Smulders was the author of a Dutch dissertatie (doctoral dissertation) on the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 17 March 1824, which is cited twice by Van der Kemp in his 1900 monograph. Although Van der Kemp concedes that Smulders’s dissertation is “otherwise good,” he takes it to task for having perpetuated the standard Dutch misreading of Article 6 of the Raffles–Coombs convention of April 1819.
The Dissertation on the Treaty of 1824
Smulders’s dissertation, devoted to the treaty of 1824, was one of the standard Dutch monographs on the subject at the end of the nineteenth century. It included the full text of the Acheh convention of April 1819 as printed by Anderson (p. 218) and by Smulders himself (p. 163). Van der Kemp cites this dual printing of the Acheh treaty on his sixteenth page, and uses Smulders’s collation of the text as a bibliographical anchor for his own discussion of the convention’s provisions. Smulders’s treatise is also enumerated by Van der Kemp, alongside the Bijdragen of Van Hogendorp, of Elout, of E. de Waal, of Meinsma, and of J. E. de Sturler, as one of the principal printed collections in which the Anglo-Dutch notes exchanged at the treaty table of 1824 may be consulted.
The Misreading of Article 6
Smulders’s second appearance in Van der Kemp’s article is in the critical survey of Dutch historiography on Article 6 of the Acheh convention. Following the lead of Professor Lauts, Smulders read Article 6 as if it stipulated “the exclusion, equally, of all trade of other European nations” — that is, as if the prohibition on European settlement in Acheh carried with it a prohibition on European commerce. Van der Kemp’s response is brief and emphatic: Article 6 said nothing of the kind. The prohibition was on the permanent establishment of Europeans in the sultanate, not on the conduct of trade; the conflation of the two was the original sin of the British plenipotentiaries at London in February 1824, transmitted to subsequent Dutch historiography by Lauts, Smulders, Meinsma, and the official Nota of 1873.
Smulders and the Chain of Dutch Historiography
Van der Kemp’s treatment of Smulders is relatively generous. Of all the historians whom he arraigns for the Article 6 misreading, Smulders is the only one whom he explicitly excuses as having produced an “otherwise good” dissertation. The pardon does not extend, however, to the substantive error: the misreading had had real diplomatic consequences, since the British note of 24 February 1824 had expressly relied on it in securing the Dutch declaration of Achehnese “independence.” Smulders’s repetition of the error, like Lauts’s before him and Meinsma’s after, helped to entrench in Dutch historical consciousness a picture of the Acheh convention that the actual text of the treaty did not support.
See Also
- G. Lauts
- J. J. Meinsma
- J. H. P. E. Kniphorst
- John Anderson
- Acheh treaty of 1819
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- E. de Waal
- P. H. van der Kemp
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.
Smulders was the author of a Dutch dissertatie (doctoral dissertation) on the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 17 March 1824, which is cited twice by Van der Kemp in his 1900 monograph. Although Van der Kemp concedes that Smulders’s dissertation is “otherwise good,” he takes it to task for having perpetuated the standard Dutch misreading of Article 6 of the Raffles–Coombs convention of April 1819.
The Dissertation on the Treaty of 1824
Smulders’s dissertation, devoted to the treaty of 1824, was one of the standard Dutch monographs on the subject at the end of the nineteenth century. It included the full text of the Acheh convention of April 1819 as printed by Anderson (p. 218) and by Smulders himself (p. 163). Van der Kemp cites this dual printing of the Acheh treaty on his sixteenth page, and uses Smulders’s collation of the text as a bibliographical anchor for his own discussion of the convention’s provisions. Smulders’s treatise is also enumerated by Van der Kemp, alongside the Bijdragen of Van Hogendorp, of Elout, of E. de Waal, of Meinsma, and of J. E. de Sturler, as one of the principal printed collections in which the Anglo-Dutch notes exchanged at the treaty table of 1824 may be consulted.
The Misreading of Article 6
Smulders’s second appearance in Van der Kemp’s article is in the critical survey of Dutch historiography on Article 6 of the Acheh convention. Following the lead of Professor Lauts, Smulders read Article 6 as if it stipulated “the exclusion, equally, of all trade of other European nations” — that is, as if the prohibition on European settlement in Acheh carried with it a prohibition on European commerce. Van der Kemp’s response is brief and emphatic: Article 6 said nothing of the kind. The prohibition was on the permanent establishment of Europeans in the sultanate, not on the conduct of trade; the conflation of the two was the original sin of the British plenipotentiaries at London in February 1824, transmitted to subsequent Dutch historiography by Lauts, Smulders, Meinsma, and the official Nota of 1873.
Smulders and the Chain of Dutch Historiography
Van der Kemp’s treatment of Smulders is relatively generous. Of all the historians whom he arraigns for the Article 6 misreading, Smulders is the only one whom he explicitly excuses as having produced an “otherwise good” dissertation. The pardon does not extend, however, to the substantive error: the misreading had had real diplomatic consequences, since the British note of 24 February 1824 had expressly relied on it in securing the Dutch declaration of Achehnese “independence.” Smulders’s repetition of the error, like Lauts’s before him and Meinsma’s after, helped to entrench in Dutch historical consciousness a picture of the Acheh convention that the actual text of the treaty did not support.
See Also
- G. Lauts
- J. J. Meinsma
- J. H. P. E. Kniphorst
- John Anderson
- Acheh treaty of 1819
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- E. de Waal
- P. H. van der Kemp
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.