Page 196 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

Table 38: Invoice value of the export commodities bought by the Amsterdam chamber 1700-1796 (in guilders)
textiles
1700-10 745,000 1710-20 480,000 1720-30 1,087,000
wines
1,173,000 1,029,000 1,006,000
lead
450,000 119,000 381,000 513,000 328,000 357,000 249,000 394,000 419,000
46,000
beer
234,000 212,000 189,000 237,000 153,000 105,000
85,000 80,000 55,000
7,000
sundries
802,000
699,000 1,230,000 1,235,000
951,000 1,012,000 730,000
808,000 1,220,000 256,000
1730-40 1740-50 1750-60 1760-70 1770-80 1780-90 1790-96
845,000 973,000 1,351,000 559,000 1,123,000 499,000
748,000 527,000 1,136,000 784,000 2,481,000 866,000 1,127,000 194,000
Source: De Korte, De jaarlijkse financiële verantwoording, Appendix 12a.
in Surat and Coromandel for mercury and vermillion (a red dye), which later declined. Mercury was usually packed in large earthenware Bellarmine flagons (28 cms high and 18 cms wide), closed with tin screwcaps. It was mainly used for refining purposes in mining, for gilding, for making mirrors and for medical purposes.9 For various luxury goods like amber, mirrors and Neurenberger curiosa there was also a market. During the eighteenth century various commodities involved a value of fl 200,000 annually. A n already well travelled export product concerned African elephant tusks. It lasted no longer than c. 1655, though previously large quantities had been involved. The demand for ivory was later met by Indian elephants. The Company obtained the tusks - often several hundreds per ship load - via the intra-Asiatic trade in Siam.1 0
Certainly in the seventeenth century the trade goods and Company goods filled an important place as to value. A contemporary survey of the cargoes arriving in Asia in the years 1660-1694 shows that in some years the currency amounted to less than the trade goods and Company requirements: 1663, 1665, 1666, 1670, 1671, 1673, 1674, 1676, 1685 and 1686.11 In earlier years too this had happened on several occasions. In the closing decades the enormous growth in the shipment of currency began. This was not accompa- nied by an increased export of goods, resulting in the relative decline of their financial significance. In table 37 the purchase value of the trade goods in the eighteenth century is given, next to the value of currency. The ratio fluctuates from 1 in 5 to 1 in 10, at least for the Amsterdam chamber. For the other chambers the data are lacking. Per decade and per year there were fluctuations in expenditure on trade goods, none of them large except for the years 1780-95. In this century volume and value of trade in European commodities in Asia did not keep pace with developments in shipping and the rest of commercial traffic.
Such was of course the case with the carrying of Company requirements, as noted earlier. In view of this the V O C in the eighteenth century is not to be described as a
9 Stenuit, 'Early relics of the V O C trade', 239-243.
10 Coolhaas, Generale Missiven VI, 680; Green and Gangadharam, The survey of the VOC fluit
Risdam, 16 and 19.
11 A R A , coll. Hudde 10, no. 4 ('Consideratien' 1696).