Page 10 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

 Introduction Dutch ships in Asian waters From the th century European ships sailed to Asian markets on a regular basis. Their main goal was the purchase of the highly sought after spices from the East Indies and exotica from China. Traditional trade and shipping relations between the west and east existed long before European ships arrived in the Indian Ocean region. Before the Portuguese discovered the sea- way around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia at the end of the th century, spices reached Europe over land. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to play an active role in trading directly with Asia by sea. From their headquarters at Goa on the west coast of India, they tried to get a grip on the traditional trading and shipping network by capturing the entrepot of Malacca, which had a strategic role in the Asian trading network between the Indian Ocean region and the Far East. Spain made its way into this region from their colonies in the Ameri- cas. The Spanish influence was in the region around the Philippines: China , Japan and the Spice Islands. At the end of the th century, other European nations also found their way to Asia. Soon after the first expedition in , the Dutch were able to surpass the Portuguese and the other European nations’ trade in Asia. In various Dutch cities, trade companies were estab- lished to equip ships for their voyages to Asia. This new trade became popular because profit expectations were high, as a result of which large fleets of ships were sent to Asia. Until , when the various companies were united under the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or United East Indian Company, fourteen fleets were sent comprising  ships compared to a total of  ships that had been dispatched by the Portuguese in the period -. Soon more then % of the European ships that passed the Cape of Good Hope on their way to Asia were Dutch (Gaastra ). This development had a major impact on the growth of the Netherlands, although the eco- nomic contribution to the Golden Age in the th century should not be exaggerated, the logis- tical implications of the Dutch expansion into Asia were immense and very much evident in the VOC cities in the Netherlands. Efficient trade was not easy, since the products had to be col- lected from various parts of Asia, and the means of payment presented a problem. The Euro- pean traders initially intended to base their trading activities on the available products in Europe, but they soon found out that there was only a small Asian market for these items. Large quantities of precious metal were required for the trade in Asia. In order to limit the complications and risks attendant upon the transport of money, the VOC soon started to devel- op its intra-Asian trade. The Dutch had to establish their position in the long-standing existing trade network in Asia. Especially during the early years, the position of the company was one of skilfully alternating between negotiations and the force of arms. That this policy was success- ful can be concluded from the fact that the VOC was able to build up a significant capital from its profits in Asia in the first half of the th century (Meilink-Roelofsz , p. ). In the second half of the th century the VOC reached the zenith of its intra-Asiatic trade (Gaastra ). The search for the seaway to Asia was a logical step in the broad and successful tradition of Dutch shipping in Europe. In the th century, Dutch skippers and their ships held an eminent 