Page 55 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

the rivers to transport the pepper down river to larger ships anchored outside the shoals that abounded on this part of the Sumatran coast. In this way, even the large retourschips could sail to Jambi to collect pepper in the interval between their arrival and the departure of the fleet back to Europe. Between  and , many smaller vessels were sent to the Strait of Malacca to assist in securing all the waterways of the region for the VOC. The places and dates for ships to be present in this region were dictated by the possibility of intercepting Portuguese vessels, so the VOC fleets moved up and down the Strait of Malacca to the rhythm of the monsoon. In , the VOC took over the city of Malacca after a long siege with the Portuguese. The city then became a stopover for almost all VOC ships sailing through the Strait. Although Ma- lacca did not reach the same status as an important emporium that it had under the Portu- guese, it was still an important location for the storage and redistribution of stock. As far as intra-Asian trade was concerned, Malacca became a VOC centre for the pewter trade in this region and an independent destination from Batavia for pewter and pepper. Case Study -; Two examples of VOC currency exchange The VOC was able to implement an active exchange policy of currency as is demonstrated in the following instances where the differing value of gold and silver in the region is maximised. ‘Van Thaiwan door de straete Malacca aff te senden in Japans silver ende Chinees goudt thienhondert- duysent guldens, mits dat in 't versenden des gouts by scharsiteyt Coromandel prefereren ende des te meer silver nae Suratte schicken, alsoo 't gout meer in Masulipatnam als Suratte rendeert’ Send from Taiwan, through the Strait of Malacca the Japanese silver and the Chinese gold worth ten- hundred-thousand guilders. The gold to Coromandel, if due to the scarcity, it is preferred there and thus extra silver to Surat, because gold yields more in Masulipatnam then Surat (Coolhaas , p. ). ‘De wissels aen de Moren in Bengale en op de cust, om op Seylon betaelt te worden, is een goede sake, maer het verschil van de reductie der pagoden en het verlies, dat mitsdien op Seylon geleden wort, is te groot. Weshalven de gouverneur besloten heeft van de comptanten, uyt Persia of Suratte voor en ten behoeve van Bengale op Seylon comende, soo veel ropias te lichten, als de wisselbrieven medebren- gen, de Moren ropias in plaets van ryxdaelders gevende. The bill of exchange to the Moors in Bengal and on the Coast \[of Coromandel\] to be paid on Ceylon is a good practise, but the difference of the reduction of the pagode and the loss, that therefore is made on Ceylon, is too large. Therefore the Governor has decided to take from the ready money, that will arrive from Persia or Surat to Ceylon to be used for Bengal, so many ropias as required for the bills of ex- change, so we can give the Moors ropias instead of ryxdaelders (Van der Chijs , p. ). The north-eastern route Starting around April VOC ships would leave Batavia in a north-eastern direction, some sim- ply sailing to Siam and back. The old capital, Aythaya, of what is now called the Kingdom of Thailand, was located much higher up the river than its modern equivalent, Bangkok, which in that period was only a toll station near the mouth of the river. Smaller VOC ships would cross the sandbar in front of the river mouth and sail up the river; larger ones would anchor in front of it. There was direct trade, large in volume though small in value (mostly in rice and wood), between Batavia and Siam. Some VOC ships would continue along this route to Taiwan with deerskins and products from the tropical forest (mainly Sappan wood) being their most impor- tant cargo. In Taiwan they would find other ships that had sailed directly from Batavia; ships would leave Batavia for Taiwan as late as September.  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters