Rivalry and conflict : European traders and Asian trading networks in the 16th and 17th centuries (original) (raw)
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The aim of this article is to reassess the nature of the Luso-Dutch relationship in Siam during the seventeenth century. Analysing Dutch sources exclusively allows one to be aware of important key-features of Dutch perception, and to obtain an image of the Portuguese presence in the region. With those methodological tools, the official version of bitter rivalry expressed in Portuguese sources can be questioned. Was the Dutch-Portuguese relationship defined by rivalry or was there space for partnership? Siam (modern Thailand) was an independent kingdom which had never been occupied by the Portuguese or by the Dutch, being for that same reason an ideal field of study. In addition, the interaction between Siamese local powers and Europeans in solving conflicts that resulted from Dutch-Portuguese rivalry is another aspect to be taken into account. The Dutch-Portuguese rivalry will be disassembled here, and each part analysed separately. The cooperative moments between the two people disclosed by Dutch sources will have special coverage, as they present us with a renewed perspective of the Luso-Dutch relationship. Finally, through the case study of the bandel de Sião (the Portuguese settlement in Ayutthaya) it will be shown how essential Dutch archival material can be for a study of the Portuguese presence in mainland Southeast Asia. Key-words Siam; Ayutthaya; VOC; bandel de Sião; Dutch-Portuguese rivalry; partnership; perception;
2015
"This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas. Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful. Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers. This book will be released for sale in Australasia and Europe in June 2014 and available in the Americas after September 2014 """"
Resistance, Opposition and Accommodation to the Portuguese in Sixteenth-Century Asia
Resistance in the Iberian Worlds from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century: Dissent and Disobedience from Within, 2024
The arrival of the Portuguese in India at the end of the fifteenth century posed a formidable challenge to the political powers and the trading guilds, networks and communities in Asia. The newcomers were armed with a fearsome naval power and had a great ability to adapt to the different realities of the Indian Ocean. They built their empire on the combined use of war and diplomacy, taking advantage of this diversity. However, their dominance over maritime Asia was very limited, both in space and in time, contrary to what has been postulated by both European colonial and post-colonial historiographies. Examining the Asian responses to this challenge—which ranged from hostility to welcome, according to the different social, political and economic contexts—allows us to better understand Asia in the Early Modern Age and the diverse and complex interactions of resistance, opposition and accommodation to the Portuguese Empire.
The Economic Relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth Century
The Hikayat aceH famously records how emissaries from the 'Sultan of Rum' came to the court of Iskandar Muda (r. 1607-36) in search of camphor and oil. 1 In reality, the seventeenth century is a period of obscurity in our knowledge of Ottoman-Southeast Asian relations. In contrast to the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, no Ottoman archival records mentioning Southeast Asia have come to light, and the Hikayat Aceh's tale of Ottoman ambassadors most likely reflects a memory of the sixteenth-century relationship rather than any realities of Iskandar Muda's reign. To date the only aspect of the seventeenth-century relationship which has received detailed attention is the religious connection, through the Southeast Asians who came to the Hijaz and studied with Ottoman scholars such as Ibrahim Kurani. 2 Yet, as this essay will argue, even if there were no direct political connections between the two sides in this period, economic relations, the origins of which dated back to long before the Ottoman political and military involvement in Southeast Asia, also survived its end. Their story in the sixteenth century is well enough known in outline: Portuguese attempts to monopolise the spice trade were broadly unsuccessful, and by the mid-sixteenth century, as Boxer showed, the Acehnese trade with the Ottoman lands through the Red Sea had in fact surpassed levels before the Portuguese intervention. 3 Research 1
A Mamluk-Venetian Memorandum on Asian Trade, AD 1503, JRAS 2022
https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S1356186321000535, 2022
This article presents and discusses a source of unique importance for our knowledge of early modern global exchanges. Produced in 1503 by the Egyptian administration and found among the records of a Venetian company with global commercial interests, the document records hitherto unknown connections between the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, followed by cargo figures. By sending the Memorandum to the head office in Venice, the Company's agents in Egypt were labouring to solve the most important concern of Venice's information network, that of coordinating Indian with Mediterranean trading seasons. By analysing the document's context, namely, a company involved in the export of central European metals to Asia, this article focuses on the capacity of its agents to gather information through collaboration, networking and ultimately, friendship with Muslim partners and informers. The story of the 1503 Memorandum and its transmission raises questions about the mixed networks underpinning global exchanges, the role of information and the drive of the late Mamluk sultanate into the world of the Indian Ocean.