Page 41 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

to capture the vessels, sailing for the Spanish and Portuguese, carrying these goods. Large prof- its were made from cargo captured from Chinese junks on their way to the Philippines. These captured products allowed the VOC an active role on the Japanese market, but excluded them from a direct link with the Chinese production areas. China (97) Pescadores Macao Taiwan (98) fort Zeelandia Manilla Firando Nagasaki Japan (99) East China Sea Vietnam (95) Ayutthaya Cambodia (94) Phnom Penh Gulf of Thailand (93) Patani South China Sea Map .: The north-eastern region, indicating the shipping routes Sarawak (92) Philippines (96) The VOC followed an aggressive policy trying to break into the Chinese market. Confident due to the VOC successes at Banda, Coen dispatched a heavily armed fleet to the Far East. How- ever, a raid in  at Macao failed completely. Eventually, the VOC could do no more than try to set up a blockade at Macao and launch some scattered attacks on other locations on the Chinese coast. In , a large Chinese fleet surrounded the established VOC stronghold on the Pescadores. The superior strength of the Chinese forced the VOC to move their centre of activities in this region to Taiwan (Formosa) from where the VOC continued their attempts to take part in the Chinese trade. In  a last unsuccessful attempt was made to defeat the Chinese navy. Taiwan served for a substantial period as an indirect link to the Chinese market although officially the Chinese forbade this. However, supply was unreliable and subject to the vagaries of the political situation in China. Changes in the Chinese regime eventually forced the VOC from Taiwan in . The Dutch expansion in Asia up to   n i k n o T f o f l u G