Page 147 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

it was admitted, was best taken straight to Europe. The homeward bound ships with cin- namon were usually ballasted with saltpetre from Bengal, on which a layer of pepper was poured. In this way damp from below could not easily reach the cinnamon, which was the case in ships sailing from Batavia to Ceylon with usually a ballast layer of sand. The cinnamon was packed in hides, mostly from the Malabar coast, a technique copied from the Portuguese.61
Galle as a smaller rendez-vous next to Batavia
In the battle for prestige that broke out between Ceylon and Batavia in respect of direct sailings, V an Goens did indeed succeed in shipping home a large part of the goods from India via Galle. The irresolute and half-hearted policy of the Heren Zeventien gave the 'ministers' overseas all the more opportunity to fight out the conflict among themselves. Shortly after 1680 the directors attempted to establish a direct link with Coromandel and Bengal, but after a few years of sailing this route the project was once more abandoned. After 1700 shipping from Galle to the Republic received a new impulse from the import of coffee from Mocha, which was shipped home via Ceylon.
The many decisions, counter-decisions and measures concerning this shipping in the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, are the following:
1664 - In this year the Heren Zeventien decided to have a ship sail from Ceylon to the Netherlands via Bengal and Coromandel, where saltpetre for ballast and some imports were to be taken in. Two ships were sent from Asia via this route, the KALF (5536) and the VENENBURG (5537).62
1666 - The Heren Zeventien earmarked two ships with goods for Ceylon and Malabar, the WASSENDE MAAN (1065) and the WAPEN VAN GOUDA (1066). The reason for this decision was the high price paid for pepper by buyers at the auctions in the Netherlands, forseeing possible stagnation in imports because of the war with England. To satisfy the increased demand these ships were to be sent back immediately with pepper from Malabar via Galle. In the following years shipping from the Netherlands to Ceylon was continued.6 3
1669 - Van Goens had his wings clipped by Batavia, both in the 'demands' and in the direct sailings home. Because he demanded - and indeed received - too much money and goods from the directors to the Hoge Regering's taste, Ceylon was now only to demand what was required for Colombo, Galle, Negombo and Tuticorin, while Batavia looked after Jaffna and Malabar. The disproportionate distribution of goods from Ceylon over the six chambers - in 1668/69 a fleet of four ships under Rijklof van Goens Jr. had sailed from Ceylon with a cargo to the value of fl 782,324 consigned entirely to the Amsterdam chamber - provoked Batavia into reducing the number of homeward ships from Ceylon
61 Pieters and Anthonisz (eds.), Memoir Pielat, 22, 23; s'Jacob (ed.), Nederlanders in Kerala, 12; Arasaratnam,DutchpowerinCeylon,188.
62 For the ensueing enumeration of measures use has been made, apart from the sources indicated,
of Van Dam, Beschryvinge, vol. 87, 503-512; Coolhaas, Generale Missiven III, 482.
With the VENENBURG the clergyman Philippus Baldaeus returned from Ceylon to the Nether- lands, the author of the Nauwkeurige Beschryvinge van Malabar en Choromandel, derzelver aangrenzende Rijken en het machtige Eyland Ceylon,Amsterdam 1673;Coolhaas, Generale Mis- siven III, 557.
63 ARA, VOC 339, Letter from the Heren 17 (about the overland route) to R. van Goens, governor of Ceylon, 23.10.1666; VOC 356, Letter of the Amsterdam chamber to G. G. en R ., 3.12.1666; id. to R . van Goens, governor of Ceylon; V O C 238, res. Amsterdam chamber, 23.1.1668 and 9.4.1669. Glamann, Dutch-Asiatic trade, 82-83.