Page 157 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

Table .: Development of the Intra-Asian shipping – frequency and volume (tonnage in lasten) At a regional level the development of the trade on the major routes is clearly visible. Aside from the centre of the activities on West Java, the Spice Islands were important destination over the entire period as the supply of core products for the VOC. In order to purchase the textile that served as the currency for spices and pepper the VOC had to develop shipping on the Coromandel Coast and the Bay of Bengal. From the ’s the VOC also aimed to set up their own pepper trade on Sumatra; to become independent from the traditional sources like Atjeh and Bantam. With the availability of Malabar pepper shipping to Sumatra declined after . In the Far East in the ’s attempts to access the Chinese market failed, the VOC found an alternative in a stronghold on Taiwan. In the ’s the Dutch obtained a beneficial position in Japan, which lead to an intense circuit of shipping from Batavia via Thailand to the Far East. With the decline of the Portuguese power in the Bay of Bengal the VOC almost reluctantly reinforced their position in this region to prevent others from filling the vacuum. This gave rise to more intense shipping to this area from the ’s. From that period on the VOC also intensi- fied their shipping to the Arabian Sea. Around  when the VOC intensified its attempts to ban Portuguese shipping through the Strait of Malacca (the important connection between the Indian Ocean and the Far East), they sent smaller, well-armed yachts to this region. After the VOC captured Malacca from the Portu- guese they were able to connect the traditional Arabian trade route from the west with the Chinese trade route from the east. The VOC was the first to link these two routes and create their own direct shipping system. The efficient Dutch system In the search for the most efficient shipping organisation that met the circumstances within Asia, flexibility became an important characteristic for the VOC. Firstly, flexibility allowed the VOC to manage the difficulties of the physical conditions of the region. Traditionally, the mon- soon seasons dictated shipping activities, this meant that shipping, would come to a halt and sometimes for months on end. The VOC’s European competitors in Asia were essentially lim- ited by the monsoon season in the same ways: the Portuguese, as they relied predominantly on Asian shipping for their local trade; and the English, because they focussed on direct trade between Europe and Asia. The VOC, however, looked for ways to overcome this limitation and designed a shipping network that ensured an efficient use of the ships, to various destina- tions, the year round. The flexible opportunistic approach applied by the Dutch is revealed by a detailed study of the shipping routes and the ships that operated on these routes. The result is an elaborate struc- ture of shipping and trade connections that allowed the VOC to keep trade circulating continu- ously. The ship Avondster (ID:) serves as a good example of this system. The ship arrived in Batavia from Europe in  and left for the Spice Islands on the western monsoon winds in December. In March  the Avondster returned to Batavia on the eastern monsoon. In July the season was right for a trip to Japan from whence a return trip could be undertaken in Novem- ber. After the Avondster proved to be unfit for a return voyage, the VOC organisation was flex- ible enough to use the yacht first to patrol the Java coast and after that to engage in a military campaign on the coasts of India, where it reverted to being a freighter again. The developing Conclusions 