Batavia as Administrative Centre
F.S. Gaastra
ll
the VOC establishments in
Asia (thus including that at the Cape of Good Hope) were subject
to the Governor-General and Council in Batavia. At the same
time Batavia was the most important and, for a while during
the seventeenth century, the only harbour of arrival and departure
for ships to and from Europe. Communications between the directors
in the Dutch Republic and the various establishments was also
carried on principally via the Governor-General and Council
and its administrative machinery.
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Coat of arms
of Batavia (in the middle)between the arms of
the towns of the six VOC chambers: Delft, Rotterdam,
Amsterdam, Middelburg, Hoorn and Enkhuizen
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There were a number of exceptions
to this rule. The VOC establishment
at Gamron in Persia and at times the establishments in India
corresponded with the directors at home overland via the Levant.
Besides this, after the founding of the establishment at the
Cape of Good Hope, there was an exchange of correspondence
between the administrators there and the directors in the
Dutch Republic. Finally, whenever ports other than Batavia
were included in the Europe-Asia trade, there was a direct
exchange of letters between the directors and that particular
establishment at that time(19).
The Governor-General and Council
saw this trade which circumvented Batavia as a threat to their
own position. Moreover, they considered that such moves detracted
from the efficacy of the role of Batavia as rendez-vous. Therefore
the authorities in Batavia were well pleased when in 1636
the directors stopped the direct trade with Coromandel, Surat
and Gamron, which had actually begun before the foundation
of Batavia. In 1665, however, the Governor-General and councillors
had to resign themselves to the fact that Ceylon was to function
alongside Batavia as second port for homeward-bound shipping.
The Heren XVII had given their
assent to this trade in order to be able to supply the rapidly
growing demand for pepper on the European market - the pepper
from Malabar was imported via Ceylon. Moreover, this route
had the added advantage that cinnamon from Ceylon was imported
into Europe more quickly and, because it did not have to be
transshipped, in better condition.
After Ceylon was granted a
direct connection with home, fierce competition rapidly flared
up between the governor of the island, Rijklof van Goens,
and the Governor-General and Council. Van Goens believed that
Ceylon, or more accurately the city of Galle, from where the
homeward- bound VOC ships
sailed, would serve as a better rendez-vous than Batavia for
the Indian establishments of the Company. The result of his
efforts was that the homeward-bound fleet from Ceylon was
sometimes more richly laden than the ships from Batavia. On
the basis of this the directors decided to extend this directe
vaart (direct trade) to Coromandel and Bengal. This,
however, did not prove a success, perhaps partly because Batavia
did not support this policy and possibly even sabotaged it.
Whatever the cause, little by little, the Governor-General
and Council managed to win back lost ground and, by about
1700, apart from Batavia, only Galle had a direct link with
patria.

The city of Mocka (modern-day
Al Mucka in Yemen); around 1700
(click image to enlarge)
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The shifts in trade during
the eighteenth century brought new changes in the shipping.
During the first three decades, ships, known as coffee ships,
sailed regularly from Mocca on the Red Sea via Galle back
to the Netherlands. More importantly, after a caustic debate
between the Heren XVII and
the Governor-General and Council, in 1720 a direct link was
established between The Netherlands and Canton. Up to 1733
the chambers of Amsterdam and Zeeland sent a total of thirteen
ships to Canton, which failed to make Canton. After this,
the organization of this trade was once again entrusted to
Batavia on the understanding that of the two or three ships
which then sailed annually from Batavia to China, only one
would return to its homeport; the other ships with their cargoes
of tea and porcelain sailed back to the Netherlands via the
Sunda Straits. Eventually, in 1756, when the Chinase
commissie was inaugurated, the trade with China was
once again managed from the Dutch Republic; the direct return
fleet was continued.
In the eighteenth century,
besides Galle and Canton, the third harbour with a direct
connection with the Dutch Republic was that of the main establishment
in Bengal. From 1734 onwards two ships sailed annually from
Bengal to Holland, and after 1742 this became four. Furthermore,
from 1750 onwards one ship per year was sent to Hooghly by
the Amsterdam Chamber. And in 1770 a direct sea link was also
established with Coromandel.
The direct shipping link and
the correspondence between patria
and the establishments in India which this brought in its
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