Page 148 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

to two; in 1669/70 they were the BEEMSTER and the OUDSHOORN (5605 and 5606). Yet in the following season V an Goens sent again four ships, with goods this time to the value of fl 1,124,827 destined for the Amsterdam and Zeeland chambers. According to Van Dam passions were running high in the struggle between Van Goens and the Batavia government to send maximal amounts of cargo home.64
1682 - Indigo from Surat, destined for the Republic, was in future to be sent to Ceylon and shipped from there to the Netherlands.65 Also in 1682 a ship, the PURMER (1442), was sent straight from the Netherlands to Bengal and was to return via Coromandel and Ceylon. This was an experiment which had been long debated by the Heren Zeventien. Commercial considerations played of course a role: the directors wished to bring the in Europe most popular textiles as swiftly as possible to the auctions. But it was also seen as an opportunity to exercise stricter control over the Company servants.66
1684 - Following the 1682 experiment the directors decided to send two ships annually via Ceylon to Coromandel and Bengal, provided with the necessary gold and silver. The ships were eventually to go on to Batavia. In 1684 the PURMER (1494) and the ADRI- CHEM (1491) were equipped. For the homeward voyage a much more complicated sche- dule was drawn up. Ships from Batavia were to sail for Coromandel and Bengal, from there to make straight for the Netherlands or, if insufficient cargo was on hand, via Ceylon. A third ship was to collect the remaining goods from Coromandel in January and in the same month a fourth ship would have to sail from the Ganges; these naschepen (late ships) might if necessary call at Ceylon. In addition the plan indicated that all homeward ships from Surat, Persia and Madura were also to sail to Europe via Ceylon, so that besides the four ships already mentioned at least two or three others with goods from the western factories were to sail from Galle.6 7
It goes without saying that these regulations turned out very favourably for Ceylon and that Batavia produced a torrent of objections. In the meeting of the Heren Zeventien however the decision had not been easily arrived at: a number of conservative directors, who were strongly opposed to the plan, had been outflanked only by a majority vote. In any case during the following years Batavia managed to recapture the lost ground bit by bit. 1685/86 - After a naschip, the EEMLAND (5817), had sailed home via Bengal and Coro- mandel, it was decided that in future goods collected in these areas after the departure of the homeward ships, were to be sent to Batavia to be dispatched with the homeward fleet of the next season.
1687 - Goods from Surat, arriving at Galle after the departure of the Ceylonese ships for Europe, were allowed to be sent home with a naschip.**
1692 - All goods arriving on the island too late for the Ceylonese homeward ships were to be shipped via Batavia with the homeward fleet of the next year.
1693 - The Hoge Regering had all goods from Bengal sent to Batavia. This season only two ships,theFAAM(5928)andtheVOETBOOG (5929),sailedhomefromCeylon.In spite of disapproval in the Netherlands, the Hoge Regering in 1695 ordered the Company servants on the Coromandel Coast to send all goods collected before the middle of Sep- tember to the capital; only goods ready for shipping between medio September and Oc-
64 Coolhaas, Generale Missiven III, 692, 693.
65 Coolhaas, Generale Missiven IV, 568.
66 On the PURMER experiment see Van Dam, Beschryvinge, vol. 76, 41-49. 67 A R A , V O C 109, res. Heren 17, 9.12.1684, 9, 10, 11 and 19.10.1684.
68 ARA,VOC109, res. Heren 17,7.10.1687.