LITERATURE ABOUT THE VOC
 he
quantity of literature concerning the history of the VOC is
very large and still continues to grow. This bibliography
in no way pretends to be complete. The aim has been to provide
the reader with a survey of the most important literature.
The literature has been divided
into categories. Overlapping of the categories is inevitable.
Literature pertaining to the
history of the VOC has been placed in Category A. A relatively
large place has been assumed by works about the VOC enterprise
in the Republic (Category A III). By contrast, literature
about the business in Asia (Category A IV) has been kept to
a bare minimum. The selection here was strictest. This category
only contains the most important introductory works, mostly
monographies. They have been divided up according to region.
Literature dealing with Asian and African history, in as far
as this is connected to Dutch expansion, has been omitted.
The lists of the source publications
(Category B) has also been restricted. Only large continuous
series have been included. Published travel journals and reports
have been left out. On the vicissitudes of the VOC archives
in the Netherlands and in the places where archives have been
preserved in Asia and South Africa (Category C), the bibliography
is fairly extensive, but not exhaustive. For the cartography
and maps of the VOC the bibliography is only very selective
(Category D).
More extensive approaches
are mentioned in the Category Bibliographies. Good annotated
bibliographical introductions are moreover to be found in
Overzee, Nederlandse koloniale geschiedenis
1590-1975 (Haarlem 1982), and in the Algemene
geschiedenis der Nederlanden; as well as in Eberharhard
Schmitt, Thomas Schleich and Thomas Beck eds., Kaufleute
als Kolonialherren: die Handelswelt der Niederländer vom Kap
der Guten Hoffnung bis Nagasaki 1600-1800. Schriften
der Universitätsbibliothek Bamberg 6. Exhibition Catalogue
(Bamberg 1988); and in Femme S. Gaastra, De
geschiedenis van de VOC (2nd revised edition; Zutphen
1991).
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