Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330458 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Essays in Economic & Business History (EEBH) [ISSN:] 2376-9459 [Volume:] 39 [Issue:] 1 [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 129-147
Publisher: 
Economic and Business History Society (EBHS), Rockford, MI
Abstract: 
In the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) traded sappanwood, a source of red dye for textiles, in both its Dutch-Asiatic and intra-Asian trade routes. The voyage and cargo records kept by the VOC's bookkeeper-general in Batavia reveal a small but convenient trade that complemented the Company's better-known dealings in spices and textiles. The VOC shipped Siamese and Indonesian sappanwood to the Dutch Republic and Asian markets regularly but in small quantities relative to other goods. Sappanwood was a useful ballast for VOC ships resulting in low-cost shipping for the commodity. In Europe, the VOC earned healthy margins by upplying a competitive red dyestuff to the continent's burgeoning textile industry. In Asia, sappanwood contributed to the VOC's intra-Asian trade system as a commodity useful in acquiring more lucrative goods, especially copper from Japan.
Subjects: 
Sappanwood
Dutch East India Company (VOC)
Bookkeeper-General Batavia
Dutch-Asiatic Trade
Intra-Asian Trade
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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