Jan Grenier was a Dutch vice-admiraal in the service of the VOC who, as vice-admiraal of the fleet of Jacob van Neck that left Texel on 24 April 1601, arrived off Atjeh on 15 December 1601 in his single detached ship, witnessed the great fire of 13 January 13 January 1602 that destroyed some 200 houses and the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant”, and sailed on 19 February 19 February 1602 to Tikoe — where he could buy no pepper because trade with foreigners in the west-coast ports was forbidden except at Atjeh — and then to Bantam. Grenier is the principal Dutch witness of the destruction of the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil in Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948).
The detached arrival (December 1601)
Grenier was vice-admiraal of the Van Neck fleet that left Texel on 24 April 1601. He became separated from the other ships — “van de andere schepen afgedwaald” — which by contrary wind could not reach Atjeh, “welke plaats zij ingevolge hun instructie gezamenlijk moesten aandoen”. Grenier alone arrived off Atjeh on 15 December 1601, some four months after the Zeeland mission of August 1601 had departed. He loaded a small quantity of pepper — “een klein quantum peper” — and waited.
The fire of 13 January 1602
On 13 January 1602 a great fire broke out in Atjeh, destroying some 200 houses; the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant” that the Zeeland Company’s mission of August 1601 had founded burned down with the rest, “evenwel met weinig schade”. Grenier witnessed the fire — the principal Dutch witness of the destruction of the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil. The fire marked the end of the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant” and the beginning of the VOC’s preference for operating at Atjeh through visiting fleets rather than a permanent factory.
The 1602 Tikoe visit and the Westkust closure
After the fire, Grenier sailed on 19 February 1602 to Tikoe on the west coast of Sumatra, “waar hij geen lading opdeed omdat toen de handel met vreemdelingen in de kustplaatsen verboden was, uitgezonderd in Atjeh”. The closure was the sultan of Atjeh’s policy: he sought to centralise the European pepper trade at Atjeh, where he could control it through the sabander and the shore batteries. The policy was largely effective in the early Dutch-Indies period. Grenier then sailed for Bantam.
Significance
Jan Grenier is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal Dutch witness of the destruction of the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil — the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant” — in the fire of 13 January 1602. The fire marked the end of the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant” and the beginning of the VOC’s preference for operating at Atjeh through visiting fleets rather than a permanent factory. Grenier’s subsequent visit to Tikoe on 19 February 1602 — and his failure to buy pepper there because of the sultan’s policy of centralising the European pepper trade at Atjeh — was the principal Dutch encounter with the sultan’s commercial policy and the proximate cause of the Dutch decision to operate at Atjeh through visiting fleets rather than a permanent factory. Grenier’s role in the Dutch-Atjeh relationship frames the transition from the pre-VOC period of separate Dutch factories to the VOC period of centralised commercial operations through visiting fleets.
See Also
- Zeeland Company’s Atjeh mission (1601)
- Jacob van Neck
- Tikoe
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Acheh
- Bantam
- 1601
- 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.” (p. 116).