The Spice Wars (Part Six) – The DEIC

By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (December 31^st 2021)

Coveted and Controversial

Established in 1602 to prevent internal competition in the Spice Trade, the United East India Company (VOC), which is better known as the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) was controversial from the start. In fact, its legacy is despicable. Three years after its foundation the DEIC gained more than just a foothold in the lucrative Spice Trade. Agreements were made and broken, in principle at least.

Take the prized Banda Islands, for example. The sole supplier of the coveted spice, nutmeg, control of the islands was worth a fortune as the price of nutmeg was kept high. The Dutch merchants negotiated with the Banda Islanders who welcomed an extra bidder but had no wish to grant monopoly status to any bidder. The Portuguese had tried and failed, and the Dutch were ready to try. The Banda Islanders were about to learn a big lesson – their enemies’ enemy was not their friend. They served a purpose in 1600 and left with what they came for.

Further trips resulted in more of the coveted produce but complaints on both sides. The Dutch claimed that they were given lower measures than they paid for, and the Banda Islanders complained that the goods the Dutch used to trade with were poor quality goods and unwanted. Trade agreements were one thing but why would the Banda Islanders want a monopoly that allowed the Dutch to pay with produce they did not want, especially when they had rejected monopoly agreements with competitors who paid with far better produce and therefore a higher price.

The good relations with the Dutch in 1600 wore thin quickly, especially when the Dutch realised there was no chance of obtaining a monopoly on their terms of giving unwanted materials of lower value while expecting greater quantities of higher quality spices than competitors were offering.

Only subjugation by force would deliver monopoly on their terms.

The Early DEIC Governors

The Spice wars began in earnest in 1609. The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies was a representative of the DEIC, which wanted a monopoly of the Spice Trade even if that mean brutal massacres and more besides, but that was many years away. Interestingly, the first was appointed a year after the DEIC began its quest to seize control of the Spice Trade.

Pieter Both was the first Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He expanded the Dutch base to the Moluccas and Timor. He left in 1614 dying on his way back to the Netherlands. But before that the DEIC traded with India’s Mughal Empire in silks and textiles. This expanded into the Spice Trade.

Both was succeeded as Governor-General by Gerard Reijnst, but he did not last long either, dying in 1615. He initiated trade contacts with Arabs on route – dispatching a ship to the Red Sea to do so. The main journey to the East Indies took 18 months. Reijnst had been involved in the Spice Trace before working for the DEIC – companies that he had worked for previously had joined the DEIC by 1602.

Reijnst made little impact, but time was very short. His predecessor died on route back to the Netherlands and Reijnst would not last long after his arrival in the East Indies. He died of dysentery in December 1615. Reijnst was succeeded by Laurens Reael, who had worked his way up until a dispute with the Heeren 17 (Directors of the DEIC) in 1617 resulted in his resignation. Reael, a lawyer by training, objected to the treatment of English competitors in the Moluccas and indigenous peoples. Like Steven van der Hagen, Reael preferred a negotiated diplomatic solution. He argued his cause vociferously until he was replaced as Governor-General of the East Indies by Jan Pieterszoon Coen in March 1619.

Pieterszoon Coen was nothing like his predecessor and proved much more amenable to the aims of the Heren 17. It would prove to be a disastrous appointment for Indonesia and South Africa too.