And The Salmon-Fishing Of
Holland And Zealand Nearly Half That Sum.
The woollen manufactures of the Netherlands had, about the time that
Guicciardini wrote, been rivalled by those of England:
Yet he says, that,
though their wool was very coarse, above 12,000 pieces of cloth were made
at each of the following places; Amsterdam, Bois-le-duc, Delft, Haarlem,
and Leyden. Woollen manufactures were carried on also at other places,
besides taffeties and tapestries. Lisle is particularised by him as next in
commercial importance to Antwerp and Amsterdam. Bois-le-duc seems to have
been the seat of a great variety of manufactures; for besides woollen
cloth, 20,000 pieces of linen, worth, on an average, ten crowns each, were
annually made; and likewise great quantities of knives, fine pins, mercery,
&c. By the taking of Antwerp, the Spanish or Catholic Netherlands lost
their trade and manufactures, great part of which, as we have already
observed, settled in the United Provinces, while the remainder passed into
England and other foreign countries.
The destruction of the Hanseatic league, which benefited Amsterdam, seems
also to have been of service to the other northern provinces of the
Netherlands: for in 1510, we are informed by Meursius, in his History of
Denmark, there was at one time a fleet of 250 Dutch merchant ships in the
Baltic: if this be correct, the Dutch trade to the countries on this sea
must have been very great. The circumstance of the Dutch, even before their
revolt from Spain, carrying on a great trade, especially to the Baltic, is
confirmed by Guicciardini; according to him, about the year 1559, they
brought annually from Denmark, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, 60,000 lasts
of grain, chiefly rye, worth 560,000_l_. Flemish. They had above 800
ships from 200 to 700 tons burden: fleets of 300 ships arrived twice a year
from Dantzic and Livonia at Amsterdam, where there were often seeing lying
at the same time 500 vessels, most of them belonging to it. He mentions
Veer in Zealand (Campveer) as at that time being the staple port for all
the Scotch shipping, and owing its principal commerce to that circumstance.
The destruction of Antwerp brought to Amsterdam, along with other branches
of commerce, the valuable trade which the former city had with Portugal for
the produce and manufactures of India; these the Dutch merchants resold to
all the nations of the north. As soon, however, as Philip II. had obtained
possession of the throne of Portugal in 1580, he put a stop to all further
commerce between Lisbon and the Dutch. The latter, having tasted the sweets
of this commerce, resolved to attempt a direct trade to India. We have
already mentioned the voyages of Barentz in search of a north-east passage;
these proving unsuccessful, the Dutch began to despair of reaching India,
except by the Cape of Good Hope; and this voyage they were afraid to
undertake, having, at this time, neither experienced seamen nor persons
acquainted with Indian commerce. A circumstance, however, occurred while
Barentz was in search of a north-west passage, which determined them to
sail to India by the Cape. One Houlman, a Dutchman, who had been in the
Portuguese Indian service, but was then confined in Lisbon for debt,
proposed to the merchants of Rotterdam, if they could liberate him, to put
them in possession of all he knew respecting Indian commerce; his offer was
accepted, and four ships were sent to India in 1594 under his command. The
adventurers met with much opposition from the Portuguese in India, so that
their voyage was not very successful or lucrative: they returned, however,
in twenty-nine months with a small quantity of pepper from Java, where they
had formed a friendly communication with the natives. The arrival of the
Dutch in India, - the subjugation of Portugal by Spain, which circumstance
dispirited and weakened the Portuguese, and the greater attention which the
Spaniards were disposed to pay to their American than their Indian
commerce, seem to have been the causes which produced the ruin of the
Portuguese in India, and the establishment of the Dutch.
The Dutch pushed their new commerce with great vigour and zeal. In the year
1600 eight ships entered their ports laden with cinnamon, pepper, cloves,
nutmegs, and mace: the pepper they obtained at Java, the other spices at
the Moluccas, where they were permitted by the natives, who had driven out
the Portuguese, to establish factories.
In consequence of a wild and ruinous spirit of speculation having seized
the Dutch merchants, the government, in 1602, formed all the separate
companies who traded to India, into one; and granted to this extensive
sovereignty over all the establishments that might be formed in that part
of the world. Their charter was for twenty-one years: their capital was
6,600,000 guilders (or about 600,000_l_.) Amsterdam subscribed one
half of the capital, and selected twenty directors out of sixty, to whom
the whole management of the trade was entrusted.
From this period, the Dutch Indian commerce flourished extremely: and the
company, not content with having drawn away a large portion of the
Portuguese trade, resolved to expel them entirely from this part of the
world. Ships fitted, either to trade or to fight, and having on board a
great number of soldiers, were sent out within a very few years after the
establishment of the company. Amboyna and the Moluccas were first entirely
wrested from the Portuguese: factories and settlements were in process of
time established from Balsora, at the mouth of the Tigris in the Persian
Gulf; along the coasts and islands of India, as far as Japan. Alliances
were formed with many of the Indian princes: and in many parts,
particularly on the coasts of Ceylon, and at Pulicat, Masulipatam,
Negapatam, and other places along the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar,
they were themselves, in fact, the sovereigns. The centre of all their
Indian commerce was fixed at Batavia in Java, the greatest part of this
island belonging to them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 160 of 268
Words from 162619 to 163635
of 273188
