Page 114 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

commence long before December, with the ballast requirements already met. The most lucra- tive ballast was sugar from Taiwan and copper from Japan but ships from this region had problems reaching Batavia in time as they could generally only sail from the Far East after September. A partial solution for this problem was found in the sending of the early arrival retourschepen to Taiwan or even Japan to collect their return ‘ballast’ themselves. They could keep part of their European cargo specially shipped for Japan on board and could supplement that with products like pepper and sandalwood from stocks in Batavia. Silk from Persia, which was also traded in Japan, arrived in Batavia in August, but this was too late to fit in with this arrangement. These ships would return to Batavia in November-December with the bulk of their European cargo in their hold and only needed to be ‘topped up’. The timing of shipping was not as critical for the important spices from the eastern region. There was a guaranteed supply of these spices and purchasing costs were low, both of which allowed the VOC to keep excess stocks without putting a financial burden on the VOC. Their only concern was to keep these products out of the hands of others and the VOC therefore put a lot of energy and resources into the protection of their monopoly. As a result, the provision of new soldiers to this region was important. As discussed before, the timing of the arrival of the ships from Europe with new soliders left enough time for the soldiers to recover and their transport to the Spice Islands. There was a constant demand for soldiers and food at the Spice Islands and some ships had to sail in November early in the season, when the west monsoon began to blow. The logistical bottleneck, however, was that ships leaving for the eastern region at the turn of the monsoon would be trapped for many months before they could return to be deployed on other routes. Smaller defendable vessels were needed at the Spice Islands to pro- tect the monopoly against other traders coming to the region once the weather permitted. The transport of soldiers and supplies required larger vessels. Regular retourschepen could not be employed because they would not be able to return in time for the departure. The solution was to send the cargo carriers that were specially sent to Asia carrying staff and supplies as well as older retourschepen that would not return to Europe and were to end their careers in Asia. The use of the newer stronger retourschepen in local transport and communication could be justified if the voyage to the Spice Islands was combined with a more extended and demanding trip to the Philippines, Taiwan, Siam and back to Batavia (Coolhaas , p. ). Often, other ships sailed to the Spice Islands later in the season , after the arrival of the sol- diers and the supply of rice from other regions in Asia. Soldiers were often transferred between posts (Coolhaas , p. ). The VOC made optimal use of their ships by sending them at the end of the western monsoon in March, so they could return with the change of the monsoon in April. Good cargo carriers, such as flutes, made a speedy return trip to the Spice Islands. Other less fit vessels would delay their return, thus ensuring a constant supply of spices to Batavia from May until October. This supply was largely used for the retourvloot. Ideally they would arrive in Batavia after the retourschepen had already loaded their heavier cargo and pepper, the vessels could then simply be ‘topped up’ with this cargo. Important cargo for the return fleet also came from the western regions. Many of the vessels used in this region came as part of the blockade fleet to Goa and were sent at the end of the monsoon season to other destinations like Surat, Persia and the Bay of Bengal. To bring silk to Batavia in time for the return fleet, the vessels left Persia between March and June on a direct voyage to Batavia. The complication was that the bullion these ships carried from Persia was not intended for Batavia but for the Indian market. It was, therefore, more efficient to sail via Surat and the Bay of Bengal to Batavia. Shipping to the Bay of Bengal was possible all year round. If vessels left Batavia early in the year, they could make it back in November, in time to deliver some of their goods as return cargo for Europe. However, for the trade in this region bullion was required, so the departure date of these vessels from Batavia depended on the arrival of money with the European fleet (often in July/August). The bullion that came from Taiwan to these western regions only ar- rived through the Strait of Malacca from December, too late to use in trade in the region of the Bay of Bengal for products intended to reach Batavia before the end of the year. Consequently, products that were bought with this money could only be shipped to Europe with the return fleet the following year. To use this trade capital as lucratively as possible, a sub-network was  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters