Page 238 - Encyclopedia Of World History

588 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

The popular view that free trade is all very well so long as all nations are free-traders, but that when other
nations erect tariffs we must erect tariffs too, is countered by the argument that it would be just as sensible to
drop rocks into our own harbors because other nations have rocky coasts. • Joan Robinson (1903–1983)

needed government subsidies to stay afloat, but after bankruptcy. In 1799 the Dutch state dissolved the VOC
1620 its activities were increasingly more profitable. and assumed the sovereignty over the company’s pos-
Trading between the various regions in Asia accounted sessions in Asia and at the Cape of Good Hope.
for most of these profits. In 1619 the city of Batavia (now
Djakarta) was founded as the pivot in the trade between The West India
the Dutch Republic and its trading partners in Asia.The Company (WIC)
governor general in Batavia concluded treaties with local The early success of the Dutch East India Company was
rulers for the exclusive delivery of spices such as pepper, a strong stimulus to create a similar company for the trade
nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. In addition the company and colonization in the Atlantic. In 1621 the West India
traded in opium, Chinese porcelain, tea, silk, and Indian Company (The West-Indische Compagnie or WIC)was
cotton cloths. In order to obtain these goods, the com- founded.In contrast to the VOC, the WIC took a long time
pany sent large of amounts of cash to Asia. to collect sufficient operating capital. Most merchants did
Over time the VOC grew to become the largest com- not invest as they felt that the company would be used by
pany in the world, employing more than 40,000 persons the Dutch state as an instrument of maritime warfare
at the height of its existence.Yearly, more than sixty East against Spain rather than as a profit-seeking venture.
Indiamen left the Netherlands for a year-long journey to Like the VOC, the WIC was organized in chambers, but in
Batavia, using the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good the course of the company’s history, its policies became
Hope as a stopover. However, during the course of the more and more fragmented.The Zeeland chamber began
eighteenth century, competition from the British East to administer some parts of Guiana exclusively, whereas
India Company, the French, and even the Danes took the Amsterdam chamber concentrated on New Nether-
business away from the VOC. In order to keep its share- lands in North America and the Dutch Antilles. In 1628
holders and bondholders happy, the company started to all chambers were allotted exclusive trading rights in sep-
borrow money in order to pay dividends. In spite of reg- arate areas along the coast ofWest Africa.This process of
ulations, most of the company’s employees in Asia con- fragmentation was strengthened by the issuing of private
ducted trade on their own behalf, which was also freehold estates, called patroonships, in New Nether-
detrimental to the company’s well-being, forcing it into lands and in the Caribbean. A consortium, in which the
WIC participated as only one of the shareholders,
owned the Caribbean plantation colony of Suri-
name, conquered in 1667. Private merchants
who received land grants within the com-
pany’s territory were usually connected to, or
even directors of, one specific WIC chamber.
At the beginning the WIC played an
important role in the Dutch maritime trade.
Around 1650, when the company still gov-
erned part of Brazil and New Netherlands,
the total value of the imports into the Dutch
Republic amounted to about 60 million
guilders, of which nearly 18 million came
from Brazil,Africa, the Caribbean, and North
A fleet of Dutch merchant America. During the second half of the sev-
ships in the sixteenth century. enteenth century, the loss of Brazil and New