The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

The first Dutch factory was established at Firando, but in the year 1641 it was removed to Nangasaki. The number of the Dutch ships, and the kind of merchandize which they imported, were then left entirely to the discretion of the parties; the merchandize was disposed of to the best advantage, and the returns consisted of such articles as were expected to yield the greatest profit. They were subject only to the municipal regulations of the country, without any further restraint or incumbrance whatever. The trade remained in this state till the year 1671. In the Dutch records of this period, the only complaints made against Japanese authority relate to restrictions laid upon them in matters of religion.

In the beginning the returns from Japan consisted of silver and copper; and the former being coined, was received according to the current value in that country, where the coins and weights went by the same name as in China, viz. katis, tahils, mas, and kandarins. Ten mas were worth a tahil, sixteen tahil a kati, and one hundred kati weighed one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and twenty-one, pounds Dutch, equal to a mark.

There were two sorts of silver, of which the fine was called zoma, and coarser bar-silver, generally distinguished by the Dutch under the terms of heavy and light money. This was at first carried to account at the rate of sixty-two stivers and a half per tahil, no difference being made in the books of that time between the two kinds; but in the year 1635, the common or bar-silver, was fixed at fifty-seven stivers the tahil. Both kinds, according to this regulation, were considered by the Dutch as calculated too high for an article of merchandize, and consequently were not much in demand in the western parts of India, to which it was at first sent by the Company.

The attention of the Dutch being, however, afterwards attracted to the trade in gold from Japan, orders were issued to the factors in the year 1640, requiring gold as a return, to the amount of from ten to twelve hundred thousand florins. These orders were executed with the best success; and a wish seems, on this occasion, to have been expressed by the factory, that Japan might, as formerly, be permitted to supply from one hundred to one hundred and fifty chests of gold kobangs, ubangs, and zebos. Gold and silver were, at this time, the principal articles in the returns from Japan. Their copper was not much in demand, probably because it was so little known in India or Europe; yet the directors, in their requisition for the year 1655, state the price of Japan copper having risen from thirty-six to forty-six florins per hundred pounds weight, and an order having been sent to Japan for twenty thousand pikuls of that metal, the same rendered great profit.

In 1644, requisitions were made from Surat for two thousand pikuls, from Coromandel for one thousand pikuls, and from Batavia for four thousand pikuls of copper; and in reply it is stated, that it would not be difficult to furnish the quantity required; that the Japan copper consisted of both sheet and bar copper, of which the former was purchased at twenty tahils the pikul, or twelve stivers (inferior silver) per pound, being twenty per cent. cheaper than European copper.

The gold, after being coined, was found a very profitable article, being purchased at a favourable rate. In the beginning the kobang was purchased for six tahil eight mas, and for six tahil seven mas; and, as appears from the books of 1669, 1670, and 1671, was within those years even purchased as low as five tahils six mas, and five tahils eight mas, from the great men of the country, or from merchants, according to circumstances. During two of these years, more than one hundred thousand kobangs were obtained, which rendered a profit of one million of florins.

In 1671, an edict was issued by the Japanese government, prohibiting the further exportation of silver; but the profit on the gold being so considerable, the restriction on the exportation of silver was a matter of indifference to the Dutch, who still were enabled to obtain their returns in the more profitable articles of gold and copper.

The exchange of the kobang was now fixed by the Japanese government at sixty-eight mas; and the free and unrestricted trade which the Dutch had hitherto enjoyed, was subjected to an arbitrary valuation of the import cargoes, and limited first with respect to the articles of merchandize, and afterwards with respect to its extent.

The loss of the island of Formosa in 1661, is supposed to have given the first shock to the credit of the Dutch at Japan. Not long after that event they experienced many instances of opposition, and several prejudicial alterations in the trade.

"They (the Japanese) were consequently," observes Mr. Imhoff, in his Memoir on the Japan Trade, "no longer under any apprehension of being annoyed by us, while, if we had remained in possession of Formosa, we were and might have continued masters of the navigation and trade between China and Japan. In that opinion I am still further confirmed, when I consider, in the first instance, that the prejudicial change with respect to our situation at Japan, although it took place only several years after the loss of Formosa, had been already in agitation some time before; and, secondly, that notwithstanding the confidence of the Japanese in their own superiority, which they always evinced, that arrogance did not conceal altogether a certain fear of us, very evident from their great precautions. This fear has, however, since decreased, and if we may trust to the records, has frequently been succeeded by brutality.[285] It is an undeniable truth, that if a nation renders itself respected and formidable it will flourish, and that otherwise it is but little esteemed."