Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:54:14.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Crime and Punishment in Batavia, circa 1730 to 1750

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Kerry Ward
Kerry Ward
Affiliation:
Rice University, Houston
Get access

Summary

Batavia grew into the capital of the Dutch East India Company through the evolution of its legal, administrative, political, transportation, and communication networks that provided the template for the evolution of other nodes in the empire. Located on the eastern coast of Java, Batavia was, from 1619, the seat of the Company's High Government at the center of power, though it was by no means omnipotent in its control over the imperial web. The Company's aim was to make Batavia the major entrepôt on the Straits of Malacca, filtering trade from the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. By 1730, the inner city population of Batavia was nearly 24,000 and the Company had invested massive amounts of money and labor to stimulate its growth. The Company's network of forced migration facilitated slave labor in Batavia and throughout the empire through the slave trade; it used penal transportation and political exile to bolster the rule of law by banishing criminals and political opponents from Batavia to other Company nodes, including the Cape of Good Hope.

This chapter examines the institutions of law and governance in Batavia through the criminal record of the Council of Justice that produced convicts for potential banishment. It focuses particularly on the period before and after the massacre of Batavia's Chinese population in 1740 to demonstrate both the Company's efforts and its failures to enforce the rule of law.

Type
Chapter
Information
Networks of Empire
Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company
 , pp. 85 - 126
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Taylor, Jean Gelman, The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983, pp. 66–71
Boxer, Charles R., The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600–1800. London: Penguin Books, 1965, p. 244Google Scholar
Haan, F. W., Oud Batavia. 3 Deel. Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1922Google Scholar
Niemeijer, Hendrik, Batavia: Een koloniale samenleving in de 17de eeuw. Amersfoort, Neth.: Uitjgeverij Balans, 2005, p. 18Google Scholar
Ebing, Ewald and Jager, Youetta, comps., Batavia-Jakarta, 1600–2000: A Bibliography. KITLV Bilbiographic Series no. 23. Leiden: KITLV, 2000, p. 867Google Scholar
Blussé, Leonard, Bitter Bonds: A Colonial Divorce Drama of the Seventeenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publications, 2002Google Scholar
Abeyesekere, Susan, Jakarta: A History. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 3Google Scholar
Elphick, Richard and Giliomee, Hermann, eds., The Shaping of South African Society, 1652–1840, 2nd ed. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1989, pp. 184–242
Blussé, Leonard, Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications, 1986, pp. 4–5Google Scholar
Furnivall, J. S., Netherlands India: A Study of Plural Economy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1939Google Scholar
Ricklefs, Merle, A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1300, 2nd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993, pp. 86–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nas, Peter, “Introduction: A General View of the Indonesian Town,” Nas, Peter J. M., ed., The Indonesian City: Studies in Urban Development and Planning, Verhandelingen KITLV, no. 117. Dordrecht-Holland: Foris Publications, 1986, pp. 6–7Google Scholar
Spooner, Frank, “Batavia 1673–1790: A City of Colonial Growth and Migration,” Glazier, Ira and Rosa, Luigi, eds., Migration Across Time and Nations: Population Mobility in Historical Context. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986Google Scholar
Knaap, Gerrit, “The Demography of Ambon in the Seventeenth Century: Evidence from Colonial Proto-Censuses,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 26(2), September 1995, pp. 227–241CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruijn, J. R., Gaastra, F. S., and Schoffer, I., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries. 3 vols. Rijks geschiedenkundige publicatien, grote serie, nos. 165–167. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979–1987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remmelink, Willem, The Chinese War and the Collapse of the Javanese State, 1725–1743. Verhandelingen KITLV. no. 162. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1994, p. 125Google Scholar
Schaap, Dirk, Onrust: Het Nederlandse duivelseiland. Utrecht: A. W. Bruna Uitgevers, 2002Google Scholar
Dijk, C., “Java, Indonesia and Southeast Asia: How Important Is the Java Sea?,” in Houben, V. and Maier, H., eds., Looking in Odd Mirrors: The Java Sea. Semaians 5. Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1992, p. 299Google Scholar
Ross, Robert, Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 9–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooker, M. B., Concise Legal History of Southeast Asia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976, pp. 187–194Google Scholar
Haeften, Marijke Barend-van, Oost-Indië gespiegeld: Nicholaas de Graaff, een schrijvend chirurgijn in dienst van de VOC. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1992, pp. 165–167Google Scholar
Till, Margreet, “Social Care in Eighteenth Century Batavia: The Poor House, 1725–1750,” Itinerario, 19(1), 1995, pp. 18–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, James, “‘For Good and Sufficient Reasons’: An Examination of Early Dutch East India Company Ordinances on Slaves and Slavery,” in Reid, Anthony, ed., Slavery Bondage and Dependency in Southeast Asia. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1983, pp. 246–247Google Scholar
Bree, Jacobus, De Rechterlijke Organisatie en Rechtsbedeling te Batavia in de XVIIe Eeuw. Rotterdam and ‘sGravenhage: Nigh & Van Ditmar N.V., 1951,. pp. 87–88Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×