Treaty of 1650 on Perak Tin

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tagsdocument, treaty, diplomacy, trade, colonial, aceh, dutch, achehnese, malay
aliasesPerak tin treaty 1650, Aceh-Perak agreement 1650, tin trade treaty, Verdrag van Atjeh-Perak 15 augustus 1650, Tinhandel-Perak verdrag 1650, Tractaat van 15 augustus 1650

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The Treaty of 1650 on Perak Tin was an agreement signed on 15 August 1650 between Tajul-alam, the “Sultane of Aceh,” and the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which opened the tin trade of Perak exclusively to Acehnese and Dutch merchants, effectively shutting out all other competitors. It was part of the VOC’s broader strategy to monopolize the tin trade on the Malay Peninsula.

Background

Tin from Perak was highly sought after by Indian and European merchants. Prior to 1650, Portuguese and other Asian traders had been able to obtain tin from Perak via Acehnese ports. After the VOC’s conquest of Malakka, the Company sought to control this trade more tightly. Tajul-alam, who had already granted trade concessions in 1641 and 1649, was now persuaded to agree to this exclusive arrangement.

Provisions

The treaty stipulated that:

  • Tin from Perak could only be exported by Acehnese and Dutch merchants.
  • All other European and Asian traders were forbidden from trading in Perak tin.
  • This effectively gave the VOC a monopoly over the tin trade in the region, as Acehnese merchants were likely to sell to the Dutch.

Consequences

The treaty was a major success for the VOC’s commercial policy. It secured a steady supply of tin for the Company’s markets in India and Europe and reduced competition from Portuguese and other rivals. It also further integrated Aceh into the VOC’s trading network, though Aceh retained its autonomy.

Account from Stapel’s De Koloniën (1931)

The Treaty of Atjeh-Perak of 15 August 1650 was the agreement by which the sultane of Atjeh bound herself to open the tin trade of Perak — which stood under her suzerainty — only to Atjehers and to Netherlanders. Recorded in Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland as the commercial climax of the Truytman embassy of 1649 and the immediate diplomatic precondition for the Compagnie’s half-century monopoly over Perak tin.

Background

The tin of the Tin Quartiers — Perak, Kedah (Queda), Oedjong Salang — had long flowed “mostly via Perak, which stood under Atjeh” (meest via Perak, dat onder Atjeh stond) to Indian Ocean and Chinese buyers, bypassing the Compagnie. After the 1641 fall of Malakka the Compagnie had moved to control this trade directly. Treaties with Kedah (11 July 1642), Oedjong Salang (18 March 1643, renewed 27 October 1643) and Bangeri (1 January 1645) gave the Compagnie a right to at least half of the tin produced and shipped in each, plus the right to demand a Dutch passport from all seafarers.

Yet these arrangements leaked. “Despite all these contracts, [Voorindische] merchants nevertheless managed to carry off much tin, mostly via Perak, which stood under Atjeh” (Ondanks al deze contracten wisten Voorindische kooplieden niettemin veel tin weg te halen, meest via Perak, dat onder Atjeh stond). On 3 July 1647 the G.G. and Councillors resolved, on the advice of the Governor of Malakka, to close the harbours of the Tin Quartiers to all foreign merchants. But the Compagnie’s purpose was only fully achieved when the sultane herself became party to it.

The treaty

“The Compagnie only reached her goal when the queen of Atjeh bound herself on 15 August 1650 to open the tin trade in Perak only to Atjehers and Hollanders” (Haar doel bereikte de Compagnie eerst, toen de vorstin van Atjeh zich 15 Augustus 1650 verbond, den tinhandel in Perak alleen open te stellen voor Atjehers en Hollanders). The 1650 treaty thus completed the Truytman treaties of November 1649 by extending the same Atjehers-and-Hollanders-only formula to the peninsula’s richest tin source.

Application and breakdown

The treaty was almost immediately difficult to apply. In Perak “it was extremely difficult for the Compagnie’s representative to remain on good terms with the Atjehsche authorities, and at the same time with the native population and chiefs” — the Dutch record’s own characterisation of the Perak Malays is the blunt phrase “the nation in itself is very foul and murderous” (de natie in zichzelven is zeer vuyl en moorddadig).

In early 1651 the Compagnie’s factory at Perak was overrun and all its officials killed. On 1 August [1651] the Hooge Regeering sent a fleet to demand satisfaction, but obtained none, and “the relationship remained hostile until 1655, when peace was concluded in concert with Atjeh” (de verhouding bleef vijandig tot 1655, toen in overleg met Atjeh de vrede werd gesloten). Perak bound itself by treaty to pay a damages compensation of 50,000 reals in tin and to permit the rebuilding of a factory and warehouse.

The 5 October 1659 peace with the sultane — negotiated after the 1656 blockade and the arrest of Anthony van Voorst — re-confirmed the 1650 Perak arrangement, providing “that half of the tin won in Perak should be for Atjeh, half for the Compagnie” (dat de helft van de op Perak gewonnen tin voor Atjeh, de helft voor de Compagnie zou zijn). The Compagnie was to pay provisionally only 30 reals the bar (baar), to be brought to the old footing of 32½ reals once its arrears were satisfied. When “those of Perak nevertheless made all kinds of chicanes in the execution of this agreement” (Toen echter die van Perak bij de uitvoering dezer overeenkomst allerlei chicanes maakten), the Compagnie in 1663 lifted its Perak factory too — “the trade of Perak shall henceforth be driven on board” (de handel van Perak sal voortaen aen boord gedreven worden).

Significance

The 1650 Perak treaty is the high point of Compagnie-Atjeh commercial co-operation. It is also the last great diplomatic success of the sultane’s reign, in that it granted the Compagnie privileges the sultane expected to share jointly. The subsequent unravelling of the treaty — through Perak Malay resistance, Atjehsche governors’ bad faith, and the Compagnie’s own preference for shipboard trade — produced both the 1656 blockade and the Painansch Contract era on the Westkust.

See Also

Sources

Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland: De Archipel en het Maleische Schiereiland in 1619 – Idem in 1650 – De Compagnie buiten den Archipel in 1650, by Dr. F. W. Stapel (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1928), pp. 27, 31.

De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 26–27, 64–65 (tekst bij de bladen 2 en 3: De Archipel en het Maleische Schiereiland in 1650, Malakka en het Maleische Schiereiland) en blz. 15 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).

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