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How the Dutch Ran a Seventeenth-Century Colony: The Occupation and Loss of Formosa 1624–1662

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Ernst van Veen
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Extract

In 1861 the book Java: Or, How to Manage a Colony, by J.W.B. Money, which compared the deficits suffered by British India with the profitability of the cultivation of Java and Madura, caused considerable discussion among the Dutch politicians. At an international level, the last word has yet to be spoken in the debate among historians and economists on the profits and losses of former colonies.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 59 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1996

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References

1 Money, J.W.B., Java: Or, How to Manage a Colony (London 1861), reprinted with an introduction by Ian Brown (Singapore 1985).Google Scholar

2 For the repercussions in the Netherlands see Fasseur, Cees, De Weg naar hel Paradijs en andere Indische Geschiedenissen (Amsterdam 1995) 89–99Google Scholar; for the reactions in Great Britain: Wesseling, H.L., Indië Verloren, Rampspoed Geboren en Andere Opstellen over de Geschiedenis van de Europese Expansie (Amsterdam 1995) 143–147.Google Scholar

3 The vicissitudes of the Dutch fleet, before it arrived at the peninsula of Taiwan, having failed in their attempts to take Macao from the Portuguese, have been described in Blussé, J.L., van Opstall, M.E., Yung-Ho, Ts'ao eds, De Dagregisters van he Kasleel Zeetandia, Taiwan 1629–1662 I (‘s-Gravenhage 1986) XI–XII.Google Scholar

4 ‘Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren’, General State Archive The Hague (ARA), Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) 1093, 335 verso.

5 ARA. VOC 1093, 346–347 verso. The council decided that the new town was to be located across the bay and that it would be populated with Dutch families from Batavia and with Chinese, Japanese, natives, and any others who would be prepared to gather under the authority of the High and Mighty Lords of the States General of the United Provinces, represented in Asia by the VOC. A coat of arms for the town was even proposed: seven silver arrows, tied together, surrounded by a branch bearing oranges and leaves. For the further development of Zeelandia, as the town was later called, see Oosterhoff, J.L., ‘Zeelandia, a Dutch Colonial City on Formosa (1624–1662)’ in: Ross, Robert J. and Telkamp, Gerard J., Colonial Cities (Leiden 1985) 51–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 ARA, VOC 1085, folio 231.

7 ARA, VOC 1085, folio 231 and 236; and VOC 1093, folio 355 verso.

8 ARA, VOC 1093, folio 351–352 verso; and Blussé, L., ‘Justus Schouten en de Japanse Gijzeling’ in Nederlandse Historische Bronnen 5 (Hilversum 1985) 83.Google Scholar

9 Heeres, J.E. ed., Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant Passerende daer ter Plaetse als over Geheel Nederlandts India 1624–1629 (DRB 1624–1629) (‘s-Gravenhage 1896) 145, 9–4.Google Scholar

10 ARA, VOC 1093, folio 357–357 verso, folio 355, folio 362–362 verso.

11 ARA, VOC 1093, folio 368. In April 1626 it was decided to send assistance to the villagers of Sincan, the closest village and therefore most convenient source of a food supply, to help them defend themselves against ‘those from Mattau, Bacaluwan, and Small Sincan’.

12 ARA, VOC 1093, folio 364 and folio 366 verso; DRB 1624–1629, 255, 4–5–1626 and 272, 18–5–1626.

13 Colenbrander, H.T., Jan Pietersz. Coen. Bescheiden Omtrent zijn Bedrijf in Indië V (Coen V) (‘s-Gravenhage 1919–1934) 781–782.Google Scholar

14 In his letter of 10 February 1629 he limited himself to informing his superiors that the ports of Kelang and Tamsuy on the north coast both had a fort, with an estimated total force of 200 Spaniards and 400 native soldiers from the Philippines. Coen V, 150, 10–2–1629. Further rumours about Spanish attempts to attack the Dutch settlement at Formosa were used by Coen to illustrate the need for additional manpower. He estimated that the defence of the fort, office, fortifications, the village of Sincan, and the bays north and south of Taiwan, together with the protection of the Chinese merchants and fishermen (in exchange for one-tenth of the catch) would require a total of 400 men. Coen V, 36, 9–11–1627 and 100, 2–11–1628; G.M. I, 271.

15 ARA, VOC 1093, folio 364.

16 His vicissitudes in Japan and thereafter have been described by Justus Schouten: Blussé ed., ‘Justus Schouten’, 84–87.

17 Coen V, 71, 6–1–1628.

18 DRB 1624–1629, 337–338, 27–6–1627. Coen V, 110, 3–11–1628; 145. 10–2–1629; 149–150, 10–2–1629. For a more complete story on Iquan see Blussé, L., ‘Minnan-jen or Cosmopolitan? The Rise of Cheng Chih-Lung alias Nicolas Iquan’, in: Vermeer, E.B. ed., Development and Decline of Fukien Province in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Leiden 1990) 245–264.Google Scholar

19 Blussé ed., ‘Justus Schouten’, 88–95.

20 After the intrusion of Chinese smugglers into the Formosan village of Mattau in 1629, Nuyts had sent a company of fifty-two of his best soldiers and officers to chase them away. In order to be carried over a river, they had had to lay down their arms and were murdered. Thereafter the natives had proceeded to Sincan, where they ousted the Dutch detachment and set fire to their possessions. G.M. I, 271–272.

21 Coolhaas, W.Ph., Generale Missieven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie I (‘s- Gravenhage 1960–1964) (G.M. I) 272, 15–12–1629.Google Scholar

22 Toby, R.P., State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan. Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu (Stanford Cal. 1991) 104 and 106.Google Scholar

23 Coen V, 489 and 493.

24 DRB 1631–1634, 10, 2–4–1631.

25 Blussé, L., Tribuut aan China: Vier Eeuwen Nederlands-Chinese Betrekkingen (Amsterdam 1989) 51–52.Google Scholar

26 DRB 1631–1634, 10, 2–1–1631.

27 ARA, VOC 1096, folio 197–202.

28 DRB 1631–1634, 119, 24–11–1632.

29 Blussé, L., ‘The VOC as Sorcerer's Apprentice: Stereotypes and Social Engineering on the China Coast’, in: Idema, W.L. ed., Leyden Studies in Sinology (Leiden 1981) 87–105Google Scholar and ibid, “Retribution and Remorse: The Interaction Between the Administration and the Protestant Mission in Early Colonial Formosa’, in: Prakash, Gyan ed., After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements (Princeton 1995) 153–182.Google Scholar

30 DRB 1631–1634, 163–164, 22–4–1633 and 186–187, 2–6–1633; Leod, N. Mac, De Oost-Indische Compagnie als Zeemogendheid in Azië II (Rijswijk Z.H. 1927) 1932.Google Scholar

31 DRB 1631–1634, 427, 9–11–1634 and Mac Leod, De Oost-Indische Compagnie als Zeemogendheid II, 36–39.

32 Blussé, Tribuut aan China, 54.

33 G.M. I, 520, 4–1–1636.

34 G.M. I, 519–520.

35 G.M.I, 520.

36 ARA, VOC 1148, folio 428.

37 G.M. I, 521 and ARA, VOC 1116, folio 252–261.

38 G.M. I, 521.

39 ARA, VOC 1120, folio 19–34; VOC 1116, folio 258–259; VOC 1120, folio 23 and G.M. 1,584.

40 G.M. I, 582.

41 ARA, VOC 1128, folio 429–434; idem, folio 501–509 and G.M. I, 658 and 743.

42 G.M. I, 708.

43 G.M. II, 81.

44 DRB 1640–1641, 119, 6–12–1640.

45 Tamsuy had already been evacuated in 1635, but Kelang still housed a garrison of about 450 people in fort La Sanctissima Trinidad, who, at the approach of the eleven Dutch ships carrying more than 1,000 people on board, surrendered without offering any resistance. The population of the Spanish fort was somewhat unusual: 115 Spaniards, including a few priests, 62 Papangers, 93 ‘Cagajanes’, 42 women, 116 slaves, and 18 children, i.e. 446 in total. VOC 1140, folio 471–473. The total Dutch force consisted of 530 soldiers, 384 seamen, 48 Chinese and 51 of Javanese or other descent. VOC 1140, folio 309–312 and 328–330.

46 ARA, VOC 1145, folio 241 and folio 249–251.

47 ARA, VOC 1146, folio 749–750.

48 ARA, VOC 1147, folio 438–442.

49 Act of transfer, ARA, VOC, 1149, folio 624–629 and 714.

50 ARA, VOC 1149, 817–821 and 862 verso.

51 In the second half of the forties the advance of the Manchus in China caused an increasing influx of Chinese in Formosa. These immigrants found a livelihood mainly in the cultivation of rice and sugar. The total area effectively used for the growing of rice, sugar, and other crops increased from roughly 5,000 acres in 1645 to 11,000 in 1647 and to 13,000 in 1650, ‘as measured by the surveyor, and where, according to the lease on the rice fields, the tithes had been paid’. The annual sugar yield fluctuated between 20,000 and 30,000 piculs (of 63 kilograms), depending on the acreage given over to rice. In total there were at that time 15,000 Chinese on Formosa, not including the crews of the 200 junks, who came there to fish. ARA, VOC 1147, folio 461–461 verso; VOC 1149, folio 861 verso and 862; VOC 1164, folio 412 and 518; VOC 1176, 791–792.

52 ARA, VOC 1147, folio 463–464; VOC 1149, folio 711–713; VOC 1160, folio 53–103.

53 ARA, VOC 1148, folio 428.

54 ARA, VOC 1155, folio 585–597, 595, 609–615 and 613 verso.

55 ARA, VOC 1160, folio 187–192.

56 ARA, VOC 1163, folio 281 and 333–337.

57 See Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities, Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London/New York 1993) 164–170. The first ‘imagined community’ on Formosa was that in 1644 of the 44 villages in the neighbourhood of Taiwan. In 1647 a list was produced of the villages along the Tamsuy River and in 1648 an administrative description of all Formosean villages under the Company's authority was produced, with 251 villages containing 13,955 houses and 63,861 inhabitants, who were thus liable to taxation. In 1650 this had increased to 351 villages, with 15,249 houses and 68,657 inhabitants, of which there were 38 villages in the south-east not yet fully under control. However, the position of the Company was now so strong that it could afford to undertake the pacification of this area in a more subtle manner. ARA, VOC 1164, folio 347; VOC 1169, folio 265–269; VOC 1176, folio 781–789; VOC 1183, folio 617–622.Google Scholar

58 ARA, VOC 1170, folio 518 verso and 519.

59 ARA, VOC 1183, folio 833; VOC 1176, folio 799 and 940b.

60 ARA, VOC 1169, folio 393–394; VOC 1183, folio 918–919.

61 ARA, VOC 1194, folio 92–96.

62 ARA, VOC 1194, folio 121 and 93 verso.

63 ARA, VOC 1194, folio 136.

64 ARA, VOC 1197, folio 783–788 verso, 791 and 808.

65 ARA, VOC 1197, folio 789–790.

66 ARA, VOC 1194, folio 98 verso and VOC 1197, folio 791 verso.

67 Valentijn, Fr., Oud- en Nieuw Oost Indiën IV, Book III (Dordrecht 1726) 74.Google Scholar

68 Coen V, 781, 10–8–1627.