Page 46 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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already under VOC control from the ’s. Controlling both seaways was an important aim for the VOC. Initially, the VOC was able to build alliances with the Sultan of Johore who was driven out of Malacca by the Portuguese. In those early days military confrontation involved the use of large ships whereas in later years, this changed to patrol activities to disrupt traffic and capture smaller vessels for the booty they carried. After , when Malacca was taken over from the Portuguese, the VOC tried to re-establish an international trade and shipping centre there. This policy was difficult to combine with the VOC’s ambition to gain a monopoly over the pewter trade from the local rulers. However the producers of pewter managed to evade contracts that would result in a shift of control to the VOC. The general development of the Asian shipping C t s a E Arabia Afrika Bengal Taiwan h i n a a t s a o C l e d a m o b a r r A n y o n h t a u B o M S i a n i S fC B e S e h n C a e g a a S l e a l a b a r S t r a i t Region Arabian Sea < 1610 Region Bay of Bengal 1610-20 Region Sumatra 1620-30 Region Strait of Malacca 1630-40 Region Java Sea 1640-50 Region Route Spice Islands 1650-60 Region Route Far East Kalimantan Java Spice Islands Persia India Sri Lanka oM f I o a l a c c a Malaysia Sumatra n S a B v a d a J a S a a i d n O e a e c e a a n Map .: General development of VOC shipping (frequency of arrivals per region) to From the data in Table . graphically shown in Map ., the development of the total shipping network can be seen. In the period under consideration, % of all the arrivals (and % of the total cargo space involved) of VOC intra-Asian voyages took place in the region around the Java Sea with Bantam (only in the early years) and Batavia, as the most important ports. This region was pre-eminent in inter-Asian shipping. The tables also show the central role of this region in the intra-Asian network. A constant growth can be seen in the arriving shipping vo- lumes in this area over the whole of this period, indicating a complementary increase in the stock of Asian goods available in Batavia for transhipment to Europe. Throughout this period the Spice Islands were an important destination as one of the core businesses of the VOC as well. Ambon (area ), Banda (area ) and the Moluccas (area ) together represented almost % of all arrivals and the total shipping volume. The region shows some fluctuation in the numbers of visiting ships and their cargo space because of the effects of large military actions in some periods, but is otherwise consistently high during the period to . Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters Vietnam Thailand (Siam) Cambodia China Sulawesi Lesser Sunda Island Philippines Japan
