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Some Notes on the Dutch in Malacca and the Indo-Malayan Trade 1641–1670

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

S. Arasaratnam
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Extract

The trade between India and the Malay Peninsula was an important link in the inter-Asian trading system. It took in a wide assortment of goods, embracing not only the produce of these two countries but also serving as a vehicle for the transhipment and distribution of goods from neighbouring and even distant regions that are assembled at these centres of trade. Thus the import trade from India to Malaya had cotton piece-goods as its staple and other produce of India in lesser quantities such as rice, wheat, butter, sugar, oil, hemp, leather and sometimes slaves. Among the items of import, goods that have an obviously non-Indian origin are Arabian incense, amber, red corals, rhinoceros horns and most of the elephant tusks. The articles exported show an even wider area of distribution. From the Malay peninsula itself and neighbouring regions there was tin, pepper, cloves, tortoise shells, sandal wood, sappan wood, benzoin, gumlac, coconut fibre, white and brown sugar, diamonds, besoar stones, quick silver and elephants. Chinese porcelain and copper were obviously brought from the far east. Even allowing for some exaggeration in Tome Pires's figures of Gujerati merchants in Malacca and of his account of the trade from Coromandel, Malabar and Bengal, there seems no doubt of the economic importance of the trade to societies on the two ends of the Bay of Bengal. Indeed the Bay seems to have formed a wellknit commercial unit exchanging surplus produce from its various regions for which the Indian traders were an invaluable medium. The main participants of this trade were the Muslims of the Gujerat ports, Muslims of Bengal and Golconda and Hindu and Muslim traders settled in Coromandel and Malabar coasts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 1969 , pp. 480 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1969

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References

1. Suma Oriental of Tome Pires, trs. and ed., Aramando, Cortesao Vol. II (London 1944), pp. 251–5.Google Scholar

2. Schouten's Report of his visit to Malacca, 7 September 1641, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 14, p. 60.Google Scholar

3. Schouten's Report of his visit to Malacca, Ibid., p. 140.

4. Ibid., p. 120.

5. Ibid., p. 142.

6. Ibid., p. 98.

7. Ibid., p. 120.

8. Governor and Council of Malacca to Directors, 25 November 1641 Kolonial Archief (The Hague) 1045, ff. 206–8.

9. Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum, Ed., Heeres, J. E. Vol. I (Hague 1907), pp. 365–6.Google Scholar

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11. Ibid., p. 438.

12. Governor of Malacca to Governor General and Council, 7 September 1642 Kolonial Archief, 1051.

13. Verhael van presente toestand van Malacca, 15 December 1642 Kolonial Archief 1050, ff. 298.

14. Governor and Council of Malacca to Governor General and Council, 17 December 1642, Kolonial Archief 1050, f.223.

15. Governor of Malacca to Governor General and Council, 21 August 1642, Kolonial Archief 1051, f. 415.

16. Governor of Malacca to Governor General and Council, 10 March 1643, Kolonial Archief 1051, f. 392.

17. Verhael van Malacca, December 1644, Kolonial Archief 1060, f. 128.

18. Verhael van Malacca, January 1645, Kolonial Archief 1060, f. 133.

19. Relatie van Jeremias Van Vliet naar Governor General and Council, 28 November 1645. Kolonial Archief 1060, f. 644.

20. Ibid., f.643.

21. Verhael van Malacca, January 1645, Kolonial Archief 1060, f. 135.

22. Memoir of Outschoorn, Governor of Malacca, to his successor; 18 December 1646 Kolonial Archief 1061, ff. 438–9.

23. Thijssen to Governor General and Council, 13 September 1650, Kolonial Archief 1070, f.417.

24. Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum, I p. 520.Google Scholar

25. Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-lndicum, I p. 520.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., pp. 521–2.

27. Ibid., pp. 538–9.

28. Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum, II p. 152.Google Scholar

29. Raychaudhuri, T., Jan Company in Coromandel (The Hague 1962), pp. 123–4.Google Scholar

30. Orders reproduced in Report of Governor Balthasar Bort on Malacca, 1678. JMBRAS, Vol. V (1927), pp. 157ff.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 149.