Page 40 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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cloves impossible. In practice, it turned out to be very difficult to control the region and the so- called illegal trade. On Ambon, the VOC forced the locals to assist in the hongi-expeditions and to sell the cloves on VOC conditions. The strategy failed and the result was a long-lasting state of war with the Ambonese. Eventually, in the VOC was able to achieve its goal of a mono- poly over cloves but again only after first destroying the original population. Sulawesi (Celebes) (84) Bali (81) Arafura Sea (87) Australia Makassar Ambon (85) Banda Islands (86) Lesser Sunda Islands (82) Molucca Sea (88) Ternate Tidore Kupang (Timor) Map .: The region of the Spice Islands indicating the routes and monsoon winds. The north-eastern region: China, Taiwan and Japan The ‘Far East’ included destinations north-east of Singapore around the South China Sea like Patani, Siam, Vietnam, the South Chinese coast and Taiwan with the Korean peninsula and Japan as the most distant. The Chinese market was another focus of the VOC right from the start of Asian shipping. Expectations for this market were high. The hope was that the silk trade with Japan would be sufficient to finance the whole VOC trade in Asia (Colenbrander , p. ; Colenbrander , p. ). A number of nations conducted trade in Chinese prod- ucts. The Portuguese transported merchandise from Macao to the European market via Malac- ca and Goa. The Spaniards had their cargo transported by Chinese Junks to the Philippines from where it was shipped by galleons to Mexico. From the Mexican east coast it was taken over land to the west coast and over the Atlantic Ocean to Spain. the Chinese themselves traded directly with Indonesia and Malaysia. Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese traders were active along the coasts of Malacca via Siam and Vietnam to Japan. The VOC wanted to trade directly with the Chinese but access to the Chinese market was very restricted (prohibited by the Ming court) and the Portuguese were also very successful in obstructing the Dutch attempts. On the first visit by the Dutch in the Portuguese, fearing for their position, had the Dutchmen hung on the pretext that they were pirates (NA .., Voorcompagniëen, ). This pretence seemed to have been something of a self-fulfilling pro- phecy, since the Dutch realised that the best method to acquire Chinese merchandise was in fact Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters monsoon October-March monsoon April-September New Guinea
