The English East India Company (EIC) — chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 31 December 1600 as the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies” — was the principal English commercial instrument in the East Indies for two and a half centuries and the chief European rival of the VOC in the early-modern Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The EIC’s first voyage under James Lancaster produced the first English visit to Atjeh in June 1602 and the first major Anglo-Dutch joint naval operation in the East Indies on 3 October 1602. The EIC is the principal English institution of Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948).
The charter of 31 December 1600
The EIC was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600 — fifteen months before the founding of the VOC on 20 March 1602. The charter granted the company a monopoly of English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and through the Strait of Magellan for fifteen years, with the right to make treaties, build fortifications, and maintain armed forces. The charter’s terms were broadly similar to those of the later VOC charter, and reflected the same early-modern European practice of state-backed commercial monopoly.
The first voyage and the Atjeh visit (1601-1603)
The EIC’s first voyage, under Sir James Lancaster, left Woolwich on 13 February 1601 with four ships — Hector, Susan, Ascension and Red Dragon. The fleet reached the Cape in April 1601, the Nicobaren later that year, and Atjeh on 5 June 1602. The Atjeh visit is the principal English episode of Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter: Lancaster was received with great ceremony by the sultan, praised Queen Elizabeth, exchanged gifts transported by caparisoned elephants, and obtained leave to trade; he found the pepper prices higher than expected and his capital insufficient for a full cargo; he conceived the plan of intercepting the annual Portuguese carrack from the Koromandel coast; he was joined by Joris van Spilbergen’s Dutch fleet; and on 3 October 1602 the combined Anglo-Dutch squadron captured the Portuguese carrack in the Strait of Malaka.
The Anglo-Dutch partnership and its dissolution
The capture of the Portuguese carrack on 3 October 1602 was the high-water mark of the early Anglo-Dutch commercial partnership in the East Indies — the brief moment in which the EIC and the VOC co-operated against the Portuguese rather than competing with each other. The partnership would dissolve within a few years as the commercial rivalry between the two companies intensified: by 1609 William Keeling would be writing from Banda that the Bandanese “do much marvel that in so long a time there have come no English shipping there”, and the Anglo-Dutch rivalry would harden into the conflicts of the 1610s and the Ambonese murder of 1623. The EIC’s role in the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship was thus both co-operative (at Atjeh in 1602) and competitive (at Banda after 1609) — a duality that would define the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship for the next century.
Significance
The English East India Company is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal English institution of the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship and the chief European rival of the VOC in the early-modern Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The first EIC visit to Atjeh in June 1602 and the joint Anglo-Dutch capture of the Portuguese carrack of 3 October 1602 were the principal instances of the early Anglo-Dutch commercial partnership in the East Indies — the brief moment of co-operation before the rivalry of the 1610s and 1620s. The EIC’s role in the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship frames the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship as both co-operative and competitive, and anticipates the conflicts that would define the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship for the next century. The EIC’s later role at Atjeh — through the Captain Canning mission of 1814 and the Raffles-Coombs commission of 1819 — would also frame the British diplomatic interest in Atjeh that would continue through the Atjeh-oorlog of 1873-1903.
See Also
- James Lancaster
- James Lancaster’s Atjeh visit (1602)
- Capture of the Portuguese carrack off Atjeh (October 1602)
- Joris Spilbergh
- Joris Spilbergh’s Atjeh visit (1602)
- John Davis
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie
- Founding of the VOC (1602)
- Koromandel kust
- Strait of Malaka
- Banda-eilanden
- Acheh
- 1600
- 1602
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 117-118).
The Voyage of Sir James Lancaster, Kt, to the East Indies, ed. Clements R. Markham, Hakluyt Society (London, 1877).
The English East India Company (EIC) — chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 31 December 1600 as the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies” — was the principal English commercial instrument in the East Indies for two and a half centuries and the chief European rival of the VOC in the early-modern Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The EIC’s first voyage under James Lancaster produced the first English visit to Atjeh in June 1602 and the first major Anglo-Dutch joint naval operation in the East Indies on 3 October 1602. The EIC is the principal English institution of Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948).
The charter of 31 December 1600
The EIC was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600 — fifteen months before the founding of the VOC on 20 March 1602. The charter granted the company a monopoly of English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and through the Strait of Magellan for fifteen years, with the right to make treaties, build fortifications, and maintain armed forces. The charter’s terms were broadly similar to those of the later VOC charter, and reflected the same early-modern European practice of state-backed commercial monopoly.
The first voyage and the Atjeh visit (1601-1603)
The EIC’s first voyage, under Sir James Lancaster, left Woolwich on 13 February 1601 with four ships — Hector, Susan, Ascension and Red Dragon. The fleet reached the Cape in April 1601, the Nicobaren later that year, and Atjeh on 5 June 1602. The Atjeh visit is the principal English episode of Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter: Lancaster was received with great ceremony by the sultan, praised Queen Elizabeth, exchanged gifts transported by caparisoned elephants, and obtained leave to trade; he found the pepper prices higher than expected and his capital insufficient for a full cargo; he conceived the plan of intercepting the annual Portuguese carrack from the Koromandel coast; he was joined by Joris van Spilbergen’s Dutch fleet; and on 3 October 1602 the combined Anglo-Dutch squadron captured the Portuguese carrack in the Strait of Malaka.
The Anglo-Dutch partnership and its dissolution
The capture of the Portuguese carrack on 3 October 1602 was the high-water mark of the early Anglo-Dutch commercial partnership in the East Indies — the brief moment in which the EIC and the VOC co-operated against the Portuguese rather than competing with each other. The partnership would dissolve within a few years as the commercial rivalry between the two companies intensified: by 1609 William Keeling would be writing from Banda that the Bandanese “do much marvel that in so long a time there have come no English shipping there”, and the Anglo-Dutch rivalry would harden into the conflicts of the 1610s and the Ambonese murder of 1623. The EIC’s role in the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship was thus both co-operative (at Atjeh in 1602) and competitive (at Banda after 1609) — a duality that would define the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship for the next century.
Significance
The English East India Company is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal English institution of the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship and the chief European rival of the VOC in the early-modern Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The first EIC visit to Atjeh in June 1602 and the joint Anglo-Dutch capture of the Portuguese carrack of 3 October 1602 were the principal instances of the early Anglo-Dutch commercial partnership in the East Indies — the brief moment of co-operation before the rivalry of the 1610s and 1620s. The EIC’s role in the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship frames the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship as both co-operative and competitive, and anticipates the conflicts that would define the Anglo-Dutch East India relationship for the next century. The EIC’s later role at Atjeh — through the Captain Canning mission of 1814 and the Raffles-Coombs commission of 1819 — would also frame the British diplomatic interest in Atjeh that would continue through the Atjeh-oorlog of 1873-1903.
See Also
- James Lancaster
- James Lancaster’s Atjeh visit (1602)
- Capture of the Portuguese carrack off Atjeh (October 1602)
- Joris Spilbergh
- Joris Spilbergh’s Atjeh visit (1602)
- John Davis
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie
- Founding of the VOC (1602)
- Koromandel kust
- Strait of Malaka
- Banda-eilanden
- Acheh
- 1600
- 1602
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 117-118).
The Voyage of Sir James Lancaster, Kt, to the East Indies, ed. Clements R. Markham, Hakluyt Society (London, 1877).