Wim Wennekes (1948–2001)

Expanding globalisation

In his book "The Great Divergence" Kenneth Pomeranz calls Britain and the Dutch Republic "free riders" as they followed in the footsteps of the discoveries of Spain and Portugal.

Mr. Pomeranz is right. The latecomers mainly still expanded knowledge and markets. This book concentrates on Dutch conquests and on the products these conquests were made for. The story of colonial expansion is told many times, the products sought are lesser known and my reason to pick up this book. The author has gone back to many seventeenth and eighteenth century sources to develop this entertaining popular history.

The spices sought to improve the taste of European meals were also considered medicinal. Most of the products the Dutch looked so greedily for were considered to have medicinal qualities or were (mild) addictives like coffee or tobacco. That knowledge was taken from the Spaniards and Portuguese, but was greatly expanded upon. Later, chemicals based mainly on oil and salt would replaced them, but 17th and 18th century cargo consisted mostly of nature's produce. And what was first found in the forests was later grown on plantations.

The first source of Dutch knowledge of the East was an extensive compendium published in 1596 that was written by the Dutch clerk Van Linschoten, who had worked for the Portuguese for 10 years. The Portuguese commonly employed foreigners. Van Linschoten spent most of his time in Goa. His book, which was also used by the British and French, not only contained detailed navigational advice and products to trade in, but also descriptions of fauna, diseases, sexual mores (women in Goa were promiscuous, despite men's limited use of opium to slowe ejaculation and please their women) and the often harsh treatment of natives and slaves. In the book spices and their medicinal value were described in great detail by a doctor in Van Linschoten's home town Enkhuizen. He included local Asian knowledge. Van Linschoten added the location were these spices could be found. His description of China and Japan was based upon another Dutch sailor working for the Portuguese and he translated information from Portuguese books. Van Linschoten's Itinerario was of great help when the Dutch were cut off from trade with Spain by Philips II and had to strike out on their own.

Diseases were much more common in the 17th century and man’s understanding was very limited. All sorts of medicine were applied. Gems were used as amulets and crushed to be included in medicine. There was often some empirical justification because of some effective element and some medications are still used today. The Arabs had combined ancient Greek and Roman knowledge wit their own and that of India. The foods were contained more spices than later in Europe if only because spices helped to conserve them in a time of more erratic supply (even fresh vegetables were only available part of the year) and without refrigerators.

Descriptions of trade with the people of the Indies were hardly flattering. Negotiations were tough, with the locals increasing their demands, adding pebbles to pepper or increasing the weight by delivering wet stock. The descriptions of local customs were also rarely praising.

The various competing fleets (of a few ships) led to higher purchase and lower sale prices. The government forced them to join forces and founded an East India Company as had earlier been done by Britain. Joining forces would weaken the country's enemies and reduce risk for the fatherland. Six million guilders, six time the capital of the English Company, was raised from merchants, admirals, brewers, bakers, a seamstress and seven servants, but also from Germans, Italians and Portuguese Jews. The Company tried to get monopolies where it could and was willing to destroy harvests to keep prices high. Local rulers were paid off, while their subjects suffered. Only few understood that the locals had greater understanding of local plants and management than the Dutch themselves. The Company soon became the country's largest employer. Some 35% of staff were foreigners (but not French, English or Scottish), which would later rise to 50% when more Asians were employed. Ships were made by the company and equipped with detailed lists of tools and continuously updated maps. Storage procedures were also very detailed. All procedures together made the Company a bureaucratic organisation. Originally, silver, gold and copper were brought to finance purchases, with some products the Asians liked. Private trade was forbidden but was estimated in the 18th century as equal to the Company's. Even the directors in Holland were corrupt. The accounting was pretty bad, because of deliberate errors of its comptoirs as well as late delivery. Dividends ran from to 12.5 to 62.5% and later stabilised at 15%.

The lack of silver sent from Amsterdam was compensated by intra-Asian trade. The East India Company traded in ivory, pearls and elephants from Sri Lanka. They were also found in India as were iron ore, hemp and the whole opium harvest of the Ganges plain, but most important were Indian textiles, often made to local tastes in Asia or as far away as Africa. Tin was bought in Malaya and Thailand. Other products were traded with China via Taiwan. Silver, copper and saltpetre were bought in Japan. All knowledge regarding products, markets and harbours of the Company was consolidated in seven books by its counsel Pieter van Dam. Various times the Company tried to transplant products to Java, often without result. Coffee was the big exception. Tea, whose benefits were sung by a doctor sponsored by the Company, had to be bought on Java from Chinese merchants. Pepper and other spices were the most important in the 17th century, although textiles would rise to the top in the 18th century. Profits on spices were up to 3,000%, but textiles made less than 300%.

After trading in spices the Dutch also started whaling, following in the footsteps of the French, Basques and English. The oil was used for making soap, candles, paint and lighting lamps. Whale oil remained long a popular health measure and baleens found all kinds of use. Various trips to find a route to Asia via Siberia, of which two were described by Van Linschoten, stood at the basis of Dutch north-Atlantic whaling.

Van Linschoten also made a book with Spanish and Portuguese information about the Americas, again focussing on products to trade and the occasional description of female licentiousness or native cannibalistic practices. Tobacco got little attention, because it was only seen as medicine at the time. Van Linschoten's information wasn't so unique this time, however. The Fleming Willem Usselinckx promoted privateering against Spanish silver ships ("with God's help"), chasing away the Spaniards and Portuguese and the foundation of colonies and spreading the Reformed gospel. A West India Company was founded in 1621. The treasure of a Spanish silver fleet financed a second attack on Brazil. Portuguese resistance made it costly. Sugar was the main commodity in Brazil and required African slaves to farm it. Therefore trading posts on the Gold Coast and Angola were conquered. Discovery trips into the Brazilian interior were made and its medicinal plants and physical geography were catalogued. Lack of military support soon meant the end of Dutch Brazil.

The first ships to Africa came home loaded with gold and ivory, but later slave trading would become more important. Various discovery trips were made to Australia, New Zealand and the islands east of the Malay Archipelago, but no products to trade were found.

With its basis in current New York, North America was a land for fur skins and castoreum, a product of beavers with medical uses (including for generating abortions) as well as an ingredient for perfumes. The city of Leiden wove duffle cloth to sell to the Indians. Climatologically and geographically, the Guyanas were not so rich, but they were beyond the interest of Spaniards and Portuguese. Tobacco and cotton were the main products here. Wood and pigments were also of interest. Recently conquered Suriname, where sugar cane could grow, was preferred to New York and exchanged in a treaty. The Company was not rich enough to develop the colony and left this to private investors, first from Zeeland, later including the city of Amsterdam. As usual there were experiments with all kinds of agricultural products, among others tobacco and cacao. Sugar was so common it was accepted as currency, while slavery kept Suriname going. Salt had been the main source of interest in the Antilles. Trade in salt with Venezuela had even been exempted from monopolist pricing by the government. Salt was used for food, herring fishing, soap and leather making, and as a medicine. Given Spanish presence the Dutch moved to Saint Martin and Curaçao. Other islands were added later. Horse breeding and shoemaking for the regional market were important businesses. Curacao became a centre for the slave trade after Spain had lost its African outposts.… (más)