The Dutch East India Company
-Jason

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Europeans have long sought trade goods from the Far East, specifically China and India.  Direct routes for merchants seeking to exchange items from one region for those of another were few and often controlled by rival powers.  The desire to have sole access to these goods was driving force for innovation, exploration, and colonization beginning in the 1400s.  European powers sought to “cut-out the middlemen” who had ensured trade goods were transported through their territories.

The Silk Road was an ancient overland trade route that connected Europeans to Asian markets.  Goods were moved via caravans from Afghanistan, India, and China through the Iranian Plateau and Caspian Sea Basin into Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and the Caucasus Region.  If the trade items were destined to go across the Mediterranean or into Western Europe, the goods were transferred to ships to complete another leg of their journey.  Greek, Phoenician, and Italian merchant ships formed the vital link connecting East and West.

Sea trade routes connecting the Near and Far East were also well established in antiquity: Mesopotamian merchants plied the waters of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean during the Ur III Period.  Ancient Egyptian merchant ships sailed from the Red Sea across to India to trade goods for semi-precious stones, exotic woods, and ivory.  A flourishing caravan network had been established along the Red Sea to transport these goods to the Nile Delta where they could be loaded aboard Phoenician ships.  Despite these numerous connections via sea-lanes, Western European cultures relied on foreign kingdoms for luxury goods which they otherwise had no access.

The long-drawn out collapse of the Byzantine Empire finally came to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.  The disappearance of this Eastern Roman Empire also led to the steady decline of easy trade interactions between Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East.  The coastlines of North Africa, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Black Sea, and western Indian Oceans were controlled by either the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Persians, or Mughal Empire.  The overland routes through Central Asia and the Middle East were also dominated by these powers.  While they were interested in continuing trade with Europe, they also wanted to control the prices of the goods being transported.

Beginning with the Portuguese, Europeans sent small groups of explorers into Atlantic Ocean seeking a means to avoid trading with the Ottoman Empire.  While ancient mariners had already circumnavigated Africa, Bartolomeu Dias became the first European of the early modern period to do so in 1488.  The Portuguese negotiated trade treaties with the West African kingdoms they encountered where European goods could be exchanged for slaves.  Slowly, Portuguese trading posts were founded along Western and South Africa to help facilitate the resupply and repairs to merchant ships heading to India and China.  The voyages between Portugal and the Far East took months, but a successful haul could easily pay back investors.  

After this feat by the Portuguese, other European powers sought to emulate and eclipse them.  The English and Dutch were bitter enemies of the Portuguese and Spanish during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The wealth that the Portuguese and Spanish were claiming from both their New World empires and Far Eastern trade were both a source of avarice and envy to the English and Dutch.  These northern European powers cooperated, and at times, competed, with one other to establish their own presence overseas.  

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company, or VOC, was founded to allow money, men, and ships to be pooled to give the Dutch a viable trading agency in the Far East.  The VOC was designed to spread the possibility of financial loss across a broad spectrum of investors rather than allow it to devastate a single entity.  Stocks and bonds were sold to the Dutch people to further build the company’s financial resources.

Initially the VOC was envisioned by its creators to oversee trade between just the Netherlands and Far Asia, but it would soon incorporate transactions with African kingdoms as well.  Eventually a sister organization, the Dutch West India Company, was established to generate goods from the Dutch American colonies to supply additional resources for its Far East trade.  More and more ships were sent from Rotterdam to destinations in India and China.

The VOC designed and built an incredibly versatile array of merchant ships to transfer goods: the East Indiamen.  VOC East Indiamen were designed with several roles in mind: they were transport ships, but also carried a heavy armament.  This armament was two-fold: it could defend the crew and cargo, or it could be used to seize goods and ships from rivals.  The East Indiamen could operate independently or in small groups to better protect themselves and transport greater amounts of goods.  They could also be used to land soldiers in other European colonial settlements and capture them.

By 1619, the Dutch had established a permanent trade post in Batavia, modern-day Jakarta, in Indonesia.  The trade post quickly grew into a major Dutch holding; this allowed them to push the Portuguese out of their Asian holdings.  The Dutch quickly transformed Batavia into a massive commercial region: the natives were enslaved to grow coffee and spices for sale in Africa, Europe, or the Americas.  Further reinforcing their claims in India, Indonesia, and China was the establishment of Cape Town in South Africa.  Cape Town provided a safe location to refit and resupply East Indiamen on either part of their trade route.

One of the most prized trade goods that Europe wanted to acquire from China was porcelain.  The beautiful blue and white China porcelain plates, serving dishes, and cups graced the tables and cabinets of the affluent in Europe and the Americas.  Demand quickly outstripped supply and the VOC adapted to the situation: initially they seized Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships to make up the shortfall.  Even privateering could not meet the insatiable demand.  The VOC improvised further by building massive warehouse factories where their employees created counterfeit porcelain.  Eventually the counterfeit VOC products were nearly indistinguishable from the Chinese originals.

The decline of the VOC began in the 1700s as the British and French expanded their own Far Eastern and American empires.  The British had copied the Dutch example and created their own East and West India Companies to control overseas commerce.  As the British and French clashed over control of India and North America, the Dutch were slowly pushed out of their superior trading positions.  British East Indiamen and warships prowled the Indian and Pacific Oceans sweeping them of opposition.  

The end of the VOC came about due to a combination of mismanagement and foreign invasion.  The French Revolution, and subsequent Napoleonic Wars, witnessed the occupation of the Netherlands and loss of many of their overseas colonies.  The British seized Cape Town, many Caribbean colonies, and other Dutch possessions between 1799-1815.  Napoleon’s defeat, and second exile, in 1815 saw the return of many of the Dutch colonies: save for Cape Town, the British took permanent control of South Africa.  The VOC assets and colonies were nationalized by the Dutch government and the overseas colonies were transferred from the semi-private company to the hands of the country.