The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

The decline of the trade seems not at first to have been much attended to. "Whether the Japanese," says the same writer, "at that period obtained advice of the advantages we derived from the trade, or that the bad conduct of our servants gave occasion to further restrictions which succeeded each other, we do not know, yet it is undeniable, that first in the year 1685 our trade was limited to three hundred thousand tahils, of which two-thirds were to consist of piece goods and weighable articles, and the other third of silks. This was confirmed in 1689, and we were allowed to export only twenty-five thousand pikuls of copper, whereas our exports of that article formerly had been regulated according to our requisition. In the year 1700, the number of our ships was limited to four or five, in lieu of six or seven as were formerly sent, according to circumstances."

The profits of the trade at this period would yet have deserved attention had not a change in the current coin rendered the year 1700 still more disadvantageous. In 1692 and 1693 and afterwards, rich cargoes were sent to Japan which returned considerable profits, and the funds were again laid out in copper, as far as thirty thousand chests or pikuls. The new stipulation of twenty-five thousand chests was of little importance with the Dutch, who knew how, as they confess, to obtain by bribes from the governors and their servants a still further quantity. In the year 1685, the system of receiving the Dutch merchandize by valuation was discontinued; and although it was introduced again in the year 1698, it was once more abolished in the following year.

Various causes are assigned for the change in the current coin which took place about this period; but whether, as was supposed by the Dutch, the knowledge of the Dutch profits upon the kobang opened the eyes of the Japanese, or that their long intercourse with Europeans rendered them more attentive to their own interest, or that the Chinese, who are known to be very expert in the art of coining, proposed that measure to them, or that the easy compliance of the Dutch in all former instances, and while they issued the most injurious orders against their commerce, made them believe that they might purchase their friendship at a cheaper rate than hitherto, or, as seems most probable, it was principally occasioned by other and more weighty causes not yet discovered, it is certain that in the year 1696 appeared, for the first time, a new kind of kobang, of one-third less in value than the old, although tendered to and received by the Dutch at the same rate. Here then was said to commence the iron age.

The new kobang was assayed at thirteen carats six or seven grains, while the old kobang was twenty carats eight and a half, nine, or even ten grains; yet the Dutch were obliged to receive the former at the rate of sixty-eight mas like the old, which weighed thirty-one stivers, and making a difference upon one thousand of seventy-two marks. The old kobang rendered a profit of twenty-five per cent., but the new produced a loss of fifteen or sixteen per cent. on the coast of Coromandel, where it was recoined. Some of the old kobangs being however estimated at the same rate with the new, the Dutch still continued to derive some profits from the gold, until the introduction of a third kind of kobang, denominated the small kobangs, took place.

In 1710 the Japanese resorted to this further change in the coin, by reducing the weight of the kobang nearly one half, the value being twenty-five kanderins, while that of the former was no less than forty-seven kanderins. This caused a loss of from thirty-four to thirty-six per cent., the Dutch being obliged to receive the same at the rate of sixty-eight mas; the former kobangs, of inferior alloy only, were in consequence still preferable. From 1710 to 1720, both sorts were in circulation; but the repeated complaints of the Dutch were at last, in 1720, so far attended to, that the old kobangs, of the same alloy and weight, were again introduced. The latter, however, were called double kobangs, and they were charged in the Dutch accounts at thirteen tahils six mas, which was twice as much as in former times, so that they became still less profitable than the small kobangs, of which two thousand weighed seventy-six marks, while one thousand of the old coin only weighed seventy-two marks, and would consequently, when received in lieu of two small kobangs, have produced a loss of thirty-seven seven-eights per cent.

When an attempt was made, in 1714, to oblige the Dutch to receive the small kobang at the same rate as the old, the exportation of copper was limited to fifteen thousand chests, as was the number of ships to two or three, according to the quantity of copper in store.

A fourth kind of kobang was introduced in 1730, about five per cent. better than the third or small kobang, but the trade continued rapidly to decline until the year 1744.

The loss of many valuable ships and cargoes,[286] a reduction in the selling price of the articles of merchandize which they imported, and an increase of charges attending the visits to the Imperial Court, and the maintenance of their establishment in Japan, contributed to render this period particularly disadvantageous to the Dutch trade. Their submissive conduct at the Emperor's Court was of no avail, nor did their presents of horses, dogs, and other curiosities, produce any better effect. There was no longer any possibility of exporting kobangs, as in former times, for the balance of their accounts. The quantity of copper which they were allowed to export annually had been fixed in 1721 at ten thousand chests, yet even that quantity they were unable to obtain in 1743, so that, together with the high exchange of the tahils, their establishment in Japan now actually subjected them to a loss, and it was accordingly proposed at this period that it should be abandoned, unless some favourable change could be effected.

The charges had considerably increased during the last year. The cargoes were of less value and of an inferior quality, so that their profits were reduced to less than one quarter of what they had been: their expences on account of the Japan trade were at the same time two hundred thousand florins annually. During the last thirty years their profits amounted to five hundred thousand, and for some years to six hundred thousand, but latterly not to two hundred thousand florins per annum.

Thus, to sum up the disasters of this trade, after having been allowed to remain free and unrestrained for a period of sixty years, the cargoes in the year 1672 were subjected to an arbitrary valuation, and about the same time the exchange of the kobang was altered. A tax was laid upon the cargoes in 1685, and further increased in 1689. In 1698 the new kobang was introduced: in 1700 they were limited to four ships annually: in 1710 an exchange still more disadvantageous was fixed: in 1714 their exportation was reduced to fifteen thousand pikuls of copper; in 1717 an order was issued, limiting the trade to two ships only: in 1710 the third, and in 1730 the fourth sort of kobangs were introduced: and in 1743 the Dutch were limited to one ship and to one-half of the cargo.