The Central Management; Tasks and Procedures
of the Heren XVII
F.S. Gaastra
uite
soonafter 1602 the Heren XVII established a set working procedure.
During the seventeenth century this board usually came together
three times a year for meetings which lasted for one or more
weeks. Occasionally there were only two meetings and this
became the rule after 1751. Between these sessions there were
meetings of committees of directors, which prepared policy
planning for the Heren XVII or inspected the management of
the chambers. Like the meetings of the Heren XVII these committees,
which were not mentioned in the charter and which evolved
during the first half of the seventeenth century, were composed
of delegates from the boards of directors of the chambers(11).
The following
committees were active:
- A committee for
drawing up the annual balance sheet.
- A committee for
attending and supervising on the auctions of the chambers.
- A committee for
inspecting the books of the chambers.
- A committee which
read through the correspondence and documents received from
Asia and then composed a draft letter for the administration
in Asia. This committee, which was composed of four directors
from Amsterdam, two from Zeeland and one from each of the
smaller chambers, met in The Hague and was known as the
Haags Besogne.
- In wartime, the
fleet was issued with secret routes and signals. These were
compiled by a secrete commissie.
The time of the
meetings of the Heren XVII and the subjects dealt with
at them were largely dictated by the trading and sailing seasons.
The autumn session can be considered to be the first in the
annual cycle of meetings. This was summoned after the return
of the return fleet from Asia, about the end of August. At
this meeting decisions were taken on the following matters:
- The dates of the auctions
of the six chambers, the quantity of goods offered for sale
and the conditions under which these would be sold. This
point had to be dealt with quickly, at the beginning of
the meeting so that there was time to send notification
of the auctions to the large commercial centres of Europe.
Moreover, the auctions themselves could not be delayed too
late into the autumn, in order to make sure that the merchants
would not be prevented from dispatching the goods to the
purchasers both at home and abroad because of the onset
of the winter. It often happened that the autumn sessions
went into recess for a time so that the auctions could be
held and to allow the auction committee to do its work.
When this happened, the second half of the autumn session
fell very late in the year; sometimes the Heren XVII even
met until Christmas or New Year.
- The number of ships and crew
to be sent to Asia. This concerned the ships which from
September - therefore while the meeting was still in session-
until the summer of the following year were to sail from
patria (home). Because, of course, the chambers had to have
the first ships of this equipage shipshape long before September,
a provisional decision had been taken on this point earlier.
In the autumn the definitive list of ships was settled.
- The quantity of goods to
be sent to Asia. This decision was an answer to the eis
der behoeften (order for supplies) sent by the Governor-General
and Council in Batavia.
- The quantity
of gold and silver, minted and bullion, and the amount
of copper coinage to be sent to Asia. This was in answer
to the eis der contanten (order for ready money) received
from Batavia. The decision about the precious metal and
copper coin was provisioneel (provisional). In the spring
there was a review to see if this needed to be supplemented.
- The compilation of what
was known as the eis van retouren, a list of the products
that the directors wished to receive with the next return
fleet from Asia. Usually a provisional list was drawn up
first; the definitieve eis (definitive order) was only decided
upon after the autumn
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Generale carga;
list of goods in 1687 delivered in the Netherlands
by six ships.
(click image to enlarge) |
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auctions had been held. The directors
took account not only of the sales figures from their own
auctions, but of from those
in London as well. When the autumn session was interrupted
by the holding of auctions, a definitive decision could
be taken in the second half of this session. Sometimes,
however, it was left to the directors who attended the auctions
to make up the definitive order in collaboration with the
directors of the Amsterdam Chamber. In a few instances the
sale of spices in the spring also led to supplements to
this definitive list.
- The composition
of the Governor-General and Council or the Raad van Indië
(Council of the Indies) in Batavia and the promotion of
high-ranking officials to the overseas establishments. The
right to appoint somebody a member of the Raad van Indië
and commander of a Company establishment was the prerogative
of the Heren XVII. Often decisions taken on this point were
no more than a ratification of an appointment which had
already been made in Asia. Furthermore, this item on the
agenda gave the directors of the various chambers the opportunity
to put forward some protégé for promotion.
- In all the sessions of the
Heren XVII, therefore also in the autumn, surveys were
made on the financial situation of the chambers: the cash
in hand, the credit balance in the exchange bank, the outstanding
debts and claims. Moreover, in the autumn, and occasionally
in the spring, an inventory of the stocks of cannon was
drawn up.
- At various times during
the autumn session extracts were read from the generale
missive (general dispatch) from the Governor-General and
Council of the Indies, which gave a survey of the commercial,
financial and political situation of the VOC in Asia. Matters
which required urgent attention or which the Heren XVII
considered could be dealt with immediately were summarized
in a letter to Batavia. Other matters were referred to the
Haags Besogne with the rest of the voluminous collection
of documents from Asia.
The next meeting of the Heren XVII took place in the
early spring, often as early as February, or else in March.
During this session decisions were made about the spring auctions,
at which the VOC usually offered only spices for sale. Besides
this, the gathering gave the directors the opportunity to
check work in progress on the outfitting of the ships. This
was when the definitive consignment of the amount of ready
money was decided. Furthermore, in spring it was time for
the liquidatie en egalisatie van de retouren en van de timmeringhe
van schepen (for the liquidation and settling up of the imports
and of the building of the ships). On the basis of information
supplied by the chambers, the directors checked to what extent
the distribution system, which had been laid down in the charter,
had been observed. As far as the imports were concerned this
could mean that one chamber had to supply another chamber
with a certain product or that a financial adjustment had
to be made to set the proportions to rights. This was not
possible with regard to the building of ships. However, later
in the year, when the new programme was finalized, the results
of the comparison and any imbalances in building activities
up to that moment were taken into account.
Remarkably enough, it was often at the spring session
that a decision was already made about the remittance of dividends.
Therefore, this was done even before the auction of spices
had taken place in March, and, furthermore, before the end
of the financial year, which closed either in the middle or
at the end of May. This means that the payments were entered
in the books of the year still current. It is true that after
1669, at the suggestion of the Amsterdam Chamber, it was decided
to wait until the books had been closed and the balance drawn
up before assessing the dividend, but as early as about 1684
the old practices had been resumed.
Finally, it was at the spring session that the date
on which the Haags Besogne would meet was decided. The directors
who had been delegated to this gathering by their chambers
had to count on spending quite some time in The Hague. Sometimes
the Haags Besogne was in session for as long as three months.
The return fleet not only brought a generale missive from
the Governor-General and the Council of the Indies to the
Heren XVII, but also copies of the correspondence between
Batavia and the other establishments in Asia. This correspondence,
arranged by establishment along with the relevant passages
from the generale missiven
and from letters which had been written earlier on behalf
of the Heren XVII was read
and replied to by the Haags Besogne.
The report of the Besogne,
which was known as the Haags Verbaal,
is mainly a summary of the letters which had been read, with
a reference to the draft reply, which is nearly always included
at the back of the Verbaal.
Occasionally short remarks were added; sometimes a more extensive
commentary was given, for instance, when the directors in
The Hague were able to obtain information directly from an
employee who had come back from Asia.
As the Haags Besogne reviewed
the navale magt, the survey
of the Company ships present in Asia, which was prepared in
Batavia, this was the body most suitable for drawing up a
list of the complete VOC
fleet, and on the basis of this to give advice about the building
of new vessels. During the eighteenth century the directors
in The Hague added more details to the Verbaal,
for instance, those relating to the sale of European goods
in Asia. Besides this the Besogne found itself tackling a
lot of the tasks which the Heren
XVII could not, or would not, handle in their sessions.
The directors in The Hague were also regularly requested to
speed up or to bring to a close various cases in which the
VOC was involved before the
Hof van Holland (provincial
court of justice) Lastly, the directors assembled in The Hague
availed themselves of the opportunity to discuss the way matters
relating to the equipage were progressing. When the Amsterdam
directors had not done so during the spring session, they
usually presented the Haags Besogne
with a proposal for sending precious metal with the ships
of the current equipage, in anticipation of the expected order
from Batavia. This last matter was the only item on which
the Haags Besogne took a decision.
All other matters to which the Besogne
had turned its attention were then placed before the next
session of the Heren XVII
for deliberation.
After this, in June, the committee whose job it was
to check the books and draw up the annual balance sheet met.
On this occasion not only the directors on this committee
- two from Amsterdam, one from Zeeland and three from the
other chambers (thus one chamber was not represented) - but
also the book-keepers from the six chambers wended their way
to the Oostindisch Huis of
the Amsterdam Chamber. Here, each in turn, the accountants
presented their books and financial documents for inspection.
Finally, the committee drew up the general balance sheet of
the VOC in patria
from the six balance sheets. Among the papers which this committee
collected were the lists of the goods
sold by each chamber, the stocks, the outstanding debts and
credits, the cash in hand and the credit balance in the bank
of exchange. Once every four years when, according to the
rules laid down in the charter, a financial accounting had
to be made to representatives of the States General and the
principal shareholders, after the books had been closed, they
were inspected yet again by chamber.
From Amsterdam the committee
could not really keep a close eye on the accounting. This
was the reason that now and again a committee was appointed
to inspect and check the books on the spot. A wide-spread
fraud perpetrated in the Hoorn Chamber in 1670 had been the
motive behind the formation of such a committee. The inspection
of the chambers did not follow any particular schedule. Sometimes,
after a session of the Heren XVII in Zeeland had finished,
some directors stayed on in order to carry out this task.
Then, on their return journey to Amsterdam, they inspected
the chambers of Delft and Rotterdam, and later in the year
visits were paid to Amsterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen.
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Samples of silk, ordered
in China
(click image to enlarge)
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The third meeting
of the Heren XVII took place in the
summer, usually in July, but sometimes not until August. This
was when the draft reply of the Haags Besogne was discussed.
After it had been approved and any amendments had been made,
this reply was sent to Batavia in September with the first
ships of the new equipage. The summer was also the time that
provisional estimates were reached about ships, crews and
goods for the forthcoming season. Moreover, a decision was
made on the quantity of precious metals to be dispatched on
the ships sailing in September; therefore this ruling was
also an anticipation of the order which would only be received
at the end of August and of the definitive decision, which
would be taken later in the year. In the eighteenth century
a provisional eis van retouren (order for return goods) was
drawn up so that Batavia could set to work as soon as possible
to assemble the goods for patria; therefore the questions
which were decided later in the year by the Heren XVII increasingly
assumed a supplementary character.
On rare occasions, under the pressure of special circumstances,
there was not enough time to summon a full complement of the
Heren XVII. In such instances,
a meeting of the Halve XVII
was deemed sufficient. For instance, after the outbreak of
the war with England and France in July 1672, an extra session
of the Halve XVII was summoned
in The Hague, for just one day, 'so as not to cause a stir
or be conspicuous'. Weather conditions could also cause a
great deal of confusion. In 1681 when a severe frost made
the journey by the directors from Holland to Zeeland impossible,
a Halve XVII was summoned
with The Hague once again as the venue to organize the spring
auctions. However, these sorts of meetings trod on a lot of
toes. The Zeeland directors were afraid that the other chambers
would be all too ready to seize such opportunities to transfer
the meetings to The Hague during the time that Zeeland held
the presidency. Amsterdam had objections to the Halve
XVII because it was composed of four Amsterdam directors,
two Zeelanders and four (sometimes two) delegates from the
smaller chambers. With only four representatives, Amsterdam
was underrepresented. Moreover, because of the even number
of those present, voting could be deadlocked. Amsterdam wanted
voting by Chamber, in which the four Amsterdammers would be
permitted to have eight votes and the Zeelanders four or -
if the Chamber of Zeeland happened to be in the chair - five
votes.
The growth of the business and the concomitant increasing
workload of the Heren XVII
meant that in the course of the eighteenth century the directors
found themselves ever more pressed for time. Above all during
the lengthy deliberations in The Hague the schedule got increasingly
out of hand. Sometimes the summer session could only get under
way late in August and by then the return fleet had already
arrived home. This was the time when the directors had a lot
of work to see to in the chambers and also had to devote their
attention to the preparations for the autumn session of the
Heren XVII. Therefore, in
1751, it was decided to cancel the summer session. The multitudinous
provisional decisions about the equipage and suchlike were
left in the hands of the Haags Besogne;
from then on the draft missive of the Haags
Besogne was dealt with immediately the autumn session
commenced, in order to limit any delay in its dispatch to
the minimum.
Shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century
yet another change was implemented in the organization of
the central management. In 1755 it was decided to change the
pattern of the trade with China and to send ships directly
from the Netherlands to China. This entailed an infringement
on the role of Batavia as organizer of shipping in Asia. Furthermore,
the trade and shipping for China was put in the hands of a
separate committee. This Chinase
Comité (Chinese Committee), composed of directors from
various chambers, fixed the equipage for Canton, decided how
much tea, porcelain and other goods were to be bought, and
corresponded with the VOC
employees in China. After its inception, trade with China
was dealt with only summarily in meetings of the Heren
XVII. This form of organization, by which the trade
and shipping for one area was entrusted to a special administrative
branch, remained an exception within the Company and it was
not imitated for any of the other areas(12).
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Riverside of Hangchiu
(modern-day Hangzhou), drawn for the Chinese emperor
in 1667.
(click image to enlarge,
approx. 170 kB) |
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All in all, the central management was badly constructed.
The Heren XVII did not meet
in permanent session. The composition of the assembly was
constantly changing, and the Heren
XVII had no administrative staff. Nonetheless, due
to the practices which had evolved, the administration was
a force to be reckoned with. The decisions of the Heren
XVII were binding for the chambers; because each chamber
was represented in the XVII, the directors of the chambers
executed these decisions. There were certain unwritten rules
honoured in the selection of delegates to the Heren
XVII from the chambers of Amsterdam and Zeeland, and
probably from the other chambers as well. In Amsterdam burgomasters
and ex-burgomasters had precedence over other directors, after
this seniority was taken into account. A similar rule was
applied in Zeeland. However, by no means always did directors
avail themselves of their 'right' of delegation, and certainly
when there were sessions in Zeeland it was sometimes difficult
for the Amsterdammers to drum up the eight members required
for their delegation. During their term of office many directors
will have attended one or more sessions of the Heren
XVII; a number of directors attended the sessions so
regularly that, despite the many changes, a certain degree
of continuity was achieved(13).
The Amsterdam Chamber wielded great influence in the
central administration. The preparations for and the conduct
of the sessions of the Heren XVII
were matters which the Amsterdammers tackled very thoroughly.
During discussions of the agenda at the sessions of the Heren
XVII, the Amsterdam directors already submitted detailed
suggestions on such important items as the equipage or the
order for Asian goods, which had been given to the delegation.
During meetings if the other chambers criticized the Amsterdam
position, the Amsterdam delegation would consult the other
directors in the chamber - something that was less feasible
when the meeting was held in Middelburg; in such cases consultation
was by correspondence.
Finally, the continuity in the administration was
boosted by the work of the Company advocates. These advocates
- there was a first and a second advocate - acted as secretary
to the directors and, consequently, were the only permanent
high-ranking officials who had a function on the central management.
The advocate assisted the presidential chamber in the compilation
of the agendas for the meetings of the Heren
XVII and he attended these sessions as well as the
meetings of the committees set up by the Heren
XVII. Besides this, he was in the service of the Amsterdam
Chamber. The most famous Company advocate was Pieter van Dam,
who, for more than fifty years, from 1652 to 1706, occupied
this office and compiled the important Beschryvinge
van de Oostindische Compagnie about 1700. (See the
webpage with a diagram
of the organization of the VOC.)
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