The Vereeniging van Vernis- en Verffabrikanten en -Handelaren in Nederland — the Association of Varnish and Paint Manufacturers and Traders in the Netherlands, abbreviated V.V.V.F. — was the Dutch trade association that, in 1930, represented the 28 principal varnish and paint manufacturers and traders of the Netherlands. The association is named in the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet of 1930 as the partner of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum in the 1930 market-reception survey of Atjeh-turpentine, and as the addressee of the circular letter of 5 May 1930 by which sample H.M. no. 1607 was distributed to its members.
The 1924 consultation
The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records that the V.V.V.F. had first been consulted on the quality of Atjeh-turpentine in 1924, when the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum met het Bestuur Uwer Vereeniging van gedachten wisselde over de kwaliteit van de Sumatraansche terpentijnolie, afkomstig van Pinus Merkusii — exchanged thoughts with the Board of your Association on the quality of the Sumatran turpentine oil, derived from Pinus Merkusii. The V.V.V.F. had then de reuk van die terpentijnolie te zeer afwijkende geacht van dien van zuivere terpentijnolie uit Frankrijk of Noord-Amerika — considered the odour of that turpentine oil too different from that of pure turpentine oil from France or North America. The 1924 consultation had thus produced a negative evaluation of the trial Atjeh-turpentine — an evaluation that the 1930 pamphlet sought to revisit.
The 1930 survey
The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records that, in 1930, the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum again approached the V.V.V.F. — this time with the proposal that the association onder hare (28) leden een enquête zou houden (would hold a survey among its (28) members). The Afdeeling Handelsmuseum supplied the necessary turpentine samples — voorzien van een toelichtende circulaire (provided with an explanatory circular) — and the V.V.V.F. distributed them among its members. Eleven members verstrekten een beoordeeling van het hun toegezonden monster (provided an evaluation of the sample sent to them), and these eleven evaluations — gerangschikt naar de ledenlijst van de V.V.V.F. — are preserved in the pamphlet as the principal documentary record of the European market reception of factory-scale Atjeh-turpentine.
The eleven evaluations
The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records the eleven evaluations in detail — they are the principal documentary record of the European market reception of factory-scale Atjeh-turpentine. The evaluations are numbered I to XI in the pamphlet, and they are arranged gerangschikt naar de ledenlijst van de V.V.V.F. (arranged according to the membership list of the V.V.V.F.). The general verdict is summarised by Spoor in the closing paragraph of the pamphlet: Het pleit geheel gewonnen heeft de Atjeh-terpentijn nog niet, maar vele beoordeelaars laten niet onduidelijk doorschemeren, dat het tenslotte ook een prijzenkwestie zou zijn, of zij het Indische product in hun bedrijf kunnen toepassen — The Atjeh-turpentine has not yet fully won the case, but many evaluators let it be understood not unclearly that, in the end, it would also be a question of price whether they could apply the Indian product in their business.
The 28 members
The Circulaire of 5 May 1930 records that the V.V.V.F. had 28 members in 1930. The eleven evaluations preserved in the pamphlet thus represent approximately 39% of the membership — a substantial response rate for a voluntary survey, and one that the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum judged sufficient to establish the general verdict on the market reception of the factory-scale product.
Significance
The V.V.V.F.’s significance in the historiography of colonial Aceh is as the Dutch trade association that represented the principal European market for Atjeh-turpentine, and as the partner of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum in the 1930 market-reception survey. The eleven evaluations preserved in the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet of 1930 are the principal documentary record of the European market reception of factory-scale Atjeh-turpentine, and the V.V.V.F.’s 1924 negative evaluation of the trial product was the principal obstacle that the 1930 evaluation sought to overcome.
See Also
- Atjeh-terpentijn (Spoor, 1930)
- Atjeh-terpentijn
- Circulaire of 5 May 1930 to the V.V.V.F.
- Afdeeling Handelsmuseum
- Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut
- Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij
- W. Spoon
- L. P. de Bussy
- Baleq
- Pinus Merkusii
- 1924
- 1930
Source
Atjeh-terpentijn: tegenwoordige kwaliteit en nieuwe beoordeelingen, by Ir. W. Spoon, Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57, Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1930, pp. 20–26, 29–30 (Beoordeelingen uit de praktijk; Bijlage II — Circulaire).