Page 149 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

tober 8th were allowed to be sent home via Ceylon.
1696 - This highhanded behaviour forced the directors to make new rules. In doing this they bowed to a large extent to Batavia's wishes: in principle all goods from Coromandel and Bengal were to be shipped via the rendez-vous Batavia, unless they were ready too late for the ships from Batavia but still in time for those from Ceylon.6 9
1701 - From this year all goods from Surat were again shipped to the Netherlands via Batavia: an arrangement ordered by Batavia but apparently unknown to the Heren Zeven-
tien, witness an explanation of these measures demanded of the Hoge Regering in 1719.70 1711-1727 - During these years special 'coffee ships' were part of the Ceylonese homeward fleet. Around 1690 the demand for coffee in Europe was growing fast and this persuaded the VOC in 1696 (after closure of the factory in 1684) to re-establish relations with Mocha where the coffee was purchased. A t first the coffee was shipped from Mocha via Surat to Ceylon or Batavia, from there to be taken to the Republic by the homeward fleet. In 1711 however it was decided to use special ships for transporting the coffee, to counteract the loss of quality caused by long storage in the hot climate and by the effects of damp.
The ship equipped for this purpose in 1711 at Batavia, the ELLEMEET, did not manage to reach Mocha in time due to various setbacks, and as a result the import of coffee in the Netherlands in 1712 was very small. In the succeeding years however masters were more successful in their task and ships supplied with coffee at Mocha sailed home with the Ceylonese fleet.
As ships from Mocha arrived in the Bay of Galle as early as August or September, only to have to wait there for the departure of the Ceylonese ships, obviously this waiting period had to be shortened as much as possible. In 1719 it was already decided that the homeward fleet from Ceylon should depart a month earlier, in November. And in 1721 it was no longer considered necessary for the coffee ships to await the departure of the other homeward ships. They could now be sent to the Cape as early as September, from where they might possibly be able to sail home with the first part of the homeward fleet from Batavia. A t the Cape too there was to be no waiting for other ships. Thus from 1722 onwards ships from Mocha sailed from Galle in October, one or two months before the departure of the Ceylonese ships.
Meanwhile the Company, thanks to the successful cultivation of coffee on Java, became less interested in regular shipping from Mocha to the home country, and in 1727 the relevant regulations were cancelled.71
69 A R A , VOC 4459, Haags Verbaal, 20.6.1696; V O C 111, res. Heren 17, 28.8.1696.
70 ARA,VOC735,Res.G. G.enR.,23.1.1719.
71 The following coffee-ships sailed from Ceylon:
1713
1714
1715
1716
1717
1718
1719
1720
(The
TE ASSENBURG (6601) and NOORDERKWARTIER (6637) left Galle resp. on 11.10.1724 and 29-10 1725; the date of departure in the Lists is from Mocha.)
On this shipping see ARA, VOC 4469, Haags Verbaal, 17.6.1727,5.6.1728 and 12.6.1729; Gene- rale Missiven VII, 32-34, 53, 55, 163, 286, 346, 375, 404, 473, 453, 530, 600, 674, 700 753, 734; Glamann, Dutch-Asiatic trade, 194-207; Realia III, 132, 3.7.1721.
6302,6305 6330,6333 6361
6387 6394,6395 6428,6429 6448,6453 6482,6484
1721 6514,6516 1722 6542,6543 1723 6598
1724 6601
STEENHOVEN (6598) left Mocha 3.9.1723 and sailed via Cochin and Colombo. The HUIS
1725 6637 1726 6685 1727 6707