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The European-Asian Trade of the Seventeenth Century and the Modernization of Commercial Capitalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Woodruff Smith
Woodruff Smith
Affiliation:
University of Texas, San Antonio
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Extract

The emergence of modern capitalism in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries has been a major topic of historical research and interpretation for many years. Among the current generation of historians there has been an ex,-plosion of interest in the relationship between the growth of capitalism and the expansion of Europe in the early modern era. The interpretive work of Wallerstein and Braudel and the detailed research of a host of others have added immensely to our knowledge of this relationship. They have led many historians to break away from the conceptual frameworks traditionally employed to explain both pre-industrial capitalism and European expansion.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1982 , pp. 68 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1982

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References

Notes

1. Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Modern World-System II:Mer-cantilism and the Consolidationof the European World Economy, 1600–1750 (New York, 1980), esp. pp. 42–44, where Wallerstein attempts to show that Dutch commercial capitalism was really based on industrial production. See alsoGoogle ScholarBraudel, Fernand, Capitalismand Material Life 1400–1800, tr.Miriam Kochan (New York 1973) and After-thoughts on Material Civilizationand Capitalism(Bal-timore, 1977), andGoogle ScholarVries, Jan De, Economyof Europe in an Age of Crisis 1600–1750(Cambridge, 1976), pp. 176–209.Google Scholar

2. There has been, in fact, little systematic history of such vital and obvious economic factors as consumption and marketing until fairly recently. A start on consumption has been made, however, most outstandingly by De Vries and in Cipolla, Carlo M., ed., The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Sixteenthand Seventeenth Centuries (Glasgow, 1974)Google Scholar. The few specific works on marketing do not adequately distinguish among marketing, finance, and commercial regulation. See Hotchkiss, George Burton, Milestones of Marketing(New York, 1938), pp. 55–131Google Scholar, and The InternationalConference on Business History3: Marketingand Financein the Course of Industrialization (Tokyo, 1976)Google Scholar

3. See, for example, Wilson, Charles, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the EighteenthCentury (Cambridge, 1941) and standard treatments of industrialization such asGoogle ScholarLandes, David S., Unbound Prometheus (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 41–123, andGoogle ScholarRostow, W.W., The Stages of Economic Growth:A Non-Communist Manifesto(Cambridge, 1966), pp. 17–35.Google Scholar

4. Wallerstein, , World-System II, pp. 13–33.Google Scholar

5. The two major modern studies of the East India companies, Glamann's on the Dutch company and Chaudhuri's on the English, are both in their own ways masterpieces of careful historical research. Both, however, stop short of a detailed analysis of the relationship between the companies and the structures that surrounded them in Europe, although they do consider the economic environment in a general way. By stopping their detailed analysis at the organizational boundaries of the companies, they fail to give adequate attention to activities, like mar-keting, that center at the points of interaction between the companies and the European commercial structure. They therefore largely miss one of the most significant historical implications of their subjects. See Glamann, Kristof, Dutch Asiatic Trade 1620–1740 (Copenhagen and The Hague, 1958)Google Scholar and Chaudhuri, K.N., The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660-1769 (Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar

6. Hotchkiss, , Milestonesof Marketing, pp. 55–91Google Scholar, entirely misses this distinction, concentrating on commercial regulation and the distribution function.

7. Gerth, H.H. and Mills, C. Wright, eds. and , trans.,From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York, 1958), pp. 196–244Google Scholar, esp. pp. 197–98.

8. See, for example, the treatment of commercial centers in Braudel, Afterthoughts, pp. 39–75.

9. On the economic implications of Amsterdam's function as an information center, see Barbour, Violet, Capitalism Amsterdam in the 17th Century (Ann Arbor, 1963; orig. pub. 1950), p. 53.Google Scholar

10. For a general treatment of the Amsterdam merchant elite, see Boxer, C.R., The Dutch Seaborne Empire: 1600-1800 (New York, 1970), pp. 31–54.Google Scholar For a detailed one, see Elias, Johan E., De Vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, 2 vols. (Amsterdam 1973; orig. ed. 1903, 1905).Google Scholar

11. The workings of the system are described in considerable detail in Klein, P.W., De Trippen in de 17e Eeuw: een studie over het ondernemersgedrag op de Hollandse pelmarkt (Assen, 1965).Google Scholar

12. Dillen, J.G. van, Regenten, Van Rijkdom en.Handboek tot de economische en sociale geschiedenis vanNederland tijdens de republiek(The Hague, 1970), pp. 37–68.Google Scholar

13. , Klein, Trippen, De, pp. 163–83, 236–40;Google Scholar, Glamann, AsiaticTrade, Dutch, pp. 73–90Google Scholar. Evidence of the instability of pepper, its role in international trade, and the aims of the companies with respect to pricing can be found in various sources. See, for example, Dam, Pieter van, Be-schryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. pel, F.W. Sta, Serie, R.G.P. Grote vols. 63, 68, 74, 76, 83, 87, 96 (The Hague, 1927–1954), 68: pp. 144–299Google Scholar (orig. ms. 1701), and the commercial correspondance of Lionel Cranfield in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendarof the Manuscripts of Major-GeneralLord Sackville Preserved at Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, 2 vols. (London, 1966), II: pp. 31, 42–43, 53 (correspondence of 1600).

14. , Glamann, Trade, Dutch Asiatic, p. 34; van Dam, Beschry vinge, 63: pp. 285–308;Google ScholarChaudhuri, K.N., The English East India Company: The Study of an Early Joint-Stock 1600–1640(New York, 1965), pp. 56–73.Google Scholar

15. This was recognized, although with constant complaints, by the directors of the companies themselves. See, for example, the VOC's order for returns from Asia in 1699: Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 7015; also van Dam, Beschryvinge, 68: p.109Google Scholar.

16. This point is made clearly by Glamann, DutchAsiatic Trade, p. 8. See also Niels Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution of the SeventeenthCentury: The East India Companiesand the Decline of the Caravan Trade (Chicago and London, 1974), pp. 114–53. It should be noted that by the end of the seventeenth century, some VOC directors appear to have indentified the company's affairs as their prime field of interest and activity, but this was by no means universal.

17. For example: Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce, A Calendarof the Court Minutes etc. of the East India Company 1635–79,11 vols. (Oxford, 1907–38)Google Scholar. 1660–63, p. 294 (Court of Committees, 4 Feb. 1663); 1671-73, p. 12 (Court of Committees, 3 Feb. 1671); Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 237 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 27 Aug. 1663).Google Scholar

18. Dam, Van, Beschryvinge,68: pp. 195–204;Google Scholar Glamann, Dutch Asiatic Trade, pp. 95–96. Vries, De, Economy ofEurope, 182–92, relates demand expansion in general to the economic “crisis” of Europe in the latter part of the seventeenth century.Google Scholar

19. Dam, Van, Beschryvinge,68: pp. 104–10Google Scholar; Chaudhuri, Trading World, pp. 74–76; Algemeen Rijksarchief (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 322 (letter to Asia, 30 Sep. 1689).Google Scholar

20. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 243 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 23 Mar. 1688);Google ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 9, 3.

21. Most senior company employees in Asia also traded on the side, usually in conjunction with merchants at home (many of whom were VOC or East India Company directors). In all probability, loads of unordered goods were sometimes sent so as to force the companies to create markets for goods, such as tea, that could be easily traded privately. See Chaudhuri, , Trading World, pp. 74–76; Van Dam, Beschzyvinge, 68: pp. 109n11;Google Scholar Gemeente ArchiefAmsterdam(Municipal Archives, Amsterdam) Velters papers no. 3, fol. 99 (letter J. Velters to F. de Haese, 29 Aug. 1679); Algemeen Rijksarchief (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 11, extract of letter VOC to Governor General and Council, 26 Nov. 1696; Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce, A Calendarof the Court Minutes etc. of the East India Company 1635–79,11 vols. (Oxford, 1907–38)Google Scholar. 1664–67, p. 376 (report of committee on private trade, 1667).

22. Thee, Thema. De geschiedenis van de thee en het theege-bruik in Nederland (Rotterdam, 1978), p. 15.Google Scholar

23. Grontlijcke Tegen-bericht Van de waerachtige remedie Der tegenwoordige dierte in de Granen in Nederlandt (n.p., 1631). Knuttel, W.P.C., Catalogus van de Pamfletten-Verzameling berustendein de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 9 vols. Hague, 1890–1920).Google ScholarEntry numbers used to identify pamphlets in the collection of the Royal Library, The Hague. 4154.Google Scholar

24. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 9, 3 (1692 market analysis); Slomann, Vil-helm, Bizarre Designs in Silks: Trade and Traditions (Copenhagen, 1953), pp. 102–17.Google Scholar

25. Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce, A Calendarof the Court Minutes etc. of the East India Company 1635–79,11 vols. (OxfordGoogle Scholar, 1907-38). 1664-67, pp. 417-18 (Court of Committees, 18 Dec. 1667); Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce, A Calendarof the Court Minutes etc. of the East India Company 1635–79,11 vols. (Oxford, 1907–38). 1668–70, p. 120Google Scholar (letter EIC to Hampson, 20 Nov. 1668).

26. Dam, Van, Beschiyvinge, 68: pp. 111–112;Google ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 312 (resolution of Amsterdam chamber, 30 Nov. 1615); no. 313 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber 1 May 1620). The VOC was legally a federation of local chambers. For the company's complex organization, see Glamann, , Dutch Asiatic Trade, pp. 3–6.Google Scholar

27. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 102 (minutes of Heeren 17, 9 March 1646).Google Scholar

28. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 230 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber 23 March 1623); VOC no. 231 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber 23 October 1636); VOC no. 243 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber 7 February 1692);Google ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Levantse Handel no. 173 (consular report from Cadiz, January 1696).

29. Dam, Van, Beschiyvinge, 63: pp. 270–84Google Scholar; Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 241 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 22 January 1682).

30. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I.Google Scholar VOC no. 108 (resol. of Heeren 17, 14 Nov. 1679 and 22 November 1679); VOC no. 237 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 29 March 1663).

31. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 232 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 5 Aug. 1638); VOC no. 236 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 9 May 1661); VOC no. 243 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 7 February 1692).Google Scholar

32. See VOC documents reprinted in H.E., van Gelder, “Gege-vens omtrent den porceleinhandel der Oostindische Com-pagnie”, Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek 10 (1924), pp. 165–93Google Scholar, esp. pp. 185–87. See also Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 106 (resol. of Heeren 17, 16 May 1670).

33. Glamann, , Dutch Asiatic Trade, pp. 29–40;Google ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 101 (resol. of Heeren 17, 28 September 1632 and 1 October 1632).

34. Dam, Van, Beschryvinge, 68: pp. 165–93Google Scholar; Lyste Vande Ge-denckwaerdige Teyckeninghe op de Peper … (Haarlem, 1639). Knuttel, W.P.C., Catalogus van de Pamfletten-Verzameling berustendein de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 9 vols. (The Hague, 1890–1920)Google Scholar. Entry numbers used to identify pamphlets in the collection of the Royal Library, The Hague. 4636; Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 101 (resol. of Heeren 17, 10 September 1638), fol. 259–61

35. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 238 (report of committee on sales and pricing, 11 February 1668); VOC no. 13, 353 (conditions of sale in Zeeland chamber, 1669); ARA, VOC no. 101 (resol. of Heeren 17, 17 September 1642).

36. Algemeen Rijksarchief (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 6988 (price estimate report, 1680).

37. See, for example, the letters from the Amsterdam chamber in Pieterz, Jan, Coen, , Bescheiden omtrent zijn bedryf in Indie, ed. Colenbrander, H.T. (6 vols.; The Hague, 1919–1934), 6: pp. 319–33Google Scholar, 345–49.

38. Klare Ende waerachtige Vertooninghe, van eenighe mercke-lijke Veranderinghen van goede ende duyre tijden (Amsterdam, 1624)Google Scholar. Knuttel, W.P.C., Catalogus van de Pamfletten-Verzameling berustendein de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 9 vols. Hague, 1890–1920)Google Scholar. 3568.

39. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. VOC no. 238 (committee report, 1 February 1668)Google Scholar; Algemeen Rijksarchief (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague), Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 3, 52; no. 18 (summary of sales).

40. On the reform movement and Johannes Hudde's role in it, see Stapel, F.W., “Johannes Hudde over de balansen van de Oostindische Compagnie”, Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek 13 (1927), pp. 215–39. Unpublished material on the movement is conveniently collected inGoogle ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 9.

41. See, for example, the collection of eighteenth-century forms and regulations contained in Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. van Vredenburch papers, no. 11.

42. Hudde1's reflections on these matters in 1692 are contained in memoranda included in Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 9, 3, which were printed by the VOC in the eighteenth century. For printed versions, see Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. van Vredenburch papers no. 11 and Stapel, “Johannes Hudde”. Cross elasticity is the extent to which a rise in the price of a com-modity will lead to an increase in demand for a qualitative substitute.

43. For a discussion of the genesis of Van Dam's Beschryvin-ge, see Stapel's introduction to the published version, vol. 63: pp. ix-xxxix.

44. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 9, 5.

45. Chaudhuri, Trading World, pp. 453–62.

46. See, for example, Dam, Van, Beschryvinge, 68: p. 357.Google Scholar

47. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 232 (resol. of Amsterdam chamber, 7 and 14 February 1641).

48. Dam, Van, Beschryvinge, 68: pp. 337–50.Google ScholarRijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. VOC no. 16 (resolutions of Heeren 17, 24 April 1668).

49. Boxer, Dutch Seaborne Empire, pp. 177–78. See also Bontekoe, Cornelius, Tractaat van het excellente kruyd thee … (Amsterdam, 1679)Google Scholar.

50. For the indirect use of newspapers to indicate the availability of products, see Hollantsche Nercurius 1: p. 26 (July, 1650).

51. For examples of printed lists of goods for sale, see Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 17.

52. Chaudhuri, Trading World, pp. 277–312.

53. Rijksarchief, Algemeen (Netherlands National Archives, The Hague)Google Scholar, Afdeling I. Hudde papers no. 9, 3; see also Slomann, Bizarre Designs, pp. 102-17, which quotes Child at length.

54. Appleby, Joyce Oldham, Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth Century England (Princeton, 1978), pp. 85–92, 172–83, 187.Google Scholar