Page 155 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

from Canton in the 1794/95 season, but one o f them fell into English hands.
In the succeeding years the factory remained in existence. Even after the dissolution
of the V O C the China trade was still looked upon as a separate part o f the Asia trade.
As late as 1816, when there was no longer any question of a monopoly in shipping from
the Netherlands to the Archipelago, an attempt was made to reserve the China trade for
a company founded with official support. But this attempt had no success whatever.
The rendez-vous threatened?
The fact that Batavia was not the only port of arrival and departure in the Europe-Asia
trade, puts a question mark over the central position in shipping and trade whichthe
rendez-vous, according to much of the literature, is supposed to have occupied. The Hoge
Regering's opposition to direct sailings also shows that it considered these an attack on
its central function. But this attack was after all only a limited one. Batavia remained the
centre of government and administration - only the China trade was in fact disconnected
from this aspect in 1756.
Direct sailings therefore, occurring particulary on the homeward voyage, did not imply
a loss o n Batavia's part o f its grip o n th e trade. Ships sailing home from for instance
Bengal or, in the period 1734-1756, from China, were equipped for this voyage in Batavia,
and the Hoge Regering was able to place men on these ships who were eligible for 'deli-
verance to the fatherland'. Neither the governor o f Ceylon, nor the directeur o f Bengal
could dispose at will over ships that had arrived directly from home.
Batavia's opposition resulted in ever changing arrangements, with for instance goods
from Bengal being shipped home sometimes directly, sometimes via Ceylon o r Batavia.
These arrangements as set out above need to be taken into account when comparisons
are made between figures concerning goods traffic and shipping t o and from the various
ports in Asia.
88 ARA, VOC4552, Letter from the China committee to Batavia, 30.10.1793. The HERTOGVAN
BRUNSWIJK did not return. The ship was wrecked in Asiatic waters and was replaced by the
ZWAAN (8395).
89 See Broeze, 'Het einde van de Nederlandse theehandel', 144.
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