Page 132 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

came more involved in developing its own headquarters on Java and was busier than ever reinforcing its position against the English. Frustrated by the half-hearted attitude of the directors in the Netherlands who were reluctant to make the English their enemy in Asia, the newly appointed Governor-General Coen suc- ceeded at the end of this period in removing the English from the region of the Spice Islands. Initially, the VOC lost its strong position in west Java to the English in -. After re- grouping on the Spice Islands, a Dutch fleet returned and established Batavia as the VOC stronghold independent from Bantam. By the same token the region of the Spice Islands was then for the most part free from Portuguese and English influence. The route from the Cape of Good Hope to Java mentioned earlier, following the southern Indian Ocean (the so-called Brouwersroute), also resulted in the first involuntarily encounters with the unknown coast of Western Australia; since these encounters do not fall within the ambit of intra-Asian shipping, these early landfalls are not shown in the tables above. Chang- ing the route from the Cape to Java after , also meant a change in the route to Surat and Coromandel. From then on, most of the visits to these destinations were undertaken as an intra-Asian trip from Java rather then a stopover on the route from Europe. Ships were sent directly from Europe to this region on only a few occasions. The coast of Coromandel devel- oped into a substantial provider of textiles for the VOC; the number of visits to this destination grew to . On the other (western) side of India, Portuguese influence still was too strong; the visits to Surat stayed at a marginal level with only three visits in this period. There was, how- ever, an attempt to develop trade in the far western parts of the Indian Ocean to Persia and Mocha. In , when the VOC sent merchant Pieter van den Broecke to investigate the possi- bilities of trade, his assessment was that there were promising opportunities for trade in Indo- nesian products (NA .., VOC , - point ). Up to , two VOC ships visited this region on intra-Asian voyages as an overture to the flourishing trade ahead. Three other ships sailed to this area directly from Europe during this period. In the Lesser Sunda Islands (Area ), Solor and Timor were also new destinations ( visits) with the sandalwood from these islands being an important product for the intra-Asian trade. The Dutch could never completely dispel the Portuguese influence in this region; the VOC did not give it the highest priority and the influence of the local Catholic Church was a significant force in favour of the Portuguese. Shipping in the eastern parts of the archipelago on the Spice Islands shows a steady growth: the number of ships visiting Ambon and Ceram, Banda and the Molucca's all more then doubled in comparison with the previous period. The Period - The total amount of VOC shipping in Asia grew again in this period by % of ship movements and % of volume over the previous period, as shown in Table .. Again, the significant fluctuation that sometimes occurred during the development stage of the VOC shipping net- work is evident. With the establishment of Batavia as their central headquarters, the position of the VOC in west Java was now reinforced. A notable development was the increase in the number of visits to east Java – Bali (Area ) and the visits to Macassar (main destination on the island of Sulawesi, Area ), which had already commenced in the pervious period. This development was linked to the changing position of the VOC on the Spice Islands. The Dutch had succeeded in establishing a monopoly on trade in that area but this brought with it the obligation to take over the supply of food and other products since local shipping and trade were banned. The above-mentioned harbours, therefore, became an important stopover to load supplies for the region controlled by the VOC. From Batavia, some direct shipping routes in the region around Java were developing, nota- bly to Timor to collect sandalwood, which started in the previous period, and to Borneo, to collect products from the tropical forest, pepper and diamonds. Products (especially sandal- wood) collected in the archipelago were partly used as barter for trade with the Asian main- land where they were exchanged for goods for the European market, as well as for products for intra-Asian trade, like textiles in Coromandel and deer skins in Thailand. Trade to the region of  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters