1.
VOC Women in the East
2. VOC Legacy in Australia
3. Other Companies
4.
Batavia
5. Mozambique
VOC
WOMEN IN THE EAST
by
AM van Rensburg
With
one million men who sailed on VOC ships to the east, what female
companionship did they have?
The
women can be divided into
1.
European
2. Mesticos - a descendant of European man and an Asian woman
3. Swarte - Asian woman
In
the book In Between, there is a good description with
regards to the VOC conquest of Colombo in Ceylon on May 1656:
"The Capture of Portuguese territory provided the servants
and soldiers of the VOC with a welcome prize from a personal
point of view: namely, 'half-caste' women, as well as a number
of semi-Christianized or Christianized 'black women' who had
some familiarity with European ways. ..... a large number of
widows and unmarried women mainly mestices or half caste women
.... were available in the city as marriage partners .... within
a few months 150 marriages were recorded"
Bibliography
Michael Roberts, Ismeth Raheen and Percy Colin-Thome: People
in between: The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformation
within Sri Lanka
THE
VOC LEGACY IN AUSTRALIA
The
VOC had no intentions in establishing settlements, their purpose
and interest was trade.
A
number of VOC ship's shipwrecked along the Australian coast:
Batavia 1629, Vergulden Draeck 1656, Zuytdorp
1712, Zeewijk 1727
It is believed that a number of people survived the Zuytdorp
tragedy and the ship's survivors may have been assimilated into
the local Aboriginal community.
A
number of VOC Governors-general, are recalled in place names
in Australia, which the Dutch navigators gave to these places:
Van
Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
Maatsuyker Island
The Gulf of Carpentaria
Vaderlin island
Other
place names which are in use today which stems from the VOC
include the following place names: Arnhem land, Nieu-Holland
(Australia), Groot Eylandt, Tasmania, Houtman Abrolhos, Geelvink
Channel, Cape Leeuwin, Point Nuyts, Cape Wessel, Wessel island,
Duyfken Point, Cape Keer Weer, Cape van Diemen, Rottnest island,
Pelsart island, Zeewyk channel, Dirk Hartog island, Zuytdorp
point, Vlaming Head, Maatsuyker group, Nieu-Zeeland (New Zealand),
Nieu-Guinea (New Guinea)
An
interesting site that deals with the VOC contact with Australia
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~vanderkp/vocpg1.htm
Top
OTHER
COMPANIES
By
AM van Rensburg
East
India Company, any of a number of commercial enterprises formed
in western Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries to further
trade with the East Indies. The companies, which had varying
degrees of governmental support, grew out of the associations
of merchant adventurers who voyaged to the East Indies following
the discovery in 1498 of the Cape of Good Hope route by the
Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama. The most important of the
companies were given charters by their respective governments,
authorizing them to acquire territory wherever they could and
to exercise in the acquired territory various functions of government,
including legislation, the issuance of currency, the negotiation
of treaties, the waging of war, and the administration of justice.
The most notable companies were the following. These companies
proclaimed free trade but practised monopoly. They used force
and war.
The workers on the spot embezzled and traded on their own account
to make up for the low pay they received.
DANISH EAST INDIA COMPANY
Danish East India Company Chartered in 1729 by King Frederick
IV of Denmark after unsuccessful attempts by Denmark to gain
a share of the East India trade in 1616 and 1634, it enjoyed
great prosperity in India until the advance of British power
there in the late 18th century. As a consequence of the destruction
of Danish naval power in the war between Great Britain and Denmark
in 1801, the power of the Danish company was broken. Its principal
Indian possessions, Tranquebar in Madras (now Tamil Nadu) and
Serampore in Bengal, were purchased by Great Britain in 1845.
DUTCH
EAST INDIA COMPANY
Dutch East India Company Incorporated from a number of smaller
companies by the States General of the Netherlands in 1602,
its monopoly extended from the Cape of Good Hope eastward to
the Strait of Magellan, with sovereign rights in whatever territory
it might acquire.
Coen state in 1614 to his bosses: "We can't trade without
war, nor make war without trade."
In 1619 Jan Pieterszoon Coen, regarded as the founder of the
Dutch colonial empire in the East Indies, established the city
of Batavia in Java (now Jakarta, Indonesia) as the headquarters
of the company. From Batavia, Dutch influence and activity spread
throughout the Malay Archipelago and to China, Japan, India,
Iran, and the Cape of Good Hope. During the course of the 60-year
war between Spain and the Netherlands (1605-65), the Dutch company
despoiled Portugal, which was united with Spain from 1580 to
1640, of all its East Indian possessions. It supplanted the
Portuguese in most of present-day Indonesia and in the Malay
Peninsula, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the Malabar Coast of India,
and Japan. During this period it was also successful in driving
English rivals from the Malay Archipelago and the Moluccas.
In 1632 the Dutch killed the English factors, or agents, in
Amboina, capital of the Dutch Moluccas; for this act the English
government later exacted compensation. In 1652 the company established
the first European settlement in South Africa on the Cape of
Good Hope. At the peak of its power, in 1669, the Dutch company
had 40 warships, 150 merchant ships, and 10,000 soldiers. Between
1602 and 1696 the annual dividends that the company paid were
never less than 12 percent and sometimes as high as 63 percent.
The charter of the company was renewed every 20 years, in return
for financial concessions to the Dutch government. In the 18th
century, internal disorders, the growth of British and French
power, and the consequences of a harsh policy toward the native
inhabitants caused the decline of the Dutch company. It was
unable to pay a dividend after 1724 and survived only by exacting
levies from native populations. It was powerless to resist a
British attack on its possessions in 1780, and in 1795 it was
doomed by the ouster of the States General at home by the French-controlled
Batavian Republic. In 1798 the republic took over the possessions
and debts of the company.
WEST
INDIA COMPANY
This Company was established on 3 June 1621. It had 5 Kamers:
Amsterdam
Zeeland
Van de Maas (Rottedam, Delft, Dordrecht)
Noorder Kwartier (Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Edam, Medemblik
and Monnikendam)
Friesland and Groningen
There
were the Council of XIX - Amsterdam had 8, Zeeland 4, and the
others had 2 each. Then one was appointed by the Staten Generaal.
They established Nieuw Amsterdam(New York) in 1625. Had bases
in West Africa and South America: de Guyanas / Suriname.
In
1624 to 1640 about 600 Jews went to Brazil
Meta
F. Janowitz, Dutch Foodways in New Netherland
ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY
nglish East India Company The most important of the various
East India companies, this company was a major force in the
history of India for more than 200 years. The original charter
was granted by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, under
the title of “The Governor and Company of Merchants of London
Trading into the East Indies.” The company was granted a monopoly
of trade in Asia, Africa, and America, with the formal restriction
that it might not contest the prior trading rights of “any Christian
prince.” The company was managed by a governor and 24 directors
chosen from its stockholders. In early voyages it penetrated
as far as Japan, and in 1610 and 1611 its first factories, or
trading posts, were established in India in the provinces of
Madras and Bombay. Under a perpetual charter granted in 1609
by King James I, the company began to compete with the Dutch
trading monopoly in the Malay Archipelago, but after the massacre
of Amboina the company conceded to the Dutch the area that became
known as the Netherlands East Indies. Its armed merchantmen,
however, continued sea warfare with Dutch, French, and Portuguese
competitors. In 1650 and 1655 the company absorbed rival companies
that had been incorporated under the Commonwealth and Protectorate
by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. In 1657 Cromwell ordered
it reorganized as the sole joint-stock company with rights to
the Indian trade. During the reign of Charles II the company
acquired sovereign rights in addition to its trading privileges.
In 1689, with the establishment of administrative districts
called presidencies in the Indian provinces of Bengal, Madras,
and Bombay, the company began its long rule in India. It was
continually harassed by traders who were not members of the
company and were not licensed by the Crown to trade. In 1698,
under a parliamentary ruling in favor of free trade, these private
newcomers were able to set up a new company, called the New
Company or English Company. The East India Company, however,
bought control of this new company, and in 1702 an act of Parliament
amalgamated the two as “The United Company of Merchants of England
Trading to the East Indies.” The charter was renewed several
times in the 18th century, each time with financial concessions
to the Crown. The victories of Robert Clive, a company official,
over the French at Arcot in 1751 and at Plassey in 1757 made
the company the dominant power in India. All formidable European
rivalry vanished with the defeat of the French at Pondicherry
in 1761. In 1773 the British government established a governor-generalship
in India, thereby greatly decreasing administrative control
by the company; however, its governor of Bengal, Warren Hastings,
became the first governor-general of India. In 1784 the India
Act created a department of the British government to exercise
political, military, and financial control over the Indian affairs
of the company, and during the next half century British control
was extended over most of the subcontinent. In 1813 the company's
monopoly of the Indian trade was abolished, and in 1833 it lost
its China trade monopoly. Its annual dividends of 10.5 percent
were made a fixed charge on Indian revenues. The company continued
its administrative functions until the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-58.
In 1858, by the Act for the Better Government of India, the
Crown assumed all governmental responsibilities held by the
company, and its 24,000-man military force was incorporated
into the British army. The company was dissolved on January
1, 1874, when the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act came
into effect.
COMPAGNIE
FRANCAISE DES INDES ORIENTALES 1664-1719; COMPAGNIES DES INDES
1719-1720; COMPAGNIE FRANCAISE DE INDES 1720-1789
French East India Company Established in 1664 by Jean Baptiste
Colbert, finance minister of King Louis XIV, the company founded
its first trading post at Surat in Bombay in 1675. The following
year it set up its principal Indian base at Pondicherry, on
the Coromandel Coast. The company prospered and extended its
operations to China and Iran. In 1719 the company was reorganized
with the American and African French colonial companies as the
Compagnie des Indes. This company, headed by the Scottish financier
John Law, suffered severely with the collapse of the Mississippi
Scheme.Obtained Mauritius (Ile de France) in 1721 and Mahé
in Malabar. In 1730 it lost its slave trade with Africa, in
1731 its general trade with Louisiana, and in 1736 its coffee
trade with the Americas. The company prospered in India, however,
under the governors Benoît Dumas, from 1735 to 1741, and Joseph
François Dupleix, from 1742 to 1754; Dupleix directed the unsuccessful
French struggles against the British control of India. The capture
of Arcot in 1751 by the British under Robert Clive limited French
control to southern India, where it remained supreme until 1761,
when the British captured Pondicherry. The operations of the
company were finally suspended by royal decree in 1769, and
in the following year it turned over its capital of more than
500 million livres to the Crown. In 1785 a new company received
commercial privileges, but this company was abolished in 1794
during the time of the French Revolution. "East India Company,"
OSTENDISCHE
KOMPANIE or OSTENDE-KOMPANIE
Traded from the Austrian Netherlands from 1719 to 1731. Foudned
by the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI. They trtied to get on
the bandwaggon of the Dutch and English success. They operated
out of Antwerpen. They founded two settlements in India. The
company dissolved in 1731 but unofficially traded till 1744,
when they lost their last settlement in India. Between 1718
- 1722 they had 35 ships travel to the east.
CASA
DA INDIA
The Portuguese did not operate as a Company. They conquered
and converted but had no Company. Spain and Portugal divided
the world into trading blocks, the VOC and WIC did the same.
The soldados - bachelor soldiers were encouraged to become casados
- married settlers.
CASA
DE CONTRATACION
The Spanish, they did not have private enterprise either
The
Swedes also had a Company
Bibliography:
PW Laidler A Tavern of the Ocean
BATAVIA
The
Netherlands were considered as 'Patria' and Batavia was considered
as 'Matria'. The one was the fatherland the other the land of
the mother. Batavia was also called the Grave Yard of the Dutchman.
JR
van Diessen: Jakarta/Batavia Het Centrum van het Nederlandse
koloniale rijk in Azie en zijn cultuurhistorische nalatenschap
p 61 VOC een slechte werkgeefster veral vir seevolk en soldaten.
Laag lonen het gelei tot illegal handel, waardeur hulle aanvullende
inkomste deur smokkelhandel. Almal roof die hiëragie.
Die
soldate en matrose- porselein, speserye en ander handelware
het hulle met hulle baggasie weggesteek en dan verkoop in die
Kaap of terug in Nederland.
Daar was dus altyd twee ekonomië in sirkulasie, die skaduekonomie.
In Batavia en Kaap was dit maklik om 'n kroeg, losieshuis en
ander vermaaklikhede te voorsien.
p 63 Batavia 1620's meisjes uit weezhuizen moet vir 5 jaar bly,
daarna kry hulle volledige uitrusting van klere en ook bruidschat.
Meeste maak gebruik van profiteren van het klimaat van seksueel
en materiale opportunisme. Daarom stop die kompanie die tipe
immigrasie in 1632.
Mixtiezen
- gemengde afkoms
In Batavia kon hulle nie met heidene of Mooren trou nie. Moes
Christen
wees en Nederlands magtig wees.
Daar
word beraam dat tot 3,000 slawe na Batavia elke jaar geneem
was. Hierdie slawe het baie werk verrig, dit was nie soos Virginia
gewees nie. Hierdie slawe was koks, naaisters, borduursters,
weefsters, musikante, teeskinkers, kooijmakers, maar slaverniij
blijft slavernij
Old
Batavia vol II p 2 Bataviaanse burghers, van Imhoff meld dat
hulle "als in vergating leven", van der Parra
se opmerkings was "een ingekankerde grootsheijd, overgegeven
luij is heijd en niet zelden schandelijke verslaving aan debuaches".
Die Portugese het 'n belangrike rol gespeel vir die VOC. "The
capture of Portuguese territory provided the servants and soldiers
of the VOC with a welcome prize from a personal point of view:
namely, 'half-caste' women, as well as a number of semi-Christianized
or Christianized 'black women' who had some familiarity with
the European ways .... a large number of widows and unmarried
women mainly mestices or half caste women .... were available
in the city (referring to Colombo, it must have been true all
over the East) as marriage partners .... within a few months
150 marriages were recorded" this was May 1656 refer to
Michael Roberts, Ismeth Raheem and Percy Colin-Thome's book,
People inbetween: The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformation
within Sri Lanka p 36.
Old
Batavia vol I p 524, 525 Die Kaap was een groot losieshuis (boarding
house) wat tydelike huisvesting verskaf vir die VOC en ander
skepe van Engeland, Frankryk en Denemark.
Alleen
die Companie dienaars kon op retour skepe vrye rys kry. Gemende
huwelike mag nie hulle vroue en kinders terug neem na Nederland
nie. Die hoogste gesag van die VOC in die Ooste het gerus in
die Goeweneur Generaal en Raad van Indië ook genoem die
Hoge Indiese Regering. Batavia het gedien as die hoofsentrum
vir die VOC. Tweede in bevel was die Direkteur Generaal - has
was verantwoordelik vir handel.
Goeweneurs
Generaal van Indie van 1610 - 1795
Pieter
Both ---------------------------1610 - 1614
Gerard Reijnst ------------------------1614 - 1615
Laurens Reael ----------------------- 1615 - 1619
Jan Pietersz Coen ------------------- 1619 - 1623
Pieter de Carpentier ----------------- 1623 - 1627
Jan Pietersz Coen ------------------- 1627 - 1629
Jacques Specx --------------------- 1629 - 1632
Hendrik Brouwer -------------------- 1632 - 1636
Antonio van Diemen ---------------- 1636 - 1645
Cornelis van der Lijn ---------------- 1645 - 1650
Carel Reniersz ---------------------- 1650 - 1653
Joan Maetsuyker ------------------- 1653 - 1678
Rijklof van Goens ------------------- 1678 - 1681
Cornelis Speelman ------------------ 1681 - 1684
Johannes Camphuijs ---------------- 1684 - 1691
Willem van Outhoorn --------------- 1691 - 1704
Joan van Hoorn -------------------- 1704 - 1709
Abraham van Riebeeck ------------- 1709 - 1713
Christoffel van Swoll --------------- 1713 - 1718
Hendrik Zwaardecroon ------------- 1718 - 1725
Mattheus de Haan ----------------- 1725 - 1729
Diderik Durven --------------------- 1729 - 1732
Dirk van Cloon --------------------- 1732 - 1735
Abraham Patras -------------------- 1735 - 1737
Adriaan Valckenier ----------------- 1737 - 1741
Johannes Thedens ----------------- 1741 - 1743
Gustaaf Willem Baron van Imhoff ---- 1743 - 1750
Jacob Mossel ---------------------- 1750 - 1761
Petrus Albertus van der Parra ------ 1761 - 1775
Jeremias van Riemsdijk ------------- 1775 - 1777
Reinier de Klerk -------------------- 1777 - 1780
Willem Arnold Alting ---------------- 1780 - 1796
Petrus Gerardus van Overstraten --- 1796 - 1801
Johannes Siberg ------------------- 1801 - 1804
Albertus Henricus Wiese ------------ 1804 - 1808
Herman Willem Daendels ------------ 1808 - 1811
Jan Willem Janssens ---------------- 1811
MOZAMBIQUE
Dan
Sleigh se boek beskryf beskryf Rio de Lagoa as Maputo.
In 1720 stig die VOC `n buitepos by Rio de Lagoa maar baie gou
het die naam verander na "Fort Lijdsaamheid" a.g.v. die aantal
sterftes aan malaria en ander tropiese siektes. Bevorderings
het vinnig gekom a.g.v. sterftes van leiers. Jan van de Capelle
is van die begin daar en sy beste eienskap was sy gehardheid
teen malaria. Binne 2 maande na die stigting was daar net 38
van die oorsproklike 114 man oor.
In 1722 word die pos aangeval deur ongeveer 900 seerowers en
alles wat hulle kon buitmaak het hulle geneem. Sekere van die
VOC amptenare het by die seerowers aangesluit.
In
1728 was daar `n muitery en 39 word ter dood veroordeel waarvan
22 deur middel van ledebrak en onthoofding gesterf het. Die
buitepos het nooit regtig iets reg gedoen nie. Droogtes het
veroorsaak dat voedselproduksie `n minimum was. Soldate wat
gesterf het in skermutselings. Die eerste jaar is 99 ivoortande
Kaap toe gestuur maar dit het geblyk dat dit opgehoopte voorraad
was en daarna was dit maar karig.
Altesaam
227 slawe is na die Kaap gebring maar hulle het `n 50% en hoër
sterftesyfer die eerste winter aan die Kaap gehad.
In
1730 sluit die VOC die pos en vernietig al die geboue grondwalle
ens.
In 1731 word daar weer `n handelsekspedisie gestuur maar Portugese
gevind wat hulle net toegelaat het om water, brandhout en ander
verversings in te skeep en keer terug met al hulle handelsware.
In
1732 word weer `n sending onderneem maar sterk wind en storms
verhoed dat hulle kan land.
Top
