Notes: History of the arrangement of the VOC archives
1. VOC, inv. nos. 312-344, letter-book of outgoing documents [...] of the Heren XVII and the Amsterdam Chamber to establishments in Asia.
2. See VOC, inv. no. 741, duplicate-proceedings of the Governor-General and Council, especially 5th and 8th June 1725.
3.Pieter van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie first book, part I. F.W. Stapel ed. Rijksgeschiedkundige publicatiën, grote serie 63 ('s-Gravenhage 1927), 395.
4. VOC, inv. no. 360, instructions of the Amsterdam Chamber to its employees; VOC, inv. no. 7229, duplicate rules and regulations for the clerks in the schrijfkantoor in Amsterdam d.d. 1763 April 25th.
5. VOC, inv. no. 7230, draft notes concerning the work of the clerks in the schrijfkantoor of the Amsterdam Chamber.
6. VOC, inv. no. 244, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
7. VOC, inv. no. 245, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
8. VOC, inv. no. 129, duplicate-proceedings of the Heren XVII; VOC, inv. no. 259, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
9. VOC, inv. no. 131, duplicate-proceedings of the Heren XVII; VOC, inv. no. 259, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
10. VOC, inv. no. 287, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
11. VOC, inv. no. 294, proceedings of the Amsterdam Chamber.
12. Pieter van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie first book, part I. F.W. Stapel ed. Rijksgeschiedkundige publicatiën, grote serie 63 ('s-Gravenhage 1927) first book, part I, 371-388, 412, 413.
13. Pieter van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie first book, part I. F.W. Stapel ed. Rijksgeschiedkundige publicatiën, grote serie 63 ('s-Gravenhage 1927) first book, part I, 394.
14. J.C. Overvoorde and P. de Roo de la Faille eds., De gebouwen van de Oost-Indische Compagnie en van de West-Indische Compagnie in Nederland (Utrecht 1928) 44. According to Overvoorde one objection to the storage of part of the VOC archives in the Oostindisch Buitenhuis was that it was too far away from the boardroom in the Hoogstraat.
15.VOC, inv. no. 360, instructions of the Amsterdam Chamber to its employees; Pieter van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie first book, part I. F.W. Stapel ed. Rijksgeschiedkundige publicatiën, grote serie 63 ('s-Gravenhage 1927) first book, part I, 402-404; G. Schilder, 'Het cartografisch bedrijf van de VOC' in: Patrick van Mil and Mieke Scharloo eds., De VOC in de kaart gekeken: cartografie en navigatie van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, 1602-1799 ('s-Gravenhage 1988). See also the websitepages about maps and drawings.
16. In 1737 the director Radermacher was appointed one of the committee members. In his private archives there are still a number of documents relating to this charterkamer committee. Radermacher archives, inv. nos. 190 and 354.
17. VOC, inv. nos. 13862-13865 and 14924-14926, (duplicate) inventories of documents in the archives of the Zeeland Chamber, 1612-1794.
18. J.E. Heeres, 'De Oost Indische Compagnie' in: Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indië I (2nd impression; 's-Gravenhage and Leiden 1917) 505.
19. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 87, 20th December 1800.
20. The lists of the archives of the Hoorn Chamber were compiled on 29th February 1796. See VOC, inv. no. 14927.
21. VOC, inv. no. 14928, Register van de klerk Vallensis van alle de boeken, charters, missiven, documenten enz. welke voorhanden zijn geweest bij het kantoor der voormalige Oostindische Compagnie ter Kamer Delft... [c. 1802].
22. Overvoorde and De Roo de la Faille eds., Gebouwen, 98; Roelof van Gelder and Lodewijk Wagenaar, Sporen van de Compagnie. De VOC in Nederland (Amsterdam 1988) 111.
23. Archives of the Comité tot de Oost-Indische Handel en Bezittingen (Committee for Affairs relating to East India Trade and Possessions), inv. no. 11, committee proceedings, 11th April 1796; idem, inv. no. 139a, minutes of the department for domestic administration in Asia and the Cape of Good Hope, 26th April 1796.
24. Archives of the Comité tot de Oost-Indische Handel en Bezittingen (Committee for Affairs relating to East India Trade and Possessions), inv. no. 11, Comité proceedings, 31st March 1796; idem, inv. no. 154, minutes of the department of commerce and equipage, 31st March 1796.
25. Archives of the Comité tot de Oost-Indische Handel en Bezittingen (Committee for Affairs relating to East India Trade and Possessions), inv. no. 11, Comité proceedings, 14th April and 9th May 1796; idem, inv. no. 12, Comité proceedings, 4th July 1797. According to Overvoorde and De Roo de la Faille eds., Gebouwen, 44, more than a thousand chests containing VOC archives were stored here.
26. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 28, proceedings, 18th September 1800.
27. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 87, letters from the outlying offices, 20th December 1800; Idem, inv. no. 34, proceedings, 29th August and 18th September 1804.
28. VOC, inv. no. 14928, inventory of the clerk Vallensis.
29. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 34, proceedings, 25th September 1804.
30. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 34, proceedings, 25th October and 23rd November 1804; Idem, inv. no. 35, proceedings, 18th January and 5th March 1805.
31. VOC, inv. no. 14928, inventory of the clerk Vallensis.
32. Archives of the Ministerie van Koophandel en Koloniën (Ministry for Commerce and Colonies), inv. no. 35, fair copy report of the head of the First Division of the ministry, 12th February 1807.
33. Archives of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën (Ministry for the Navy and the Colonies), inv. no. 72, report 29th and 31st March 1809.
34. VOC, inv. nos. 14929 and 14930, Inventory of the colonial archives housed in the Departement van Marine en Koloniën (Department of the Navy and Colonies) in Amsterdam.
35. Archives of the Raad der Aziatische Bezittingen en Etablissementen (Council for Asian Possessions and Establishments), inv. no. 34, proceedings, 4th October 1804.
36. Archives of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën (Ministry for the Navy and the Colonies), inv. no. 110, minutes report of the head of the 7th, later 4th, division of the Ministry, 11th March 1809.
37. Archives of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën (Ministry for the Navy and the Colonies), inv. no. 111, minutes report of the head of the 7th, later 4th, division, 30th September 1809, no. 249.
38. Archives of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën (Ministry for the Navy and the Colonies), inv. no. 65, minutes report of the minister, 17th October 1809.
39. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 57, report 9th December 1850, litt. A, no. 5.
40. Archives of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën (Ministry for the Navy and the Colonies), inv. no. 137, 21st January 1810.
41. M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, Van geheim tot openbaar. Een historiografische verkenning. (Leiden 1970) 12.
42. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 57, report 9th December 1850, no. 5; Idem, inv. no. 841, report 28th May 1831, no. 17.
43. The collection of maps, which had been in the Depot-Generaal van Oorlog (General Depot for War) since 1806, the bulk of which were transferred to the French Dépôt de la Marine (Navy Depot) in 1810 is discussed else on this website.
44. Archives of the Ministerie van Koophandel en Koloniën, inv. no. 216; contains amongst other documents a memorandum for the year 1811 from Mr. Dozy, head of the third division of the Ministerie van Koophandel en Koloniën and future head of the Hollandse Divisie (Dutch Division) of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën in Paris, about the desirability of transferring the colonial archives to Paris. To this he appended a list of documents concerning the East which were in the Netherlands at that moment and should remain there. In total this list consists of 8372 volumes; not included are 7028 volumes concerning establishments. In another list he indicated which documents had already been packed for Paris. This refers to the 21 chests already mentioned. Archives of the Hollandse Divisie of Marine en Koloniën in Paris, inv. no. 6.
45. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 111, report 2nd September 1815, no. 1252. Contains a survey of the documents which actually arrived in Paris in 1811.
46. Archives of the Hollandse Divisie of the Ministerie van Marine en Koloniën in Paris, inv. no. 6; Archives of the Generale Intendance voor de Financiën en der Publieke Schatkist (General Department for Finances and the Public Treasury), inv. no. 955, minutes, 17th April 1812; Idem, inv. no. 1032, Letter from the carrier Bruynseraede, 23rd November 1813; Archives of the National Archives of the Netherlands, inv. no. 3, nos. 270, 271, 274, 274a and 295; no. 274a gives an overview of the documents which Tourlet thought should be forwarded to Paris.
47. Archives of the National Archives of the Netherlands, inv. no. 4, no. 37; Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 119, report 16th February 1816, no. 966; Archives of the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Legatie Frankrijk (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, French Legation), inv. no. 80: contains a list of the documents returned and a catalogue of the maps which were in the Netherlands in 1810, a part of which were taken to Paris.
48. Goldberg Collection, inv. no. 124: contains amongst other items an 'inventory of the charters, books and papers pertaining to the Department for Trade and the Colonies, which were transferred to the records room of that same Department in the Binnenhof in The Hague, 28th August 1816'; Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 37, report 11th September 1816, no. 5452a: contains the same inventory.
49. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 300, report 27th November 1821, no. 26/1; Idem, inv. no. 302, report 17th December 1821, no. 25/1. It concerned 28,920 kilos of paper, which according to a note by Mrs. Meilink-Roelofsz, involved 9,500 to 10,000 volumes.
50. VOC, inv. no. 14931, 'Inventory of the East India Archives housed in the Westindian Storehouse in Amsterdam compiled as the result of the decision of the Minister for the Navy and the Colonies, 6th December 1828, litt. G&H;, no. 46'.
51. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 841, 28th May 1832, no. 17. Amongst other things, this contains detailed lists of the books and papers present and of the books and papers from the pay office that were present and were to be cleared out.
52. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 841, report 16th June 1832, no. 18.
53. Thuisreisboeken were probably a sort of ship's pay-ledgers kept during the homeward voyage. All that is known about the landboeken is that they, at least in the Amsterdam and Zeeland Chambers, were set out according to establishment and that amongst other things, they contained wills, inventories of possessions, and accounts of VOC personnel.
54. Notwithstanding, even in Zeeland documents such as letter-books, dagregisters, resoluties and reports from Batavia were tidied up by the authorities. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 74, report 27th February 1851, no. 13.
55. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 49, report 2nd November 1850, litt. A, no. 6.
56. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 841, report 28th May 1832, no. 17.
57. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 64, report 13th January 1851, litt. A, no. 1.
58. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 74, report 27th February 1851, no. 13.
59. Meilink-Roelofsz, Van geheim tot openbaar, 12-14.
60. J. Romeyn Brodhead, Documents relative to the colonial history of the State of New-York, [1603-1678], procured in Holland, England and France I. E.B. O'Callagan ed. (Albany 1856) xxv.
61. Fred. Muller, 'Ervaringen in Nederlandse archieven', De Nederlandse Spectator 11th July 1874, 225-229.
62. J.J.F. Noordziek, Archiefwezen 1826-1852. Met eene korte opgave van de inhoud van eenige boekerijen ('s-Gravenhage 1853) 66-71.
63. L.C.D. van Dijk, Specimen Politico-juridicum Inaug. continens Historiam inquisitionis in delicta a praefectis atque officialibus in India cum orientalitum occidentali commissa (Utrecht 1847).
64. Meilink-Roelofsz, Van geheim tot openbaar, 14-16; Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 152, report 22nd January 1852, no. 4.
65. Muller, 'Ervaringen', 228. Frederik Muller can only have meant Van Dijk and De Munnick.
66. Meilink Roelofsz, Van geheim tot openbaar, 16-19; R. Fruin, De gestie van R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink als archivaris des Rijks, 1854-1865 ('s-Gravenhage 1926) 65-78.
67. Fruin, Gestie, 76-77. According to Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 16 (1893) 7 at a certain moment these documents were reunited with the Company archives in the National Archives of the Netherlands.
68. Archives of the National Archives of the Netherlands, inv. no. 18, outgoing letters 1856, no. 118. Bakhuizen van den Brink wrote this as a reation to a suggestion from De Munnick to the minister of Foreign Affairs. Archives of the Ministerie van Koloniën (Ministry of Colonies), inv. no. 540, 10th September 1856, litt. A/1.
69. In 1862 yet another large quantity of registers was cleared out. See the report about the inventorization of the financial records of the VOC in the National Archives of the Netherlands by Van Meurs: Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 12 (1889) 6.
70. Archives of the National Archives of the Netherlands, inv. no. 64, nos. 151, 183 and 224; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 7 (1884) 2.
71. Archives of the National Archives of the Netherlands, inv. no. 83, no. 341; Idem, inv. no. 113, no. 333; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 24 (1901) 11-14.
72. Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 12 (1889) 4-5; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 21 (1898) 6.
73. VOC, inv. no. 14932, Catalogue of miscellaneous documents, assembled from the East India archives by Leupe, ca. 1875.
74. Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 14 (1891) 7; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 17 (1894) 6.
75. Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 11 (1888) 11; Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 12 (1889) 5-6. The survey is found in VOC, inv. no. 14933.
76. Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 21 (1898) 5-6.
77. Such as de Hollands-Zeeuwse Staatscommissie (Committee from the States of Holland-Zeeland) of 1790 and the Comité van de Provisionele Representanten van het Volk van Holland tot de zaken van de Oostindische Compagnie (Committee for the Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland for the affairs of the East India Company) of 1795. These archives are described in the Inventaris van de Gewestelijke Besturen Bataafs-Franse tijd, 1795-1807, en hiermee samenhangende commissies, 1782-1802. III ('s-Gravenhage no date) 545-609.
78. Verslagen omtrent 's Rijks Oude Archieven 24 (1901) 8-10.
79. This K.A. (Koloniaal Archief - Colonial Archives) numbering remained in use until the recent re-inventorization and renumbering. A concordance of this is contained at the back of the inventory section.