Page 178 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

8 The Kraak Porcelains Discovered from Taiwan … 149

Southeast Asia. For resolving this problem, The Dutch anxiously tried to !nd a
trade station where was close to Chinese coast. Taiwan (Formosa), for this reason,
became the best choice based on their requirement.
In 1622, Dutch conquered the Pen-hu archipelago (Pescadores, "!) in south of
Taiwan Strait. But two years later, Chinese Ming government’s military troops
besieged the Dutch fort in Pen-hu Island because they thought these foreigners
would threaten the safety of their coast. The Dutch were forced to evacuate from
Pen-hu to Taiwan, the farther east and larger island (Lu 2001: 116–134).
After 1624, the Dutch built several large scale forts in Southern Taiwan, where
gradually became one of the pro!table Dutch colonies in Asia for almost 40 years.
On the other hand, the Spaniard conquered northern part of Taiwan from 1626 to
1642, and continually opposed to the Dutch who lived in Southern Taiwan.

8.2 The Ceramic Transit Trade of the Dutch
V.O.C. in Southern Taiwan

During the V.O.C. occupation of the Pen-hu archipelago between 1622 and 1624,
the Dutch constructed a fort in southern tip of the island. After 1624, the Dutch
constructed fort Zeelandia and fort Provintia (!!!!!!"!) at Tainan in
southern Taiwan. Since then Taiwan became an important port for transshipment in
maritime trade network of V.O.C., and products of all kinds from China, Japan,
Southeast Asia and Taiwan itself, were shipped by the Dutchmen selling to other
places of the world. Among the commodities traded by the Dutch, Chinese ceramics
were one of the lucrative goods. According to the statistics from the Dutch records,
at least more than 4.6 million Chinese ceramic wares were transited from Taiwan
between 1626 and 1654. The quantities were astonishing and the markets included
European, Western Asia, India and Southeast Asia (Lu 2006: 89–132; 2014: 1–25),
On the other hand, the Dutch also made various wooden samples while gave orders
in Chinese ceramics. Thus, the decorations and shapes of their ceramic goods would
be more suitable for the particular taste of the customers from other places of the
world (Ibid: 102). For example, on October 23rd the Governor of Formosa
(Taiwan) wrote to the chamber of Amsterdam:
The (Chinese) merchants have promised him with the greatest emphasis to give a better
price for it, to bring with the next monsoon a good, !ne assortment and that with this aim in
view has given them large dishes, large bowls, flasks, coolers, large pots, dinner dishes,
beakers, salt-cellars, cups, mustard-pots and water-pots, and also flat dinner plates with
broad rims and moreover wash-basins with their ewers, all made of wood, mostly turned,
and painted with all kinds of Chinese !gures which they have declared to be able to copy
and have promised to bring next monsoon. (Volker 1971: 37)
Kraak Porcelain, a kind of typical Chinese export wares, was made from late
sixteenth century to middle seventeenth century. The Kraak porcelains which were
found in Pen-hu archipelago and Taiwan, mostly were discovered in the vicinity of