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ASIAN TRADE
AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
IN THE INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO
BETWEEN 1500 AND ABOUT 1630
BY
M. A. P. MEILINK-ROELOFSZ
•
THE HAGUE
MARTINUS NIJHOFF
1962
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PREFACE
Now that this study is completed and I wish to make due acknowledgment to all those who have in any degree contributed towards its
realization, my thoughts turn in the first place to the one to whom
this book is dedicated. It is a great grief to me that he who took such
an intense interest in my work has not lived to see its conclusion. It
was he who in the beginning urged me to venture upon this course
of study and whose encouragement helped me in moments of despondency. The high standard which, with his keen and critical
judgment, he set for his own work, was an example to me, and I shall
strive to maintain it in my future studies.
Not only did he help me to lay the foundation of my knowledge of
archive science, but he was also my guide in a field new to me in many
respects, that of Asian maritime trade. His wide knowledge of medieval
European trade in the Baltic area led me to compare and contrast
the two worlds of East and West and thus helped me to obtain a
deeper insight into the differences and similarities between the various
problems involved.
I am greatly indebted to Prof. Dr. J. M. Romein, who has followed
the progress of my studies with great interest all these years, and
on whose help and support, sometimes in very difficult circumstances,
I have always been able to rely. His unceasing encouragement,
his frequent good advice, and his critical judgment have been of
exceptional value to me. For all this, I tender him my warmest
thanks.
Besides Prof. Romein, I would make special mention of Prof. Dr.
W. F. Wertheim, whose critical comments and extensive knowledge
of the relevant literature have been of much assistance to me. I am
also indebted to Prof. Dr. J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw and to Prof.
Dr. T. S. Jansma, who have spared no pains to help me in the completion of my task.
VIII
r must
PREFACE
also express my appreciation of the kindness shown by
Prof. C. R. Boxer of London University (King's College) in reading
and criticizing the Dutch text of my thesis. His wide knowledge of
the Portuguese period in Asia has been of much benefit to me.
r am very grateful to Mrs. M. B. Quast for undertaking the arduous
task of translating the lengthy Dutch manuscript into English, and
to Mr. D. A. S. Reid and Prof. Dr. P . N. U. Harting for checking the
translation.
My sincere thanks are due to Miss J. Felhoen Kraal, who, when
the correction of the proofs was threatened with unforeseen delay,
spontaneously gave her help. Miss A. P . M. Mollema must be especially
mentioned among those who helped me in compiling the index: her
sound advice has been of the greatest value to me.
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CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
I. Trade and Traffic in the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay
Peninsula prior to the 15th century
II. The Rise of Malacca
VII
I
13
27
III. Malacca at the end of the 15th century. Structure of trade. Trade
and traders in Malaccan society
36
IV. The commercial traffic of Malacca at the end of the 15th century:
its bearing and density
60
V. Trade in the Indonesian Archipelago not centred exclusively on
Malacca: (I) The Sumatran ports 89 - (2) The spice-producing
areas: the Moluccas and Banda 93 - (3) Trade in Borneo, Celebes and
the Lesser Sunda Islands 100 - (4) The Javanese seaports 103
89
VI. The influence of Portuguese expansion on Asian trade
116
VII. Portuguese Malacca and native trade in the Malay-Indonesian area
136
VIII. The coming of the northern Europeans to the Malay-Indonesian
area. Inter-European conflicts and Asian trade
173
IX. The spice monopoly of the United Company and Asian trade in the
Malay-Indonesian area
207
X. The United Company monopoly and the foreign Asian merchant
in Indonesia at the beginning of the 17th century
239
XI. The United Company monopoly and the spice trade of the towns
of Northern Java
269
Summary
295
Sources consulted in manuscript
303
Bibliography
304
Notes
328
List of Abbreviations
407
Index
409
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INTRODUCTION
The extremely important propositions about the commercial traffic of
the Indonesian Archipelago advanced by B. Schrieke in The Shifts lin
Political and Economic power in the Indonesian Archipelago in the
sixteenth and seventeenth century and by J. C. van Leur in Indonesian
Trade and Society 1 inspired the present author to undertake the
research which led to the writing of this book. Both Schrieke and Van
Leur, however, started from sociological premisses. To supplement their
work and to form a basis for comparison, an account is given here of the
historical development of this trade, seen from a historical instead of
from a sociological standpoint. This was made possible by new sources
of information becoming available to augment those already at hand.
In the main, therefore, this book is a comparative study of the position
of native trade in Indonesia before and after the coming of the Europeans, the central theme being, of course, the appearance of foreign
traders, both Asian and European, in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago. A completely integrated picture proved to be an unattainable
ideal, owing to the nature of the sources of information. Besides
referring to previously published sources, we also drew on original
documents in the Dutch East India Company records, a desirable if not
an essential procedure and one which neither Schrieke nor Van Leur
was in a position to follow. Portuguese, English, and a few native
sources were also consulted, in so far as the latter were available in
translation.
Thanks to the great interest displayed by the Portuguese on their
first contact with this strange new world of the East Indies - the most
valuable expression of this interest being Tome Pires' Suma Oriental
- it has been possible to compile quite an accurate and comprehensive
account of trade in the Malay-Indonesian region during the early
period, that is to say just before the coming of the Europeans. But,
later on, too many matters were assumed to be common knowledge for
the Europeans to enlarge upon them. This circumstance determined
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INTRODUCTION
the structure of the present work, which falls into two distinct parts.
But even when dealing with the period in which the stress shifts once
more to the European element, we have avoided, as far as possible,
considering this European expansion from a European point of view
and have, instead, attempted to ascertain its impact on Asian trade.
Particular attention will be devoted to the destruction of the spice
trade, which was the most important branch of independent Asian
trade in the Malay-Indonesian area, and to the repercussions this had
on the economy of the Spice Islands, the seaports of northern Java,
Bantam, and the ports of eastern Sumatra. The part played by conflicting European views and policies in the survival of independent
Asian trade will also be demonstrated.
While the present research confirmed in part the results of the
studies made by Schrieke and Van Leur - also in respect of a period
earlier than that which they dealt with in detail - it nevertheless
became apparent that, in particular, Van Leur's sometimes very
antithetically postulated theses required rectification. Professor
Wertheim has justifiably drawn attention both at home and abroad to
Van Leur's studies,2 and several scholars have already written about
the value of Van Leur's work. 3 Romein supported Wertheim's largely
laudatory opinion4 while pointing out some shortcomings in the
studies,5 but Locher, Boxer and Coolhaas subjected them to harsher
criticism. 6 Perhaps Coolhaas based his criticism too much on one work
about the I8th century? in which Van Leur's findings, according to
Coolhaas, were insufficiently documented. For that matter, most of
the documents relating to that period are still unpublished, in contrast
to the position with respect to the first half of the I7th century, about
which a large number of published documents were at Van Leur's
disposal. The study relating to the I8th century is said to demonstrate
the same defects as attached to Van Leur's treatment ofthe Portuguese
period,S in respect of which he was certainly not properly documented.
Whatever esteem he may feel for Van Leur, Professor Boxer has already
pointed this out in several of his publications. 9
When.Van Leur wrote his doctor's thesis in I933-I934, he apparently
lacked the time to consult the Portuguese sources, although he certainly realized the value of doing SO.10 His original intention was to give a
sketch of a I6th century Indonesian shipping port and to compare its
development with the growth of a west European trading town in the
Middle Ages. l1 He may have been inspired to do this by several
historical studies of towns which were written from an economic point
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3
of view at the beginning of the 20th century. But he must soon have
realized that it was impossible because of a lack of suitable material.
The sources which he did have at his disposal mainly supplied data
about the business of the Company in the first half of the 17th century.
It was difficult enough to extract adequate information from these
documents about the trade of the Asians themselves, in fact this was
only possible after prolonged research among widely dispersed and
sometimes q:uite fortuitous data. But it was really only the European
sources whi.ch qualified as material for this study as the economic
element does not play an important part in such native sources as
exist at all in accessible form, so that we are entirely dependent on
what the Europeans had to say about the trade and industry of the
peoples with whom they came into contact. There can be no question of
a study based on precise statistical data. The person who enters this
territory lacks practically all the aids which an economic historian has
at his disposal where European history is concerned and, to quote a
somewhat austere pronouncement by Professor C. H. Philips, he is
carrying on "single-handed a guerilla warfare in the jungle." 12 Van
Leur did not eschew this struggle and thanks to his great originality
and the wide extent of his reading, he was still able to achieve remarkable results which have already proved extraordinarily fruitful.
At a time when the historical scene in Indonesia was still entirely
dominated by the colonial point of view and Indonesia was regarded
quite simply as the Dutch East Indies,13 he had the inspiration of
allowing his vision to swing the full half circle from the European to the
Indonesian angle. That at approximately the same time and independently of him others also took up the same position 14 in no way
detracts from his merit. For a better understanding of the native
backgrounds against which Company business was enacted, we have to
go back to the colonial historians of the 19th century. Although they
themselves were probably largely unaware of it, historians like De
J onge and Van der Chijs were still being influenced by the ideas of
Enlightenment, which held that non-Europeans also had a part to play
in world events. In 1864, in his description of De opkomst van het
Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indie (The Rise of Dutch Authority
in the East Indies), De J onge interpolates a comprehensive sketch
of the Asian peoples, including an account of their shipping trade
before the advent of the Europeans.15 For the rest he wisely confines
himself to Company business, but also emphasizes this quite definitely
in the title of his work. As late as the middle eighties of the last
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4
INTRODUCTION
century, when describing the struggle between the Company and
the Bandanese, Van der Chijs tried to show some understanding of the
Company's Asian opponents.1 6
In this connection mention may also be made of Van Limburg
Brouwer, who was fascinated by the Asian philosophers and Asian
religions and whose novel Akbar is still worth reading. He was a
civil servant employed in the General State Archives in The Hague and
in the course of his work made hundreds of extracts from documents
in the Company records. I? His abstracts do full justice to the Asian
element and his regrettably scanty annotations throw more light on
the Asian side of things than on Company business proper. But in the
late 19th, early 20th century when Dutch authority appeared to be so
firmly established in Indonesia, the influential colonial historians, of
whom Stapel and Gerretson must be considered extreme examples,
were not concerned at all with the Asian side of things. The former was
by no means an out-and-out conservative but he was completely
caught up in Company concerns. His work in this field is certainly of
inestimable value, including his editing of the description of the
Dutch East India Company by the Company lawyer, Pieter van Dam.
But he was handicapped in writing his actual historical studies on
Indonesia because he looked at everything from a much too exclusively
European point of view,18 as is particularly apparent in his treatment
of the Company's conflict with Macassar.
Two world wars brought European ascendancy in Asia to an end.
In Van Leur's works, which were written before the second world war,
one of the first symptoms of a new trend in world history can be seen,
namely the decline of European influence in Asia. 19
In addition to Van Leur's change from the Eurocentric to the
Indocentric viewpoint, and closely connected with it, was the important fact that Indonesia - which had become isolated from her
Asian environment because of Dutch colonial historiography - began
once more to playa part in the history of southeast Asia, although Van
Leur nevertheless still underestimated the influence of that Asian
environment on Indonesia.
Van Leur's views on Indonesia and Asian trade owe a great deal
to Schrieke, and the studies of the English economic historian W. H.
Moreland on India 20 must have provided him with many important
ideas. Schrieke was the first to make a general survey of native trade
in Indonesia. 21 He, too, drew exclusively on previously published
sources dating from the early days of the Company. These Prole-
INTRODUCTION
5
gomena were intended as a preparatory study for his real objective,
a sociological study of the peoples of Sumatra. The nature of his subject
meant that the influence of Europeans and foreign Asians on trade in
Indonesia fell largely outside his province, even though he did devote a
lot of attention to the problem of the Islamization of the archipelago.
If, therefore, Schrieke's studies were of great value to Van Leur and if
the latter derived much from them, he, in his turn, must have had an
influence on Schrieke's later work.
The studies of Max Weber 22 were of great importance for the
formation of Van Leur's sociological views. By applying to Indonesian
societies the method Weber had used for characterizing Indian and
Chinese societies, Van Leur had at his disposal a working method
which was ideal for dealing with the material in question and which
certainly provided him with a deeper insight into the structure of
. native society. But he could not completely avoid the danger associated
with this method, namely that of regarding the concept of a "type" too
much as a representation of reality and too little as a hypothesis which
still has to be verified by that reality. In particular, his overemphasis
on the peddling character of Asian shipping trade does less than justice
to the richly variegated trade which will be described later with special
reference to the commercial town of Malacca. Moreover, the great stress
he lays on the peddling - that is to say, rather primitive - character of
Asian commerce,23 brings Van Leur into conflict with one of his own
most important theses, namely, that up to the beginning of the 19th
century, Asian and European trade were on an equal footing in Asia.
Another objection to the term "peddling trade" is that it has to include
not only the real pedlars, the hawkers of merchandise of little value,
but also the dealers in luxury articles, merchants who were very well
provided with capital, while it leaves out altogether the carriage of
bulk cargoes which, as we shall see, was just as important a branch of
trade in Asia and one in which both travelling and established
merchants were engaged. There can be no doubt that, on the one hand,
Van Leur attaches too much value to the luxurious nature of the Asian
merchants' wares 24 while, on the other hand, he underestimates the
status of the merchants themselves.
In describing Asian maritime trade at the end of the 16th century,
Van Leur contrasts it sharply with the world trade carried on by
Europeans in the 19th century,25 a comparison which makes it difficult
to form an accurate appraisal, by the standards of the time, of the
nature and density of this 16th and early 17th century Asian com-