Page 235 - Encyclopedia Of World History

dutch east india company 585

Table 2.
Homeward Cargoes in the Euro-Asian Trade: Analysis of Imports and Sales of Various Commodities
at the Amsterdam Chamber in Selected Triennial Periods
(invoice v alue, in percent ages)
1648–50 1668–70 1698–1700 1738–40 1778–80
Fine spices and pepper 59.3 57.4 38.1 35.0 35.4
Textiles and raw silk 17.5 23.8 43.4 28.3 32.7
Tea and coffee 0 0 4.1 24.9 22.9
Sugar 8.8 2.0 0.2 3.0 0.6
Drugs, perfumery, 7.3 5.9 6.6 2.7 2.3
dye stuffs
Saltpeter 4.3 7.6 4.0 3.6 2.8
Metals 0.7 3.0 2.9 0.6 1.4
Sundries 2.1 0.3 0.7 1.9 1.9
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Sources: Bruijn, Gaastra, & Schöffer (1987,Vol. 1, 192); Glamann (1981, 12–14, 269–278).

Precious metals served as the lubricant of the early mod- dominated by less profitable, nontraditional products,
ern world economy with important political, socioeco- such as textiles, coffee, and tea, available on the relatively
nomic, demographic, and cultural ramifications, open markets of India, Arabia, and China; and disen-
interacting with regional and local processes of state for- gagement and decline (1740–1800), marked by the
mation, social stratification, economic development, pop- commencement of the era of Franco-British global wars
ulation movements, and intellectual-religious changes. and a distinct decline in terms of the volume of Dutch
The economic history of the V.O.C. can be divided into trade and shipping. (See tables 2 and 3.)
three distinct periods: a monopolistic phase (1600– Historians have pointed to a number of factors con-
1680), determined by the acquisition of monopolistic or tributing to the eventual demise of the company. Previous
monopsonistic (market situation in which the product or scholarship criticized nontransparent bookkeeping prac-
service of several sellers is sought by only one buyer) posi- tices, the narrow financial basis of the V.O.C. and the
tions in various commodities (pepper and fine spices) resulting dependency on outside capital, failing entre-
and markets (Japan); a competitive phase (1680–1740), preneurship and lesser quality of company servants, lack

Table 3.
Financial Results (Expenditures and Sales Revenues) of the Dutch East India Company
from 1640 to 1795
(in millions of guilders) (in millions of guilders)

Years Expenditures Sale revenues Years Expenditures Sale revenues
1640–1650 42.7 78.4 1720–1730 172.9 185.6
1650–1660 71.1 84.2 1730–1740 159.0 167.0
1660–1670 80.4 92.3 1740–1750 148.7 159.7
1670–1680 77.0 91.3 1750–1760 184.9 188.0
1680–1690 87.6 103.4 1760–1770 198.9 213.6
1690–1700 106.9 127.2 1770–1780 186.5 199.6
1700–1710 122.6 139.5 1780–1790 212.3 145.9
1710–1720 135.2 163.7 1790–1795 86.7 61.2
Sources: Gaastra (2003, 148); J. P. de Korte. (2000). The annual accounting in the VOC, Dutch East India (Appendix 1). Amsterdam: Nederlandsch Economisch-
Historisch Archief.