What makes the chapters on Monsoon Asia unique is the analysis of the Dutch Empire from the point of view of Asian societies. First of all, it is stressed that, from a global point of view, the rise of the Dutch seaborne empire is part of a much wider and earlier coastal turn, which in Asia has been described as an Age of Commerce. It is not only European, but also Chinese and Islamic, expansion that characterises this phase of increasing maritime globalisation. Those Eurasian empires that continued to exploit the nomadic horsepower of the Eurasian Arid Zone were soon able to incorporate this maritime dynamic. In these empires, the Dutch retained a marginal presence as meek merchants subject to the whims of indigenous brokers and local governments. In other, more tropical parts of Asia, the aggressive operations of the Dutch prevented indigenous states such as Mataram and Kandy from incorporating the booming coastal regions of Java and Ceylon, respectively. In these insular areas, the Dutch were able to create territorial power and impose their monopoly on the production and sale of cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. In Maluku we can even speak of a Dutch ‘heart of darkness’ as much of its population was decimated, to be replaced by colonists and slaves. In almost all cases, the Dutch could sustain territorial power only with the help of overseas Chinese communities which offered both a vital urban middle class (primarily in the Dutch colonial headquarters of Batavia) and access to extensive commercial networks. So far completely ignored is the case of Ceylon. In this early-modern laboratory of colonial rule, the reformist policies of enlightened Dutch governors had a deep impact on the local society through mapping, law and education. One of the first revolutionaries in the late eighteenth-century Netherlands was a Tamil intellectual raised in Dutch schools in Ceylon.

Chapter 10 discusses the beginnings of vaccination in India. From Bombay in June 1802, the practice was extended to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Madras and Calcutta by the end of the year. Medical men in the service of the East India Company made the running, but civil and military governors provided strong support for the establishment of the practice. Children under vaccination were often used to deliver the vaccine, Indians were trained and paid for their work in vaccinating and systems were devised to maintain the supply of vaccine. The new prophylaxis was taken up in the European enclaves, but won some acceptance, too, among the Indian and Sinhalese, especially in Madras. Intrusive measures caused resentment and arm-to-arm transmission raised concerns about pollution. Still, the tally of vaccinations probably reached one million in the first five years of the practice. By this stage, too, India was serving as a hub for the spread of the practice in all directions.