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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
The organization of the Dutch Wast India Company (Verenigde Oostinische Compagnie, VOC) is in many respects comparable with the government bureaucracies of the 17th and 18th century. Like the officials in the administration of the state, the servants of the Company used their position to enrich themselves in a way that nowadays would be called corrupt. But it has been stressed that it would be incorrect to apply modern moral standards on the bureaucracy of the ancien regime. It is in fact impossible to draw a sharp line between what was allowed to the Company's servants overseas and what was forbidden to them. The directors or bewindhebbers of the VOC themselves were not very consistent in these matters. On the one hand, they appointed members of their families and their clients to honourable positions in order to provide them with a moderate salary and a well-spread “free” table during their stay in Asia. On the other hand, the directors tried to keep the monopoly of the VOC intact, which meant that no other Dutch merchants, not even Company's officials, were allowed to carry any trade in Asia on their own account.
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6. In Asia the Gouverneur Ceneraal en Raden (together the Raad van Indië, Council of the Indies) in Batavia formed the highest authority of the VOC; this body was also called the Hoge Regering (High Government). In the several factories, there was a Politieke Raad, in which a Gouverneur or sometimes a Directeur was the first person.
7. Research has been started in Sept. 1985 by a group of students at the Leiden University: Marijke v. Alkemade, J.Chr. v.d. Berg, T. Corbeth, F. v. Deijk, Ingrid Dillo, E. Gödde, Miryam van Goyen, P. de Gruijl, F. van Loenen, V. Loth, W. Lutgert, Ilona Mens, J. Moerman, R. Raben, R. Tummers, M. Vink and Th. v. Zanden. Some results of their work could be used for this article.
8. VOC, 154, res. Heren XVII, 30 III 1688. See also Chijs, J.A. van der, Nederlandsch-lndisch Plakaatboek, vol. III (Batavia18)Google Scholar, and Dam, P. van, Beschryvinge, derde boek, pp. 136–142.Google Scholar
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16. VOC 828, Personal index on the res. of G.G. and R. (about Van Ceulen en Bogaard).
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24. VOC 1818, Overkomen Brieven 1713, Letter of Boudaen to Heren XVII, 12 XII 1712.
25. This value of the bills of exchange is calculated from the data that are given by the letters of the Governor General and Councillors (the “Generale missiven”) during the time that Van Straaten was in Asia. See also Valentijn, Oud- en Nieuw Oostindien, IV.
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