John Prince was a British East India Company official who served as Resident of Singapore in the mid-1820s. He appears in P. H. Van der Kemp (1900) as the source of a dispatch from Batavia, dated 29 November 1827, in which he informed the Penang government of the Dutch plan to send the frigate Bellona on a mission to the East Coast of Sumatra — a plan which became the immediate occasion of Governor Fullerton’s circular letter of May 1828 to the nine chiefs of Siak and the neighbouring states.
The 1827 Dispatch from Batavia
At the end of 1827, after relinquishing his residency at Singapore, Prince was at Batavia, where he learned that Commissaris-Generaal Du Bus intended to send the man-of-war Bellona to the ports of the East Coast of Sumatra, in order to persuade the native chiefs to trade with Riouw rather than with Singapore. In a letter addressed from Batavia on 29 November 1827 to the government at Penang, Prince reported that the Commissioner-General had been “advised to send a mission by the Netherlands frigate Bellona to the ports on the East Coast of Sumatra, which carry on trade with Singapore, with the object of inducing the natives to discontinue the purchase of salt from us, and to take it from Rhio where it is to be delivered at as low a rate as it can be got at the former place”.
Prince warned that “the appearance of a ship of that description carrying such a commission may make an impression on the natives of the several ports of Siak, Kampar, Jambi &c. unfavourable to the commercial interests of Singapore, inasmuch as they may be intimidated into a compliance with the views of the Netherlands Government”. He accordingly drew the attention of the Hon’ble Board to “that part of the late Treaty which specifically engages for perfect freedom of intercourse with the Natives of the East by the subjects of both nations” — namely, the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824 — and suggested that the chiefs be apprised of the privileges guaranteed to them, “so that they may not consider themselves obliged to conform to any requisitions of this nature from the Netherlands Government”.
The Salt Question and the Bellona Mission
Prince’s dispatch also recorded the practical importance of the trade which the projected Dutch mission threatened. “To the best of my recollection”, he wrote, “the imports into Singapore from these places on the East Coast consist of about 800 piculs of coffee, half as much pepper, and an immense quantity of rattans for the China Market, wax and gold dust, which are bartered for nearly 100 coyans of Siam salt, a quantity of Java tobacco and the manufactures of Western India and Europe.” The threat to this trade, he observed, lay in the considerable reduction of the price of Java salt from 70 to 30 rupees per coyan, which had been carried out on the advice of the councillor of the Indies Van de Graaff.
Prince’s letter placed the matter squarely before the Penang government. Governor Fullerton took it up in his minute of 16 March 1828, observing that he had received information on the contemplated Bellona mission “from other sources” and that a letter had already been addressed to the chiefs of Siak expressing Britain’s desire to continue and promote the growing trade between that state and the British settlements in the Straits. Within two months, on 21 May 1828, Fullerton issued his circular to nine East Coast chiefs, and dispatched the Bellona counter-mission which became one of the chief irritants of Anglo-Dutch relations in the late 1820s.
Historical Significance
Prince’s historical importance lies in his having been the channel by which intelligence of the projected Bellona mission reached the British authorities at Penang and set in motion the chain of correspondence and counter-action which culminated in the Pinang Nota disputes and the larger controversy over the interpretation of the Treaty of 1824. Van der Kemp gives no further biographical particulars, but notes that Prince was at Batavia “at the end of 1827”, having relinquished the Singapore residency. His letter is preserved among the documents printed in Van der Kemp’s eleventh appendix, and represents one of the principal pieces of evidence for the Dutch purpose underlying the Bellona mission.
See Also
- Robert Fullerton
- Bellona mission to Sumatra’s East Coast (1827-1828)
- Fullerton’s circular to nine Siak chiefs
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Commissioner-General Du Bus
- Singapore
- Dutch Salt Price Reduction
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
John Prince was a British East India Company official who served as Resident of Singapore in the mid-1820s. He appears in P. H. Van der Kemp (1900) as the source of a dispatch from Batavia, dated 29 November 1827, in which he informed the Penang government of the Dutch plan to send the frigate Bellona on a mission to the East Coast of Sumatra — a plan which became the immediate occasion of Governor Fullerton’s circular letter of May 1828 to the nine chiefs of Siak and the neighbouring states.
The 1827 Dispatch from Batavia
At the end of 1827, after relinquishing his residency at Singapore, Prince was at Batavia, where he learned that Commissaris-Generaal Du Bus intended to send the man-of-war Bellona to the ports of the East Coast of Sumatra, in order to persuade the native chiefs to trade with Riouw rather than with Singapore. In a letter addressed from Batavia on 29 November 1827 to the government at Penang, Prince reported that the Commissioner-General had been “advised to send a mission by the Netherlands frigate Bellona to the ports on the East Coast of Sumatra, which carry on trade with Singapore, with the object of inducing the natives to discontinue the purchase of salt from us, and to take it from Rhio where it is to be delivered at as low a rate as it can be got at the former place”.
Prince warned that “the appearance of a ship of that description carrying such a commission may make an impression on the natives of the several ports of Siak, Kampar, Jambi &c. unfavourable to the commercial interests of Singapore, inasmuch as they may be intimidated into a compliance with the views of the Netherlands Government”. He accordingly drew the attention of the Hon’ble Board to “that part of the late Treaty which specifically engages for perfect freedom of intercourse with the Natives of the East by the subjects of both nations” — namely, the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824 — and suggested that the chiefs be apprised of the privileges guaranteed to them, “so that they may not consider themselves obliged to conform to any requisitions of this nature from the Netherlands Government”.
The Salt Question and the Bellona Mission
Prince’s dispatch also recorded the practical importance of the trade which the projected Dutch mission threatened. “To the best of my recollection”, he wrote, “the imports into Singapore from these places on the East Coast consist of about 800 piculs of coffee, half as much pepper, and an immense quantity of rattans for the China Market, wax and gold dust, which are bartered for nearly 100 coyans of Siam salt, a quantity of Java tobacco and the manufactures of Western India and Europe.” The threat to this trade, he observed, lay in the considerable reduction of the price of Java salt from 70 to 30 rupees per coyan, which had been carried out on the advice of the councillor of the Indies Van de Graaff.
Prince’s letter placed the matter squarely before the Penang government. Governor Fullerton took it up in his minute of 16 March 1828, observing that he had received information on the contemplated Bellona mission “from other sources” and that a letter had already been addressed to the chiefs of Siak expressing Britain’s desire to continue and promote the growing trade between that state and the British settlements in the Straits. Within two months, on 21 May 1828, Fullerton issued his circular to nine East Coast chiefs, and dispatched the Bellona counter-mission which became one of the chief irritants of Anglo-Dutch relations in the late 1820s.
Historical Significance
Prince’s historical importance lies in his having been the channel by which intelligence of the projected Bellona mission reached the British authorities at Penang and set in motion the chain of correspondence and counter-action which culminated in the Pinang Nota disputes and the larger controversy over the interpretation of the Treaty of 1824. Van der Kemp gives no further biographical particulars, but notes that Prince was at Batavia “at the end of 1827”, having relinquished the Singapore residency. His letter is preserved among the documents printed in Van der Kemp’s eleventh appendix, and represents one of the principal pieces of evidence for the Dutch purpose underlying the Bellona mission.
See Also
- Robert Fullerton
- Bellona mission to Sumatra’s East Coast (1827-1828)
- Fullerton’s circular to nine Siak chiefs
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Commissioner-General Du Bus
- Singapore
- Dutch Salt Price Reduction
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.