Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [181]
The early history of Dutch trade with the East Israel, Dutch Primacy in World Trade, pp. 61, 67–9; Vlekke, op. cit., pp. 62–3; Milton, op. cit., pp. 28–9, 52–65.
The Compagnie van Verre and the Dutch first fleet “Far-Lands Company” is a more literal translation. Israel, Dutch Primacy, pp. 67–8; Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, pp. 1–5, 59; Milton, op. cit., pp. 52–65; Vlekke, op. cit., p. 67.
Cornelis de Houtman Miriam Estensen, Discovery: The Quest for the Great South Land (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1998), p. 62; Milton, op. cit., p. 59.
“. . . the surviving members . . .” The crews of the Eerste Schipvaart experienced appalling mortality rates; only one in three returned alive.
Expeditions of 1598–1601 Israel, Dutch Primacy, pp. 67–9; Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, pp. 3–4; Vlekke, op. cit., p. 70.
The creation of the VOC The proposition of a joint stock company was a unique solution made possible only by the fact that the United Provinces was a federal republic. A precedent had, however, been set a few years earlier with an attempt to create an eight-strong cartel of companies involved in the Guinea trade. This attempt was unsuccessful, as in the end the companies of Zeeland had elected to retain their independence. Israel, op. cit., pp. 61, 69–71; Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, pp. 4–5. The price of the monopoly and of state support was not cheap; the first charter, which ran for 21 years, cost the VOC 25,000 guilders. It was renewed for a similar period at no charge in 1623, the Company’s reward for its assistance in the wars with Spain, but by the end of the century a 40-year renewal cost the VOC a further three million guilders. Glamann, op. cit., p. 6. The goods that Jeronimus and his colleagues were required to buy and sell became more varied as the Company evolved. Spices remained the staple of the Indies trade, but over the years the VOC expanded its operations to deal in cottons and silks from India and China, dyestuffs, and even copper and silver from Japan. Profits were good here, too; cotton, for example, typically sold at 80–100 percent more than it had cost in the Indies, and margins of up to 500 percent were not unheard-of.
The Gentlemen XVII See Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, pp. 15–9.
Spices Glamann, op. cit., pp. 13, 16–24, 74–6, 91–3, 134; Vlekke, op. cit., pp. 57–61; Milton, op. cit., pp. 3, 18, 58, 80.
The Dutch in the Indies, 1602–1628 Israel, Dutch Primacy, p. 73; Vlekke, op. cit., pp. 75–7.
“. . . this frothy nation . . .” Cited by John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: HarperCollins, 1993), p. 34.
“The places and the strongholds . . .” C. R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1965), pp. 45–6. The governments of Europe reciprocated with scorn, and when, years later, the Dutch envoy to the court of Charles X of Sweden ventured a remark about the freedom of religion, the king is said to have pulled a golden rixdollar from his pocket and brandished it in the diplomat’s face, remarking: “Voil_otre religion.”
“These butterboxes . . .” Quoted by Israel, Dutch Primacy, p. 105.
Jacob Poppen Israel, The Dutch Republic, pp. 347–8.
Pay of merchants In the second half of the century an upper-merchant’s salary was typically 80–100 guilders a month, or perhaps 1,100 a year, less than the earnings of a typical merchant at home in the Netherlands. Under-merchants earned half that, and assistants only a quarter as much, so that only the provision of free board and lodging while in the service of the Company made theirs a living wage. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, pp. 201, 300.
The life and times of Francisco Pelsaert The identity of Francisco Pelsaert’s father is not known, but his mother was Barbara van Ganderheyden. She married twice and