6 - VOC Soldiers and Seamen

Summary

Between 1602 and 1811, hundreds of thousands of people left the Netherlands to serve in Asia, the vast majority of them as seamen or soldiers aboard an armed ship. The preceding, chronologically arranged chapters have shown that the fleet and the army provided the backbone of the imperial system. The availability and deployability of seamen and soldiers were an important constraint on the expansionist goals and military effectiveness of the Company and its successors. This chapter will first examine the way in which the voc recruited European personnel, including a look at their varied backgrounds and international origins, and will then consider how many seamen and soldiers could be deployed overseas. How was the Company able to maintain sufficient forces in spite of the high death rate on board? To supplement the consistently undermanned professional military forces, the voc deployed both militias and conscripts, but this was not enough. The recruitment of Asian manpower for the fleet and the army became ever more crucial to the expansion and defence of the empire. How did the Dutch deploy Asian personnel over the course of these two centuries, and how successful was such deployment? Finally, this chapter provides insight into the primary working conditions, the quality and the costs of seamen and soldiers. There is a wealth of quantitative information in the archives that has so far been little studied, so an attempt has been made here to sample the material.

European Recruitment

The voc made considerable efforts to recruit sufficient personnel for service in the charter territory each year. Every year, after taking advice from the High Government in Batavia, the Heren XVII decided how many men needed to be recruited for despatch, and how that number would be divided between the different Chambers. In principle this was determined by overseas needs. Batavia made few detailed requests, however, so determining the number of recruits needed was very often guesswork. Over time a fixed pattern did develop, only interrupted by major wars.

Furthermore, the number of men actually despatched was in the event determined by the number of ships sent out, the year's ‘equipage’.