CHAPTER XXXVII - SIMON VAN DER STEL'S ADMINISTRATION—(continued)

Summary

At this time a change in the form of conducting public business was made, which continued in operation during the next century. The simplicity of manners and honesty of purpose which were characteristic of the early Dutch traders in the Indian islands disappeared with the establishment of the great power which they built up, and before the close of the seventeenth century corruption in the administration of affairs had become widespread throughout the Asiatic possessions of the Company. There were many men of sterling honesty and of great ability in its service, but the majority of the higher officers were unscrupulous in their pursuit of wealth. In some of the dependencies private trading was practised to such an extent as to destroy the whole of the Company's profits. Worse still, many officials used the power entrusted to them to make money in ways that were decidedly criminal. The remedy would seem to be in making the service attractive by offering liberal salaries to men of talent, while prohibiting every description of private trade and making it penal to take bribes under the name of fees or presents. But in those days of experiments in governing dependencies, this remedy did not occur to the directors, or if any one made such a suggestion it was not acted upon. The only commerce reserved exclusively for the Company was that in the various kinds of spices, and had any one dared to deal on his own account in a kilogramme of pepper or cinnamon, cloves or nutmegs, he would have been very severely punished.