The Commercial Expansion Of Dutch East India Company In East Asia Sea In 17th Century

It was in the late 16th century that Dutch was provided with the ability and advantage to trade on long voyage. The fishery and shipping industry laid the foundation for the Dutch maritime trade. The shipbuilding industry supplied Dutch with the sufficient and the superior ships. Exploring the sea and drawing the navigation knowledge from the nations to the east let Dutch was not in fear of the remote sea. In addition, after getting rid of the domination from Spain, Dutch attracted a large amount of human and financial resources.The exterior stimulation made the Dutch get the motivation to the east. On one hand, the blockade of Spain urged Dutch to open up the new commercial seaborne route. On the other hand, the huge profit fascinated Dutch to the east. The first successful flight of Dutch to the east testified it workable to the east. Then multiple of Dutch companies dispatch ships to the east. However, the radical rivalry among the companies made the defects of the early Dutch companies come to be obvious. Eventually, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) came into being on the merging of the above companies.In East Asia Sea, VOC formed the different types between the nations. In terms of the geographic space, this paper divides the commercial expansion of VOC into four parts:Southeast Asia islands area, Southeast Asia peninsular area, China and Japan. In the Southeast Asia island area, VOC controlled lots of insular nations and developed into monopoly. In the Southeast Asia peninsular area, VOC formed the similar equality with the nations in business. In the China coast, VOC attempted to get the stronghold many times. In the end, Dutch carried on the trade according to China government. In Japan, VOC abided by the strict principle made by Tokugawa Shogunate as well.In the 16th century, Portugal and Spain established their commercial network in the East Asia Sea. For getting the favorable commercial and strategic post, VOC unfolded the fierce fights between Portuguese and Spanish in East Asia Sea. Portuguese lost a range of ports in East Asia Sea under the competition with Dutch, which also destroyed the commercial network of Portugal.Meanwhile, the Spanish commercial network got be intruded by VOC. Apart from the Portugal and Spain, England was the competitor which VOC was faced with. Compared with VOC, Britain East India Company (EIC) was inferior to VOC in many ways. There is no doubt that VOC became the most powerful west commercial power in east Asia sea in 17th century.In the East Asia Sea, Chinese, Japanese and Indian marine merchants were the most influential. Chinese merchants were the strong competitor against VOC no matter which was in the China sea or Japan sea, but were constricted in Indonesian sea by VOC. Japanese merchants were active in the early thirty years of 17th century. Whereas, Japanese merchants were forced to terminate the competition with VOC when the Tokugawa Shogunate changed its sea policy. As an important participant, although the Indian merchants were restricted by VOC, who were still the important commercial power in East Asia Sea.Not only did VOC’s commercial expansion in East Asia Sea have an impact on the economy, but also on the culture and politics. In the aspect of economy, VOC became the communicator between the Eurasian Sea, Asian Sea and European Sea. In the aspect of culture, VOC was broker between the east and west, which brought the east culture to Europe and infused the west culture to the east. In the aspect of politics, VOC laid the basis for the Dutch East Indian Empire on the territory and institution, which turned to be the shaper of empire.This paper traces back to the commercial expansion of VOC in the 17th century, aiming to clarify the relationship between the VOC and the local power, the old western commercial power of East Asia Sea. By revealing the vicissitude of commercial power in East Asia Sea, this paper summarizes the VOC’s influence from the perspective of economy, culture and politics.This paper holds the idea that the commercial relationship between VOC and the locality depends on the political type. The commercial involvement of VOC in the East Asia Sea was the key point that resulted in the decline of Portugal and Spain. VOC took the absolute advantage over the EIC in the same age. In addition, VOC was in the worse situation in competition with the local commercial power in many cases and imposed restriction on the local commercial power. And the influence of VOC’s commercial expansion went beyond the aspect of economy.