Dutch East India Research Articles

'Al de swarten die hier ter stede comen' Een Afro-Atlantische gemeenschap in zeventiende-eeuws Amsterdam

This study shows that in the mid-seventeenth century there was an Afro-Atlantic maritime community in Amsterdam. It is possible to reconstruct this community on the basis of marriage information and baptismal registers combined with notarial records. From around 1625 until 1665, Africans present in Amsterdam mainly married each other and, in important events such as marriage and baptism, also took African witnesses. The community consisted of black women present in Amsterdam, many of whom had probably entered the city as servants. They often married to black sailors, who were mostly employed by Dutch West-India Company (WIC) and Dutch East-India Company (VOC). In Amsterdam, this heterogeneous community settled in the east of the city, in the area around the Jodenbreestraat.

Early Modern Emotions and Global Encounter as Gender History: The Dutch East India Company in Korea

Early Modern Emotions and Global Encounter as Gender History: The Dutch East India Company in Korea

Quo patet orbis Dei: Dutch Deputies for maritime affairs and their global network in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Throughout history, Dutch maritime endeavours have been sparked by political, economic, military and sociocultural factors. This article focuses on the relationship between religion and maritime entrepreneurship in the Dutch Republic during the Early Modern period, at sea and in overseas territories. For almost two centuries, the deputies of a number of classis assemblies (departments) of the Dutch Reformed Church corresponded with representatives of the Dutch East and West India Companies and with merchant associations trading with Russia, the Baltic, and the Eastern Mediterranean, but also with the board members of the five admiralties in the Netherlands. This article is about the performance of the deputies within the framework of their global maritime and Dutch Reformed network; the construction of this network within the maritime communities in the Republic and abroad; and about the results of the deputies’ involvement.

Chinese Immigrants and Underground Lotteries in South Africa: Negotiating Spaces at the Cusp of a Racial–Capitalist Order

This article reviews the history of an illegal Chinese-run numbers game or lottery in South Africa. Structurally very similar to games played by Chinese immigrants in the USA, fahfee operations (or banks) provided an illicit accumulation strategy, which allowed entrepreneurial Chinese immigrants to survive at the margins of a discriminatory racial–capitalist order, and to use these enterprises as a platform to enter the mainstream white economy. Fahfee was a tactic through which the subordinate were able to contest and negotiate the repressive strategies of the socio-political elite. The discussion of fahfee is set against the background of successive waves of Chinese immigration to South Africa, from the slaves and convict labour imported by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century to more recent immigration from Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of China. The article draws on a wide variety of historical material, the literature on both gambling and Chinese migration, and interviews with contemporary fahfee bankers.

India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) by Kaveh Yazdani, and: The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade by William J. Ashworth, and: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence: Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800 by Pim De Zwart

Reviewed by: India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) by Kaveh Yazdani, and: The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade by William J. Ashworth, and: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence: Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800 by Pim De Zwart Tirthankar Roy India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.). By kaveh yazdani. Leiden: Brill, 2017. 669 pp. $246.00 (paper). The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade. By william j. ashworth. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 352 pp. $29.95 (paper). Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence: Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800. By pim de zwart. Leiden: Brill, 2016. 290 pp. $141.00 (hardcover). The Rise of the West and Other Stories Why some countries grow rich before others do, is a question that has been discussed almost from the time modern economic growth began in the mid-nineteenth century, "modern" economic growth being a process driven by productivity gains rather than by the accumulation of resources. Standard answers to this question differed according to the emphasis laid upon market-integration, cultural attributes of societies, or political factors, citing Adam Smith, Max Weber, or Karl Marx in the process. The crucial evidence to test these theories came from Europe and was usually speculative about regions outside Europe. There was a broad agreement that Europe possessed efficient markets, entrepreneurial cultures, and market-friendly states before industrialization ushered in modern economic growth, whereas societies in Asia and Africa did not. In the mid-twentieth century, neo-Marxist writers challenged this Eurocentric view by saying that Europe grew rich by exploiting the rest of the world. But to many, this position was as Eurocentric as the one it criticized. Two things happened around 2000 that changed the discourse. First, Kenneth Pomeranz published his famous book The Great Divergence, which showed that just before industrialization began, advanced regions in Europe and East Asia showed "surprising similarities" in economic conditions.1 The book did two things at once, it shifted attention to non-European regions, and questioned the idea that economic growth had [End Page 280] roots in exceptional European traditions. Second, economists looking for causes of economic growth moved into history. Many of them were inspired by the intellectual movement known as new institutional economic history.2 They were aided in this endeavor by Angus Maddison's huge cross-country dataset on average income by country over several centuries.3 The most influential contributions in this field retained, even reinforced, the idea that economic growth did have roots in European tradition, especially in institutions like laws of property and contract, adding that the transmission of these institutions worldwide faced barriers of a political nature. These two propositions, that there were "surprising similarities," and that Europe made exceptional strides in institutions, did not fit, giving rise to a debate. Better known as the great divergence debate, this exchange has formed the stem of world economic history in recent years. Whether Europe was different or not, the debate shifted attention to the "early modern," roughly the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, when differences, if any, would have begun to take shape. During these centuries, several processes that would play a large role in world inequality later, such as colonization, expansion of trade, expansion of states, warfare, and the framing of laws, started. That raised the question, if indeed world regions were already different then, were they different because of how these processes began? Between 2000 and 2010, a series of innovative research projects tried to resolve the conflict between surprising similarities and exceptionality. While an earlier crop joined the debate directly, more recent works in the field reflect the debate in a different way. For example, almost all recent contributions on the origins of economic growth try to incorporate the early-modern into an explanation of what made the world more unequal in the nineteenth century; regional comparisons cannot afford to be Eurocentric anymore; and mining data for non-European regions is now...

India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) by Kaveh Yazdani, and: The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade by William J. Ashworth, and: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence: Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company’s Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800 by Pim de Zwart

India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) by Kaveh Yazdani, and: The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade by William J. Ashworth, and: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence: Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company’s Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800 by Pim de Zwart

The Coldness of Forgetting: OOO in Philosophy, Archaeology, and History

Abstract This article begins by addressing a critique of my book Immaterialism by the archaeologists Þóra Pétursdóttirr and Bjørnar Olsen in their 2018 article “Theory Adrift.” As they see it, I restrict myself in Immaterialism to available historical documentation on the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and they wonder how my account might have changed if I had discussed more typical archaeological examples instead: wrecked and sunken ships, released ballast, deserted harbors, distributed goods, and derelict fortresses. In response, I argue that my account was not therefore non-archaeological, since ruins are the topic of archaeology only by accident: the real subject of the discipline is what Marshall McLuhan describes as “cold media,” in the sense that they are low in information. McLuhan’s distinction between hot and cold media is shown to be surprisingly analogous to Aristotle’s difference between continua and discrete substances, and some consequences are drawn from this analogy.

The "highly interesting" settlement of "Sincapore", 1819–1825

The "highly interesting" settlement of "Sincapore", 1819–1825 Paul Kratoska Editor's Note: At the start of 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles signed an agreement with the local Malay authorities to establish a British trading station on the island, an event that became an origin story for modern Singapore. Two hundred years later, Singaporeans view these events with mixed feelings, asking if the start of colonial rule is cause for celebration, and the way they are remembered or commemorated has become controversial. The origins of modern Singapore's are complex, and the activities of Raffles and other British officials are only part of the story. The island became a small but significant part of Britain's colonial empire, but its importance lies in the fact that it served as an entrepôt for traders from South and West Asia, China, and the Indonesian archipelago. Asian trade networks pre-dated the British presence and operated out of multiple ports, but Britain's enclaves in Penang and Singapore shielded traders from regional politics, and flourished in part because their rise coincided with the collapse of the Dutch East India Company, the VOC. Because Singapore was a free port, a great deal of commercial activity took place outside the purview of British authorities, and it would not be unreasonable to say that this group of largely anonymous Asian merchants should be credited with the founding of Singapore. Local political leaders, merchants active in the region, and the Dutch authorities watched the creation of a British settlement in Singapore with great interest. In India, publications such as the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies [Asiatic Journal] gathered information about the settlement supplied by private individuals or taken from newspapers, among them the Bengal Hurkaru, the Calcutta John Bull, and the Singapore Chronicle. The pages that follow contain passages from some of these sources that appeared between 1819 and 1825, and from a contemporary parliamentary report on Britain's far eastern trade. I have retained the spelling and punctuation in the original publications. 1819 Abstract of Original Correspondence. [c. Feb. 1819] "Recent advices from Penang bring the important information that the British flag has been established in the Straits of Sincapore, by virtue of a treaty concluded [End Page 91] with the legitimate sovereign of Singapore, who has placed Singapore and the neighbouring islands under our protection. This new settlement is within the direct track of the China trade, is independent of the establishments formed by any other power, and contains an excellent harbour, with great natural facilities both of defence and of convenience. The same advices also mention that the Netherland's government have established themselves at Rhio; and, by virtue of a treaty which they compelled the Rajah of that place to sign, assume a right of excluding us from all the adjacent islands, declaring the people their vassals. "Will this information [our correspondent asks a question which we cannot answer] rouse ministers to the necessity of interposing before our trade is entirely excluded from the range of native ports between Penang and the Moluccas? And will not the commercial interests see it necessary to exert their influence, and claim to be heard on the occasion? These recent measures of the British authorities in India have happily presented one more opportunity of securing the legitimate right of this country to participate in the eastern trade, and of guarding against the establishment of a chain of foreign ports along the track of our trade to China. At the same time the unremitting advances and encroachments of the Netherland's government leave not a shadow of doubt as to their ultimate designs. The present moment, is critical, and if once lost may not be recovered." We take the following paragraphs from a second letter, dated Penang, 28th Feb. This authority is not inferior to official. Penang 28th Feb. – Sir Thomas Raffles has established a British station on the island of Singapore, in what are usually called the Straits of Sincapore. "This station is calculated to give us the complete command of the Straits of Malacca and a fair participation in the valuable trade of the Eastern Islands. It effectually breaks the...

Opium Consumption in Batavia: On the High Government’s <i>Madat</i> Regulations, 1671-1747

This paper examines opium consumption in the colonial city of Batavia (current-day Jakarta) and its hinterland (Ommelanden), focusing on regulations of madat—a mixture of opium and tobacco—imposed by the Batavia High Government (Hoge Regering) of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Analysis of contemporary travel accounts and the initial madat ban in 1671 which prohibited the production, distribution and consumption of madat within the city walls of Batavia and the Ommelanden, reveals that madat consumption spread especially among the Javanese and Chinese. Despite the regulation of 1671, the presence of pubs/dens that provided madat became more apparent in the late 1720s. This emergence resulted in more frequent criminal activities and avoidance of work by both free citizens and slaves composed of multi-ethnic people primarily from the Indonesian Archipelago.

TANAH ASET PT. PANCA WIRA USAHA MILIK PERUSAHAAN DAERAH PROPINSI JAWA TIMUR DIDUDUKI MASYARAKAT

The origin of land asset PT Panca Wira Usaha owned by East Java Province company, obtained from former land of western rights, relics of Dutch company at the time of colonize in Indonesia. Dutch dominate the land through Verenigde Oost - Indische Compagnie (VOC). VOC is a Dutch-owned legal entity engaged in trade. Before VOC control land in Indonesia, the control of the land is still done by Kings in the territory of his power, as well as by the customary law community within its territory.
 When the VOC came to Indonesia around 1577 with the intention to trade and made the kingdom of Mataram a protectorate and since then the role of local officials gradually began to change.
 The arrival of VOC in Indonesia aims for the following matters:
 
 Prevent competition among Dutch traders
 Obtain a trade monopoly in south Asia or exclusively master the spices both in producing and trading
 
 VOC as a Dutch-owned legal entity engaged in trade, it is a little more know the public legal aspects as the influence of Roman law, although no relation belongs to the land, but VOC make agreements with the landowners as if to voc charge as an obligation to rent land through an agreement that is essentially so that the visible aspect of democracy appears.
 The Dutch Government established factories in big cities after the VOC successfully mastered inland village for agriculture, plantation and others. One of the factory is Oil Factory "N. V OLIEFABRIEKEN INLINDIE" or known as "Pabrik Minyak Nabati-Yasa PT Panca Wira Usaha", located in Kediri City Government of East Java Province, which is currently a problem between PT Panca Wira Usaha, East Java Provincial Government Owned Enterprises with the Community of the landowners.
 The main issue is the provisions of the Law regulating the Dutch Heritage Company, such as Law No. 86 Of 1958 about the nationalization of Dutch-owned enterprises in Indonesia, not supported by UUPA No. 5 Of 1960 on the basic rules of agrarian basic.
 While UUPA No. 5 Of 1960 has not been clear in explaining and describing the meaning and substance of the land of the former western rights of the Dutch company, resulting in land tenure by the community.

Cross-Cultural Alliance-Making and Local Resistance in the Moluccas during the Revolt of Prince Nuku, c. 1780�1810 (PhD Dissertation, Universiteit Leiden, 2007)

Fine and rare spices were the primary reason for the Europeans to establish trading posts in Asia. The Dutch took control of the Moluccas at the beginning of the seventeenth century following the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602. The use of force and diplomacy to force out their trading rivalsthe Spaniards, Portuguese and their allieswas planned and designed from the outset. How the VOCs power structures were set up in the Spice Islands of eastern Indonesia differed from place to place. In Banda, the regions power structure and organisation of trade and politics was destroyed with the extermination and forced evacuation of the Bandanese population. In Ambon, the VOC established direct rule over an indigenous population that took sixty years to assure. In Ternate, the most important state in the Moluccas at that time, the VOC employed indirect rule; it ruled through the sultans, whom they kept on a short leash by controlling successions and putting their favourites on the throne.

Wars and wonders: the inter-island information networks of Georg Everhard Rumphius.

How did one man living on an island come to acquire information about the rest of the vast archipelago? This article traces the inter-island information networks of Georg Everhard Rumphius (1627-1702), an employee of the Dutch East India Company, who was able to explore the natural world of the wider archipelago without ever leaving the Moluccan island of Ambon. This article demonstrates the complexities of Rumphius's inter-island networks, as he collected information about plants and objects from islands near and far. Using his administrative, commercial and household networks, Rumphius was able to interact with local actors from across the social spectrum, whose own active collection, mediation and circulation of objects and information overlapped with imperial activities in the archipelago. This article examines Rumphius as both a collector and a mediator, who negotiated between multiple economies of exchange and translated information from different islands for his distant European readership. Such practices of localized translation demonstrate how knowledge produced on one island was the product of criss-crossing inter-island networks, as the information concerned underwent its own complicated processes of transmission and transformation within the archipelago before reaching its intended audience in Europe.

Institutions for the taking: property rights and the settlement of the Cape Colony, 1652–1750

AbstractWe examine the formation of property rights in land during the early settlement by the Dutch of the Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa. After its founding in 1652 as a provisioning outpost for ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the colonial government promoted settlement initially by granting land with well‐specified and enforced property rights in restricted zones near Cape Town. By 1714 it transitioned to accommodate rapidly expanding settlement by creating a weaker form of property rights, the loan farm, which was imprecisely defined and had limited government enforcement. We develop a profit‐maximizing monopsony model to explain the VOC's choice to transition from the better‐specified land grant to the less well‐specified loan farm. We conclude that the decline in the population size and ability of the Khoikhoi, the Cape's original inhabitants, to organize effective resistance to the Dutch invasion was critical to the transition, as it lowered the costs of private enforcement of settlers’ territorial claims. The choice of property rights thus enabled and encouraged the rapid taking by European settlers of the western Cape of Africa for the expansion of the Dutch colony's pastoral economy.

네덜란드 개혁교회와 일본 선교 : 동인도회사의 일본인 선교와 네덜란드인 회사원 목회(1609-1853)

본 연구의 목적은 17세기 네덜란드 개혁교회의 일본 선교를 네덜란드 동인도회사(Verenigde Oost India Compagnie [Dutch East India Company], 이하 VOC)의 현지 일본인 선교와 네덜란드인 회사원들 목회를 중심으로 연구하여 그 전략을 밝히고, 네덜란드인 회사원들의 종교생활을 재구성하는 것이다. 또 VOC의 일본 선교 전략이 아시아 한인 디아스포라 목회 전략을 결정하는 데 유익한 점을 찾는 것이다.BR 본 연구는 주제와 관련된 시기 일본 막부의 해상무역과 그리스도교 금지 정책과 개혁교회의 일본 선교에 대해 기존 연구를 참고할 것이다. 특히 VOC의 현지 일본인 선교와 네덜란드인 회사원의 목회 전력에 대해서는 네덜란드어 자료를 수집하여 해석할 것이다. 본 연구는 서론에 이어 2장에서 16-17세기 네덜란드 개혁교회의 탄생과 발전, VOC 해상무역의 일본 진출, 3장에서 VOC의 일본 선교 전략, 4장에서 일본 데지마 체류 VOC 네덜란드인 회사원들의 종교생활을 기술할 것이다.BR 본 연구의 결과는 네덜란드 개혁교회의 일본 선교는 해상무역으로 일본에 진출한 VOC에 의해 추진되었으며, VOC는 상업적 이윤과 종교의무(복음전파)의 두 마리 토끼를 잡기위해 일본 막부의 반그리스도교적 요구와 네덜란드 개혁교회의 선교와 목회의 요구를 절충하여 다음과 같은 이중전략을 세웠다.BR 1) VOC는 상업적 이윤을 위해 상업(해상무역)과 종교(현지 일본인 선교)를 분리시키고, 일본인 선교를 자제한다.BR 2) VOC는 네덜란드의 신민으로서 종교의무를 수행하기 위해 신앙생활의 공적 영역과 사적 영역을 구분하고, 공적 영역의 신앙생활을 가능한 자제하게 하고 사적 영역의 신앙생활을 권면한다.BR 끝으로 동인도회사의 현지 일본인 선교와 네덜란드인 목회 전략이 주는 교훈은 한인 디디아스포라의 목회는 한인 디아스포라의 사업적 성공과 영적 건강 유지를 위해 현지의 상황과 선교를 지원하는 단체(예를 들면 한국 교회나 특정 선교회)의 요구를 고려해야 한다.

Fantasia on a Harpsichord Case: The Allegorische Voorstelling van Amsterdam als Centrum van de Wereldhandel of Pieter Isaacsz

AbstractLost for many years, the Amsterdam city harpsichord case (alias the Allegorische Voorstelling van Amsterdam) was ultimately identified in an auction in 1999 by its distinctive representation of the sky. The Allegorische Voorstelling is often taken to depict the successes of the Dutch East India Company, and thus seen predominantly as a colonial work. However, this reading suppresses the context of the case’s creation and the way in which it interacts with both the intellectual and musical culture of its time. It is a musical instrument, not simply a panel painting: it has sonic resonance. In this period, the senses were important cognitive tools. As a result, the sonic context of the Allegorische Voorstelling would have been far more resonant, and far more perceptible, to its original viewers than it is to twenty‐first century viewers. This article seeks to demonstrate the value of examining the Allegorische Voorstelling with full appreciation of what music and hearing meant for cognition reveals a subtler, undercurrent to its territorial statement than first appears.

‘Philosophus et Mathematicus Incomparabilis’: Johannes Hudde (1628–1704), de Verlichte burgemeester van Amsterdam

This article is devoted to the scholarly achievements of Johannes Hudde, who in the late seventeenth century was one of the most influential mayors of Amsterdam. Already in his years as a student at Leiden University, Hudde became renowned as a very skilled mathematician. Coming from an elite Amsterdam family, it was his destiny to become a magistrate in the service of the city of Amsterdam. He also occupied the office of Director of the Dutch East India Company VOC. In these high posi- tions Hudde stimulated many technical innovations, for instance concerning the quality, quantity and supply of water in Amsterdam; the introduction of street lighting; the improvement of fire hoses and much more. His enlightened ideas also gave rise to fairly moderate points of view. Several con- troversial ideas could be published without obstruction during Hudde’s time as one of Amsterdam’s ‘Burgemeesters’.

Inleiding: Johannes Hudde (1628–1704), ‘groot ende onvergelykelyk wiskunstenaar’

In this introduction to this special issue of Studium devoted to Johannes Hudde, member of an Amster- dam family of patricians, it is argued that most of Hudde’s achievements in mathematics, optics, medi- cine and philosophy were related to a Cartesian research program that became fashionable in Dutch Republic the 1650 s and 1660 s. Hudde foremost owes his ‘claim to fame’ to his mathematical discover- ies, as published in the Latin translation and elaboration by Leiden Professor Van Schooten Junior of Descartes’ new geometry. However, Hudde is also known as the inventor of the single lens microscope and was also active as an author in the controversy on the Copernic system, which played central role in Descartes’ Natural Philosophy. In 1666 Hudde was also one of Spinoza’s correspondents, asking Spi- noza’s about the nature of the Creator, and sharing his knowledge about the construction of telescope lenses. After having become a regent in 1667 , Hudde used his scientific skills in several advisory roles, for instance as an Amsterdam Mayor and a Director of the Dutch East India Company. In that capacity he also became a patron of the arts and the sciences.

Trans-‘imperial eyes’ in the Atlantic on the British imperial voyage to Australia, 1787–1791

Early British imperial voyages to Australia did not occur entirely at sea or solely within the sphere of British influence. In the late eighteenth century Britain controlled few ports. Imperial expansion under sail therefore required supplies, rest and repair at the ports of other empires. Indeed, in 1787 the First Fleet laid over in the Atlantic harbours of Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands, Rio de Janeiro in Portuguese Brazil and the Dutch East India Company’s Cape colony in southern Africa. These layovers varied in length from a week to a month. During this time British officials went ashore on imperial business. What is less understood is that other voyagers also visited port townships and hinterlands to explore, socialise and make personal purchases, presenting opportunities to view settler colonialism under other empires. In her study of European travel writing, Mary Louise Pratt termed ‘imperial eyes’ the ways of seeing that produced othering discourses of non-Europeans. Through a new reading of 1787 travel accounts, and others from 1789 and 1791, this article argues that British imperial voyaging to Australia entailed seeing with trans-‘imperial eyes’ in the colonies of other empires. These encounters led to the formation of impressions about indigenous peoples under other colonial rule.

Taking the Companies to Court

Abstract Taking the Companies to Court. Wage Litigation against the Dutch East and West India Companies in the High Court Both the Dutch East and West India Companies were taken to court in the Republic. Court cases were pursued to the highest court in the Republic, the appellate Hoge Raad van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland (High Court), by subjects of the States General and by foreigners, individuals, and groups. This article focuses on wage claims which involved issues of inheritance, shipwreck, and illegal private trade. They show the wide pool of litigants who took on the companies, and the use of the court to manage labour disputes. Litigation involving the VOC and WIC has long been ignored by scholars, but this article showcases the contribution that can be made to the fields of social, economic, and legal history through analysis of the High Court records.

De ontbrekende schakels tussen compagnie en consumptie

Abstract The missing link between company and consumption. Who were the main buyers at the auctions of the Dutch East India Company in the eighteenth century? The wholesale and retail market for Asian goods in Europe is still largely unexplored. Historians’ growing interest in consumption patterns is now revealing the importance of Asian products in the nascent European consumer market. Earlier studies have already found that the Dutch East India Company moved from shipping only luxury commodities to supplying Europe with products (coffee, tea and sugar) intended for an increasingly broad range of consumers. By compiling and analyzing a database of purchases at the auctions of the VOC in Zeeland in the eighteenth century this article investigates a crucial link between trade with Asia and consumption in Europe. It also reveals that the company catered to the burgeoning slave trade of Zeeland. We find that the auctions were dominated by a small group of wholesalers who potentially had the power to dictate the commercial policy of the company in Asia.