Skip to main content

Spirited Transactions. The Morals and Materialities of Trade Contacts between the Dutch, the British and the Malays (1596–1619)

  • Chapter
Goods from the East, 1600–1800

Part of the book series: Europe’s Asian Centuries ((EAC))

Abstract

On June 22, 1596, a small Dutch fleet came to anchor in the bay of the city of Banten, on Java’s north coast. Placed under the command of Cornelis de Houtman and Gerrit van Beuningen, this privately-chartered commercial expedition comprised four vessels manned by some 249 crew members.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Purnadi Purbacaraka, ‘Shahbandars in the Archipelago’, Journal of Southeast Asian History, 2 (1961), pp. 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. John E. Kempe and Richard O. Winstedt (eds.), ‘A Malay Digest Compiled for ‘Abd al-Ghafur Muhaiyu’d-din Shah, Sultan of Pahang (1592–1614 A.D., with Undated Additions’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 21.1 (1948), p. 26.

    Google Scholar 

  3. W.H. Moreland (ed.), Peter Floris. His Voyage to the East Indies in The Globe, 1611–1615. The Contemporary Translation of his Journal (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1934) p. 37.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Luuc Kooijmans, ‘Kwestbaaarheid en koopluider vriendschap’, in Marijke Gisjwijt-Hofstra and Florike Egmond (dir.), Of bidden helpt? Tegenslag en cultuur in Europa circa 1500–2000 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997) pp. 61–70.

    Google Scholar 

  5. ES, I, p. 78. See the engraving in Isaac Commelin, Begin ende voortgangh, van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie…, (Amsterdam: Jan Jansz, 1646), I.37, p. 112.

    Google Scholar 

  6. ES, III, p. 199. Jan Jansz, Kaerel to the Bewindhebbers of the Compagnie van Verre, Banten, 4 August 1596.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Joaquim H. da Cunha Rivara (ed.), Archivo Portuguez-Oriental (Nova Goa: Imprensa Nacional, 1861), III, pp. 884–6 (Doc. no. 337).

    Google Scholar 

  8. M. de Buzanval to M. du Plessis, The Hague, 27 August 1597, quoted in Jacobus A. van der Chijs, Geschiedenis der stichting van de Vereenigde O. I. Compagnie…, (Leiden: Engels, 1856) p. 65.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Quoted in Fernando Bouza, Felipe II y el Portugal dos povos. Imagenes de esper-anza y revuelta, (Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, Coleccion Sintesis XIV, 2010), p. 50.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Marie-Sybille de Vienne, Les Chinois en Insulinde. Échanges et sociétés marchandes au XVIIe siècle, (Paris, Les Indes Savantes, 2008), 39, p. 75.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Second Livre de l’histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales. Iournal ou Comptoir contenant le Vray Discours et narration historique du voiage faict par les huict Navires d’Amsterdam, au mois de Mars l’an 1598, sous la conduite de l’Admiral laques Corneille Necq et du Vice-Admiral Vvibrant de Vvarvvicq…, (Amsterdam: Cornille Nicolas, 1601) f° 12v, 21r.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Liaw Yock Fang (ed.), Undang-Undang Melaka. The Laws of Melaka (The Hague: M. Nijhoff/KITLV, Bibliotheca Indonesica, 1976) (hereafter UUM), XXIX, pp. 134–5.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Denys Lombard (ed.), Le Spraeck ende Woord-boek de Frederick de Houtman, première méthode de malais parlé (fin du 16ème siècle) (Paris: EFEO, 1970) (hereafter SWB), VIII, p. 91.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Richard O. Winstedt (ed.), ‘Kedah Laws’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6.2 (1928), (hereafter AK), I.28 and I.34, pp. 23–24; II.10, pp. 29–30.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Richard O. Winstedt and Patrick Edward de Josselin de Jong (eds.), ‘A Digest of Customary Law from Sungai Ujong’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17.3 (1954), (hereafter ASU), VII, p. 41, and XVI, p. 45.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Denys Lombard (ed.), Augustin de Beaulieu. Mémoires d’un voyage aux Indes Orientales, 1619–1622: un marchand normand à Sumatra (Paris: EFEO-Maisonneuve et Larose, 1996), p. 201.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Johannes Cloppenburg, Christelijcke Onderwijsinge van Woecker, Interessen, Coop van Renten ende allerleye Winste van Gelt met Gelt (Amsterdam: Gedruckt by Theunis Jacobsz, 1637).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Claudius Salmasius, De Usuris liber (Lugd. Batavor.: Ex Officina Elseviriorum, 1638).

    Google Scholar 

  19. We translate from the Latin text edited by Catherine Secretan, Le ‘Marchand philosophe’ de Caspar Barlaeus. Un éloge du commerce dans la Hollande du Siècle d’or. Etude, texte et traduction du Mercator Sapiens (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002) p. 139.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Quentin Skinner, ‘Moral Principles and Social Change’, in Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Vol. 1: Regarding Method (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 145–57.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Remember Mark 10.25: ‘It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God’. See Annette de Vries, Ingelijst werk. De verbeelding van arbeid en beroep in de Vroegmoderne Nederlanden (Zwolle: Waanders, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Jelle Riemersma, Religious Factors in Early Dutch Capitalism, 1550–1650 (The Hague: Mouton, 1967) pp. 77–80.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Johannes Keuning (ed.), De Tweede Schipvaart der Nederlanders naar oost-Indië onder Jacob Cornelisz. van Neck en Wybrant Warwijck (The Hague: M. Nijhoff-Linschoten Vereeniging, 1938) (hereafter TS), I, p. 153 (Articulen en Ordonnantien…, Delft, March 7, 1598, art. 2).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Quoted in August Th. Boone, ‘“Om een woesten hoop te brengen tot de kerck”. Een onderzoek naar zendingsgedachten in piëtistiche zeemansva-demecums’, in August Th. Boone and J. van Ekeris, Zending tussen woord en daad. Twee hoofdstukken uit de geschiedenis van gereformeerd Piëtisme en zending (Kampen: De Groot Goudriaan, 1991), pp. 14–16, 23–25.

    Google Scholar 

  25. ‘t Quaert-liedjen der Matroosen’, in Anon., Matroosen vreught. Vol van de Nieuwste ende Hedendaaghsche Liedekens, Aldermeest gebruyckelijck onder de Zeevarende Luyden (Amsterdam: Casparus Loots-Man, 1696), p. 80.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Heert Terpstra, Jacob van Neck. Amsterdams Admiraal en Regent (Amsterdam: P. N. van Kampen & Zoon, 1950), pp. 50–53. On the role of the slave ‘Abdul’, see Romain Bertrand, L’Histoire à parts égales. Récits d’une rencontre Orient-Occident (XVIe-XVIIe siècle) (Paris: Seuil, 2012), pp. 190–94.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Willem P. Coolhaas (ed.), Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII der Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, M. Nijhoff, 1960), I, p. 51. G. Reynst to the Heren XVII, 26 October 1615.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Jacobus A. van der Chijs, De Nederlanders te Jakatra (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller, 1860), p. 209 (Ann. 4).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Wouter Schouten, Voiage de Gautier Schouten aux Indes Orientales, commencé l’an 1658 et fini l’an 1665. Traduit du Hollandois. Ou l’on voit plusieurs descriptions de Pais, Roïaumes, Isles et Villes…, (Paris: Estienne Roger, 1707), I, p. 340.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Explorations in Connected History, Vol. 2: Mughals and Franks (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 11.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Jacobus C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society. Essays in Asian Social and Economic History (The Hague,: Van Hoeve, 1967 [1940]), pp. 265, 267, 270, and Marie A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Leonard Blussé, Strange Company. Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women, and the Dutch in VOC Batavia (Dordrecht: KITLV, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2015 Romain Bertrand

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bertrand, R. (2015). Spirited Transactions. The Morals and Materialities of Trade Contacts between the Dutch, the British and the Malays (1596–1619). In: Berg, M., Gottmann, F., Hodacs, H., Nierstrasz, C. (eds) Goods from the East, 1600–1800. Europe’s Asian Centuries. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403940_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403940_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56218-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40394-0

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics