent containing stipulates that drive from the Dutch Republic, only the VOC had the right maritime trade in the area east of Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan. [10] The date of the patent grant is generally regarded as the official launch date. The patent was valid for twenty years. It was agreed that the participants were entitled to recover their entire investment after ten years.

Directors
The 73 directors of the six former companies were the daily management. This number had to be reduced by attrition to 60 directors. The more back then were in the period 1613-1665 various provinces and cities demanded a seat after the States-General hefty subsidies had been granted. [11] From 1696 should install the Knighthood of Holland two directors. [12] This number was again at 73 directors.

In 1749 governor was William IV appointed chief governor. [13] His successor William V had that feature. [14] [15] After the French invasion and the establishment of the Batavian Republic were all directors on December 24, 1795 of their duties relieved. The daily administration was taken over by the 21-member committee to the affairs of the East India trade and possessions . [16]

Rooms and Gentlemen XVII
The VOC was divided into four regional divisions (Amsterdam, Zeeland, West Friesland and Maaze) with six cities in an office that 'room' was mentioned. The central government was in the hands of the Gentlemen XVII, the name of the number of rooms deputy directors. [17] The number of directors of each room that was delegated to the Gentlemen XVII was so determined that Amsterdam could not get an absolute majority.

In The Hague, the seat of Besogne Hague . This was an administrative committee of the Dutch East India Company that controlled the correspondence with India. [18]

Capital
In order to get capital, all residents of the republic were able to August 31, 1602 documenting every room how much money they wanted to put in, which then could be paid in installments. A share in the investment, for example, in the chamber of Amsterdam was in the books, could be freely traded, but could not be enrolled in another room. [19] In this way, each room had a fixed own share of VOC. In Amsterdam alone in 1143 investors put money in. [20] In total, inlaid over 6.4 million dollars. [21]Committed was that this amount be increased, nor should be reduced. [22]

Below is a table with the written commitments for the investment in favor of the establishment of the VOC per August 31, 1602 in guilders and the number of deputies in the Lords XVII. The seventeenth alternate delegate came from Middelburg or one of the smaller rooms Enkhuizen, Delft, Hoorn and Rotterdam:

Council of India
From 1609 it was the local government in India in the hands of the Council of the Indies . This was accountable to the Gentlemen XVII, but because instructions on average nine months were on the way, which was to take himself qualified largely decisions. The Governor was led by the Governor General and was assisted by councilors. The Council of the Indies first resided on the island of Ternate and later in the city of Batavia in Java.

Early Years
The redemption takes ships was so costly that initially little profit was made. Typically the VOC directors in the beginning out of pocket accountants, the cashier and the other office staff salaried. [24] The prices of Actien rose rapidly when Steven van der Hagen in 1605 as the first returned with a rich cargo and in 1607 rumors were a conquest of the Malaysian city of Malacca .

The first years invested heavily in a war fleet, to gain a foothold on the ground in Asia. The States-General was given money to attack in Portugal trade and warships and block ports. Even the VOC captured in the Indian Archipelago several Portuguese fortresses and made 150 to 200 ships booty. The VOC therefore already grew in the early years to a privateering company. Also during the Twelve Years' Truce was the armed struggle against the Spanish and Portuguese unabated. Thus in Spanish imminent port of Manila blocked several times. Only early twenties filibuster of the VOC would be transformed into commercial company.

The first four expeditions to Asia cost the VOC more money than was invested. There were also more spices than could be sold imported. In 1605 was Isaac Le Mairefor fraud deposed as governor. He started a company that focused on the futures of VOC shares, whereby he managed to have the lower rate in order to get themselves to create higher profits and turning the VOC a lurking. VOC directors found themselves in 1610 forced to pay first dividend to allow the share price to rise. [25] In the absence of cash which was paid out in spices. The rate rose to it, but nevertheless, the VOC in 1612 spent more money than was received and it was impossible to investors who wanted to pay their contributions back. The States-General then certain that the financiers had to wait another ten years for their money. [26]

Already in 1608 became a factory in Machilipatnam founded on the Coromandel Coast in the south of India. From 1615 and traded in Bengal in the north.

On the privateering, the VOC in the first 21 years of its existence, according to historian Victor Enthoven earned about ten million dollars. Had she not had those revenues, the company claimed it had already gone bankrupt in the early years. The average return on equity amounted to early twenties of the seventeenth century, about six percent annually. That was less than what the banks for savings gifts.

In 1622 led a group of participants opposition to the directors. Some of them had bought a complete stock trading goods, even before it had reached the Republic. [27]The shareholders accused the directors of mismanagement, self-enrichment, conflict of interest and a lack of financial transparency. [28] Then was the renewal of the patent in 1623 the power of the directors somewhat limited. [29] a rule was instituted that they no longer spend their lives, but only for a period of three years as governor could stay on and then had to stand on the sidelines for three years. This soon became the hand lifted. [29] In addition, the directors were allowed only at public auction and buy at the same terms as other commodities. [30] From 1647 the directors were being paid, and the office staff. [31] In that year tried founded in 1621 and is now almost bankrupt Dutch West India Company in vain to merge with the VOC.

Commercial Area
The actual trade of the VOC stretched from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan.

Barter
Because there was little interest in Asia for European products, the ships initially with a ballast of bricks and the trade was often paid with gold and silver, imported from Europe, Arabia, South America, or Japan, or with textile and silk in India were bought. For example, the VOC built on an existing commercial network was expanded withfactories containing silver, tin, wood, skins, copper, saltpeter , ivory , betel and opium delivered.

Setting up a network of barter, the "Indian external trade" has been called, is promoted by Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629) to overcome the shortage of precious metals and cash. He was convinced that the VOC could completely baste with this intra-Asian trade and no money would need more from the republic to purchase merchandise. To realize that he also wanted to let many Dutch emigrate to the Indian archipelago. For the latter lacked interest. Between about 1635 and 1690 the VOC actually made ​​a profit from the internal market set by Coen. [32]

Swapping Chinese side against Japanese silver proved extremely profitable. Pattani on the Malay Peninsula soon became a center for inter-Asian trade; in particular, for the trade in China.

Monopoly
Along with the first Governor-General Pieter Both stood Jan Pieter Zoon Coen a policy for an aggressively monopoly to acquire the spice trade in the Indian archipelago.To achieve that led Coen war against European rivals and Indian princes. The efforts of the British East India Company to gain a share, were thwarted by Coen as much as possible.

Like the Portuguese in Goa, Coen saw aims to centralize all trade and to run smoothly through Batavia. Then targeted him trading on the Empire of China to monopolize by occupying ports were visited by Chinese sailors and wage war against Spaniards and Portuguese to deflect their share of the lucrative trade with the unknown but rich deemed China to Batavia. [ 33] Thus, the Port of Manila was blocked to force Chinese merchants Batavia to do. [34]

In 1622 became the Banda islands brought under control and decided to cooperate with the East India Company to the equipment of the Nassau fleet Jacques l'Hermitewhich was responsible for a secret instruction: an attack on Callao and getting into the hands of a silver fleet . [35]

Coen gave in 1622 commissioned the Portuguese violently from Macau to chase. The Portuguese defense proved stronger than expected and the attack was a failure. A fort was then built on what further away islands Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait to drive from there to China trade, but the Chinese showed little interest has been decided to go along the Chinese coast rob. That led to a backlash from the Chinese who attacked the VOC on the Pescadores. After a siege of several months gave the Dutchmen over and relocated to a sandbar near the even more remote from the Chinese coast Formosa . In 1633 there was a new battleground over who was the boss in the Taiwan Strait. The Battle of the Bay of Liaoluo was again brilliantly won by the Chinese.

From 1634 the factory won the Hooghly increasingly important. Not until this year annual dividend paid. [36]

The VOC established in 1637 a factory in Vietnam Tonkin, important for export by Vietnam to Japan. [37] In Japan the VOC was relatively convenient to get silver, which took place a quarter of world production. The value ratio of gold and silver differed between Europe and Asia; the valuation of silver in the Far East and Persia was greater than for gold. From 1640 faced the VOC in Japan with opposition from the shogun to the Dutch factory at Hirado had moved to the artificial island of Dejima . [38]

Governor General Anthony van Diemen sent Abel Tasman in 1642 set out to Southland, later Australia, further mapping. The expeditions of Martin Vries to the north and south of Tasman had intended to deliver more gold and silver, but both returned empty-handed.

The city of Goa was blocked for eight years, so exports to Lisbon was hampered between 1636 and 1644. In 1641 the Dutch with the help of the sultan of Johor, the Portuguese from their fortress in Malaya and the Dutch East India thus took an important trading center, as did the dominion over the Strait of Malacca . Because the VOC Batavia from all the Java Sea controlled, the company had from the Cape of Good Hope, the trade route to the South China Sea in hands.

In 1652 established Jan van Riebeeck a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope, thereby giving impetus for what became the Cape Colony would be.

In 1654 the factories were Suratte in northwest India, Jambi on Sumatra , Fort Zeelandia on Formosa and Dejima in Japan were the only ones to profit; the loss of other members, including those of Batavia. [39]

The Portuguese were in 1658 from Ceylon expelled allowing trade in elephants and cinnamon was wholly owned by the Dutch East India Company. [40] Galle became an important port from which directly Holland and Zeeland sailed. The whole Coromandel fell into Dutch hands. In 1662, Formosa was lost to the Pirates of the ChineseKoxinga . More than two thousand soldiers and employees of the VOC lost their lives. A year later there was militarily successful because the southern Indian city ofCochin on the Malabar coast was conquered by the Portuguese.

In 1668 the VOC closed after a long struggle the Convention Bongaja with the Sultan of Makassar, where for many years was the main competing port. It was inter alia, that all 2,000 Portuguese had to leave. From that moment could not be transported cloves in the world without the VOC was involved.

Around 1670, the Dutch East India Company introduced on the Coromandel mass production of opium for sale on Java, India and China. [41]

In 1682-1684 intervened VOC urgent request in Bamtam . The VOC supported the weaker party who then gave the VOC the obligation to give the pepper monopoly which the English, Danish and French East India companies were checked. [42]

The years under the governor-general Joan Maetsuycker , Rijcklof of Goens and Cornelis Speelman were favorable for the VOC; it became important trading empire expanded. Coenraad van Beuningen then propagated radical cuts in VOC. He produced sets of proposals to introduce a more effective policy and demanded more oversight and tighter compliance. [43] Van Reede was sent out the corruption and spill trade fight under the VOC personnel in India and Japan.

To 1690 profits and increased costs; 1692 decreased profits and increased further charges. [44] However, trade between Europe and Asia continued to rise. The financially most favorable period of 1687 to 1736. In coffee, tea, sugar and textiles, was made less profit than the spices from the early years.

According to Pieter van Dam (1621-1706), which more than fifty years was secretary of the VOC room in Amsterdam and in 1700 described the history of the VOC, was in his time almost as many privately traded and on behalf of the company.

In 1727 it was decided for the first time a direct trade with China; response was to increase the quality of the tea. The experiment did not last long. Eventually, the VOC had marketed Chinese Export Porcelain increasingly on individuals.

The company has never been the rulers of Travancore in the south or of Colastri in the north and even less the Zamorin of Calicut able to conclude a treaty. The Battle of Colachel between troops of the former Indian Travancore Kingdom and the Dutch East India Company during the Travancore War, was the first major defeat of a European army against a South Asian military. The Dutch republic was from that moment no large-scale colonial threat. It indirectly helped the British East India Company to strengthen its grip on the area.

Sobering trade
Intra-Asian trade, initially very profitable for the VOC, brought from the end of the seventeenth century no profit anymore. Trade with Japan through Dejima largely dried up and the export of silver and gold in Japan was banned. In the second half of the eighteenth century, moreover, shifted from expensive marketing luxury goodscheaper bulk. That was at the expense of profit margins .

Another important reason was the increasing British and French influence through the British East India Company and the French East India Company .

In an early attempt to prevent the smuggling of opium, was the 1745 Opium Society founded. This got a monopoly on the opium trade on Java and took at a fixed price of VOC off a certain amount of opium. The club was run by VOC directors. Profits were personal to them. However, the opium smuggling could not be eradicated. [45]When the British in 1757 Calcutta conquered the local prince who got the monopoly on the opium trade. The VOC was henceforth buy opium at a hefty price of the English, whereby the profits dwindled. From that moment, the VOC was no longer master in "her" trade. [41] In 1758, the VOC had to give up her position in Surat on the English. Since 1767, the trade was also Ayutthaya less profitable.

Trade with Canton consisted of 80% tea. Paid with trade goods to be first sold locally to buy tea. If that had happened, the competitors had already bought the best quality tea.

A major loss was the private trade or "spill-trade" which was operated by the employees of the company who were poorly paid and managed to enrich themselves in this way. Repatriating VOC often spent vast fortunes they had amassed without permission from their employer on their own account, back to the homeland.

The end of the VOC had many causes and was a slow process that almost the entire eighteenth century confiscated. Fixed costs remained high because of the many garrisons that had to be staffed and the strong navy that was necessary to defend the commercial area of ​​the VOC.

At the end of its existence, the VOC was governed by people who had little commercial experience, no owner and were usually never in India had been.Moreover lacked a transparent accounting, so they had no clear view in Amsterdam on the course of the cash flows. A profit and loss statement was never made ​​and the formation of a reserve bequeathed. [46] According pensionary Laurens Mirror Pieter was the VOC without a body board, ordre or thrift . It can be established that the entire organization was too rigid to adapt.

Operating results declined sharply until 1775, then joined a slight recovery. [47] [48] [49] [50] When the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War return ships the Republic could no longer reach it went rapidly downhill. For two years the market was at a standstill. Large stocks of commodities in the factories in India ( Nagapattinam ) were seized by the British. Already in 1781 decided the Dutch chambers moratorium request and there has since been no dividend be paid. Bonds on the VOC had been virtually unsaleable. Support from the city of Amsterdam, the Bank Loan, the States-General, the province of Holland and in 1790 lotteries could not turn the tide. The privileges of the directors came under the knife and some lodging houses was lifted. In 1793 threatened the directors with the suspension of the payment and the closing of the yards. In 1794 came out that the Amsterdam Exchange Bank had provided millions of dollars illegally blank credit to the VOC. After the 1795 outbreak of war with France were most remaining VOC offices in British hands. Only the possessions in Java and were maintained factories in Dejima and Canton.

Removal
After the establishment of the Batavian Republic in 1795 was decided on 24 December of that year that the VOC per March 1, 1796 was nationalized. All directors were dismissed on that date. [52] The debts, assets and records of the VOC went over to the new republic. [53]

The patent was due to expire at the end of that year, was extended until December 31, 1798 to deal with the current affairs and then for the last time until 31 December 1799. Officially, the VOC was not on 1 January 1800. [54]

The individual chambers of the VOC in Delft, Hoorn and Enkhuizen were only in 1803 by the Council of Asian Possessions and Establishments lifted. [55] In Rotterdam and Middelburg continued sales offices exist. [56] [57]

Varia

 * For almost 200 years have been equipped over 4700 ships to Asia, including nearly 1,700 in the seventeenth and more than 3,000 in the eighteenth century. From the founding years to 1700 there were 317,000 people on these ships, from 1700 to 1795 were to 655,000. [58] [59] Of these, a third turned back. [60] [61]
 * The archives of the Dutch East India Company since 2003 are on the World Heritage List for documents of UNESCO . The VOC archives are kept by government agencies in Cape Town , Chennai , Colombo , Jakarta and The Hague. UNESCO considers the archive as the biggest and most impressive of all early modern European trading companies active in Asia. About twenty-five million pages of archives have been preserved. According to the organization which constitute the most comprehensive and the most complete source of the early modern world history with relevant information about the history of hundreds of local political and trade organizations in Asia and Africa. [62]
 * The minimum age to board the ships was thirteen years, later increased to sixteen. A sailor earned about 110 guilders a year. His food and shelter he was also reimbursed. In comparison, a Council of India earned 350 guilders, the Governor General 1,200 guilders per month, plus free board and lodging.
 * In 1682 there were an East Indiaman six monkeys, parrots twelve, two Ambonese cockatoos, carried a crocodile, a Bengali deer and a young elk. The demand for and supply of animals was soon so great that the VOC in Amsterdam had built shelters to temporarily house the special and rare. [63]
 * Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein , Jan Commelin , Simon van der Stel , Georg Everhard Rumphius , John Camphuys , Johan Huydecoper of Maarsseveen, Nicolaes Witsen and Gaspar Fagel were engaged in describing, send or collect plants and shells. The pharmacists of the Hortus Botanicus were mostly interested in new drugs to fight diseases under the VOC personnel; the directors in seed and ornamental plants for their gardens or greenhouses.
 * The historian Hans Derks mockingly calls the VOC the Violent Opium Company. [53]
 * After the bankruptcy, the VOC was called colloquially "Perish Under Corruption".
 * On board the ships of the Dutch East India worked exclusively men. Yet it happened that women disguised as men, aanmonsterden. There were several reasons for this. Partly because women felt that they were more likely to build a future in the east, and a paid passage was too expensive. There were also women who are no more than a year of their boyfriend or husband wanted to be separated. There were women with a criminal fleeing the country to build a new future elsewhere. So called ship's surgeon Nicholas de Graaff them, "Spinhuis whores, drunken street pigs and dieveggen who 's in Holland no longer hold thirst or often more peril of' walked t Spinhuis or scaffold, and therefore they have her in the ship devoid of being thus in men's clothing to the East Indies dangers. " Often women were caught and exposed. They were then brought back to the Netherlands and sentenced there.

Writing ministers, surgeons and other VOC officials

 * Philip Baldaeus is the first European culture, the religion of the Sinhalese and the language ( grammar ) the Tamils ​​who live in the north of the island, is described.
 * François Caron wrote an interesting analysis of Japan, translated more than twenty times in the seventeenth century.
 * Pieter van Dam wrote on behalf of the directors, the Gentlemen XVII a history of the VOC, which he began in 1693 and which he completed in 1701.
 * Nicholas de Graaff made ​​as a ship's doctor in sixteen traveling all over the world. He wrote a humorous report in 1701 posthumously appeared as Reisen Nicolaus de Graaff, after the four parts of the world together with the East Indise mirror .
 * Hendrick Hamel succeeded after 13 years of captivity from Korea to escape. He is best known for his travel. It is in Europe long time been the only source of information about that country.
 * Dirk van Hogendorp (1761-1822) complained the government in India successfully. His in 1799 issued Notice of the present state of the Batavian possessions in eastern and if the trade with them, in which he showed among other things an opponent of slavery, was controversial and was met with approval.
 * Johan Nieuhof was after a journey of 2,400 km from Guangzhou to Beijing (1655-1657), the leading European writer on China. The 150 prints in the 18th century led to popularity of the chinoiserie . He disappeared without a trace in 1672 on the island of Madagascar when he was gone in a dinghy ashore in search of drinking water.
 * Aernout van Overbeke wrote Witty and Vermaeckelicke Reys-Beschryvinge From Lord Aernout van Overbeke Naer East Indies dangers, serving the Lord EE Bewinthebberen of the East India Company, for Raet of Justice in the year 1668. Vervattende verscheyde farcical events and droll thoughts on selve, geduerende sijn Reyse from Batavia to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Jan Joosten, 1671.
 * Hendrik van Rheede wrote about the flora of India a standard Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, which was released in twelve volumes between 1678 and 1703. The work includes engravings of great quality and detailed descriptions of 740 plants from Malabar, which had medicinal or economic value.
 * Georg Eberhard Rumphius spent 49 years in Ambon and is the author of The Amboinsche herb book . The gigantic work of more than 1661 folios was shipped to the Republic but disappeared into the seabed in a sea battle. Fortunately make John Camphuys make copies and eventually succeeded yet to publish his work. This work laid the foundation for the scientific research on the flora and fauna of the Moluccas and the sea around it.
 * Wouter Schouten, a surgeon , published in 1676 three books about his travels. The East India voyagie among the best stories that were written at that time. [64]
 * François Valentine was a Dutch minister who is sent twice to "the East". Once back, he wrote New Years East Indies, a size and perspective never again reached description of Asia. He wrote about all the areas where the Dutch traded. It contains all kinds of geographical, historical, legal, political, and botanical descriptions. In addition, the work illustrates how a seventeenth-century man looked at other cultures. There are few historical books on Dutch history which is cited as often as that of Valentine.