The Far East Trade Of The Dutch East India Company In 17^th Century

From the 17^th century, the Dutch came to China and built the Europe-Asia trade and Far East Trade. With its advanced navigation technology and flexible trade made, the Dutch East India Company has successfully established its role in Asian market. In Asia, the Dutch East India Company has built a broad trade network in which Batavia (Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia) was the center. During the whole trade development process of the Dutch East India Company, Batavia has made different and important significance to the development of this company during every period. Therefore, this paper will discuss the different functions of Batavia being the transporting center of the company from the perspective of the trade development of this company during every period in the 17^th century. The first part mainly discusses the establishment of Far East Trade network of the Dutch East India Company at the beginning of the 17^th century. This part mainly discusses the purposes and significances of Dutch establishing the Dutch East India Company in the early years. In the discussion, the reasons why Batavia became the center of Far East Trade of the company, what significances it has made and how the company established the Far East Trade network with Batavia as the center have been comprehensively analyzed,The second part focuses on the colonial trade of the Dutch East Indian Company with Taiwan-Batavia being the main route. From 1620s to 1660s, in many trade networks with Batavia being the center, the trade route of Taiwan-Batavia was the lifeline of the Dutch East India Company. Therefore, this part mainly discusses how the Dutch East India Company developed the Far East Trade of Taiwan-Batavia. In addition, the research of the cane sugar trade between Taiwan and Batavia discloses the transition tendency from the early speculative trade to colonization trade of the Dutch East India Company.The third part mainly discusses the trade between the Company and China mainland. Besides the trade route of Taiwan-Batavia, the route between China and Batavia was very important for the Dutch East India Company all the time. This paper will discuss the sailboat trade between China and Batavia according to four different periods. It deeply describes the commodities varieties and trade features of the Dutch East India Company and China in every period, the close relationship between China and Dutch, and the profound influences this relationship has made to the development of the Dutch East India Company.The fourth part focuses on the trade of precious metal goods between the Company and Japan from the 17^th century to early 18^th century. Replacing the outflow of domestic funds by Asian precious metal is the development advantage of the Dutch East India Company in Far East Trade. Thus, this part put emphasis on the Japan-Dutch trade represented by gold, silver and copper. Through classified discussion of the trade quantity, the flow and the development changes of the three categories of commodities, the development context of the Dutch East India Company has been revealed in full body.The fifth part, taking Thailand and Myanmar as the typical example, focuses on the colonial trade with other countries besides the main routes of Far East Trade network. Besides the important trade routes, the trade between the Dutch East India Company and some other countries can not also be ignored. Therefore, this paper will take the trade between the company and Thailand, Myanmar as the representative and simply discuss their short-term trade so as to enhance the comprehensiveness and completeness of the research on the Dutch East India Company in the 17^th century.The sixth part mainly analyzes the reasons of the declination of the Dutch East India Company. The declination can be analyzed in three aspects. Firstly, in the late 18^th century, the Company's old patterns of trade hindered its adaptation to the new international situations. Secondly, too much cost of the Company hindered its development, which mainly reflected in the company's too large military spending and complex internal staff. Thirdly, the Company's bubble-style development model, the impact of trade of private companies and the Company's colonial strengthening system to Asian colony accelerated the decline of the Dutch East India Company. These three reasons demonstrated negative effects which brought by the Company's internal management mechanism corruption.This paper highlights the center status of Batavia, and studies the Far East Trade of the Dutch East India Company in the 17^th century. From the perspective of trade center, the study links up the important trade route at every stage and comprehensively discussed the Far East Trade of the Company in an overall perspective, which changes the research perspective of trade relations by Chinese scholars in the past, strengthens the comprehensive understanding of the Company's Far East Trade in the 17^th and furnishes the historical data for further researching the Dutch East India Company and the process of exploring global economy by capitalism in early stages.