MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA
EMBRACING RIVERS
hree
great rivers-the Mekong, the Menam and the Irrawaddy-and
their giant deltas embrace the states of mainland Southeast
Asia. Alongside these arteries of the local economies numerous
towns, villages and peoples flourished. Unfamiliar with the
rugged hinterlands, the Dutch limited themselves to a number
of small trading posts along the littoral of mainland Southeast
Asia. From northern Vietnam (Tonkin) in the east to Myanmar
(Arakan) in the west, VOC scribes
observed movements in trade and the political activities of
kings and kingdoms great and small. Numerous travel reports,
diplomatic accounts, and curious stories bear witness to great
quests for wealth and power, both temporal and spiritual.
The Vietnamese Connection
lying
the regular sea route passing through the Bay of Tonkin to
and from China and Japan, Dutch merchants also explored the
Red River in the north of Vietnam and settled down at the
flourishing port of Pho Hien. Warehouses were then built there
for the purchase of silk, ceramics and porcelain. Although
the remains of the VOC buildings
in Pho Hien have not yet been excavated, a few old Vietnamese
houses still provide a glimpse of the once bustling international
port community.
During the 17th century the Dutch also briefly maintained
an office in the southern seaport of Hoi An (Faifo), which
was a crossroads astride several trade routes that absorbed
social and cultural elements from Japan, China, and many Southeast
Asian lands in addition to many influences from the West.
Owing to the VOC 's involvement in
trade and politics in Tonkin, Champa, and Cochin China the
VOC archives contain valuable historical
material on Vietnam's overseas trade relations.
Peoples of the Mekong
he
lands and peoples along the lower basin of the great Mekong
River were also well-known to the VOC
. Dutch explorers and traders described early Khmer trade
and society in lively terms. A single collection of VOC
material written on Laos and Cambodia between 1635 and 1644
runs more than 170,000 words across a vast array of documents,
as remarkable for what they say as for what they do not. In
1636 the VOC established a trading
post in Udong, on lake Tonle Sap near Phnom Penh, to purchase
rice, deerskins, and lacquer for sale in Japan. In 1669, the
VOC official Gerrit van Wuysthoff
published an account of his 1641 expedition to Vientiane to
promote trade with the Lao kingdom.
Court and Company in Siam
he
Siamese capital Ayutthaya, on the banks of the river Menam,
was the site of countless diplomatic overtures from both East
and West, and served as the administrative and cultural capital
of a powerful potential ally and a trading partner rich in
natural products. Unfortunately, most of the historical records
of Ayutthaya did not survive the Burmese invasions of the
late 18th century. Thai-VOC records
however did. During much of the 17th century, Dutch trade
represented by far the most significant and extensive Western
contact with Siam.
VOC records on Siam are currently
among the least-consulted sources on Thai history, despite
the archive's extent and relative completeness. Changes in
royal administration, political infighting, tributary relations,
rebellions against the crown, Siam's wars with various mainland
kingdoms, court ritual, the Thai court's attitudes toward
overseas trade, and information about local and foreign trading
communities were all regularly discussed in VOC
letters.
Pegu and Arakan
long
the third great river running through the Southeast Asian
mainland, the Irrawaddy, a few other kingdoms traded with
the VOC , including Pegu and Arakan.
Although traditional Pegu kings had built their city gates
towards the east, they were open to trade with the West. Situated
between the Straits ports of Melaka and Tenasserim on the
one hand and the Bay of Bengal on the other, the small port
of Syriam near today's Rangoon served as an important exchange
market. Syriam was particularly famous for the huge jars,
called martabans, that could be purchased there, in order
to transport rice, oil and not to mention gunpowder, safely
and securely. Owing to continuous warfare between Bengal and
Arakan, numerous prisoners of war were locally offered for
sale as slaves to the VOC , and afterwards
most were transported to Batavia and Maluku under its flag.
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