Tikoe

Properties2
tagsplace, port, sumatra, westkust, atjeh, pepper, precolonial, colonial, 17th-century, french, achehnese
aliasesTiku, Tikoe (Westkust Sumatra), Tiku pepper port, Tikoe west coast of Sumatra, Tiko, Teuku, Tikoe, Tikoé, Tikus, Teuko, Tjeuko

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Tikoe — modern Tiku, the historic pepper port on the west coast of Sumatra south of Atjeh — was one of the chief pepper ports of the Sumatran west coast in the early-modern period and, in the early seventeenth century, “afhankelijk van den Sultan van Atjeh” — dependent on the Sultan of Atjeh. Tikoe was visited by Paulus van Caerden in 1600 without result, by Jan Grenier on 19 February 1602 without result — because trade with foreigners in the west-coast ports was forbidden except at Atjeh — and by the Zeeland ships on their way to Bantam after the August 1601 mission. In Godee Molsbergen’s account it is also the landfall of Augustin de Beaulieu’s French Saint-Malo expedition of 1620–1621, driven past Cape Guardafui and unable to make the intended coast.

A pepper-port under Atjeh

The pepper of the Sumatra Westkust — the peper that was the principal product of the region — was controlled in the early seventeenth century by the Sultan of Atjeh, who had granted the VOC the exclusive right to trade on the Westkust in the period before 1641. Tikoe was one of the Westkust pepper-ports under that Atjeh overlordship. The pepper trade there was thus doubly mediated: by the local Radja or headman of Tikoe, and by the Sultan of Atjeh whose permission was required for any external trade.

The 1600 Van Caerden visit

Van Caerden, sent by his admiral Pieter Both to the west coast of Sumatra, “bezocht daar zonder resultaat Priaman, Tikoe en Pasaman, waar overal slechts weinig peper in voorraad was”. The visit was the first Dutch commercial call at Tikoe and showed that the west-coast pepper ports, like Atjeh itself, were subject to seasonal fluctuations in supply. Van Caerden’s failure at Priaman, Tikoe and Pasaman was the proximate cause of his decision to try Atjeh for cargo.

The 1602 Grenier visit and the Westkust closure

Jan Grenier arrived off Tikoe on 19 February 1602 on his way from Atjeh to Bantam, “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: the Dutch and English were forced to call at Atjeh for their pepper, and the west-coast ports could be visited only when the sultan’s enforcement lapsed.

De Beaulieu’s landfall at Tikoe, 1620

Driven past Cape Guardafui, De Beaulieu “kon de gewenschte kust niet bezeilen” — could not sail the desired coast — “en belandde met de Montmorency en l’Hermitage te Tikoe op Sumatra’s Westkust, een centrum van peperhandel, afhankelijk van den Sultan van Atjeh.” From Tikoe De Beaulieu came in early 1621 to Atjeh itself, where he had difficult negotiations with the Sultan and the Rijksgrooten to obtain permission for the pepper trade — negotiations that he was later to complain had been disfigured by the extortion of gifts. The choice of Tikoe as the French landfall was no accident: the Westkust pepper-port was the natural point of entry for any European attempt to break into the Atjeh-controlled pepper trade without first going through the Sultan’s court at Atjeh itself.

The loss of the l’Espérance before Tikoe

The Tikoe landfall was also the indirect cause of the loss of the l’Espérance, the Vice-Admiral Robert Gravé’s ship. Before Tikoe the l’Espérance had lain twelve days waiting for a sloop sent ashore with fifteen sick sailors to fetch help. The sloop never reappeared; ten of the sailors died; the five survivors took a Dutch yacht to Atjeh to seek their Admiral. On the great ship were 74 souls; Gravé and three others were still on their feet, but the ship was unmanageable for want of hands. The Dutch ship Leiden found the French “gants machteloos” — entirely powerless — with only two casks of water remaining aboard. The story is told in full under Robert Gravé and Augustin de Beaulieu’s Atjeh mission (1620-1621).

Significance

For Atjeh’s history, Tikoe is the principal named Westkust pepper-port in the early-seventeenth-century European accounts — the port through which De Beaulieu entered the Atjeh-controlled pepper trade, and at which the loss of the l’Espérance began. Its dependency on the Sultan of Atjeh is itself an important fact about the structure of the Atjeh sultanate at this date: the Westkust pepper-ports were part of the Sultan’s commercial sovereignty, and any European trade there required his permission. The Portuguese, the Dutch, the English and the French all had to deal with that sovereignty when they came to Tikoe. In Van der Woude’s narrative Tikoe is also the port of call that frames the Sultan’s “centralising” policy of forcing the European pepper trade through Atjeh itself, where it could be controlled through the sabander and the shore batteries.

Account from Stapel’s De Koloniën (1931)

Tikoe (also Tiko, Tiku) was a pepper port on the West Coast of Sumatra, lying north of Priaman and closest of the Westkust pepper ports to Atjeh. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland it is the northern anchor of the Painansch Contract system, the Westkust place most exposed to Atjehsche intrigue, and the site of the last Atjehsch-gezinde rising on the Westkust — the 1683 rising that closed with the 20–21 June 1684 submission.

In the 1641 Schouten treaty

Tikoe was one of the four pepper ports named in the Schouten treaty of 15 February 1641, by which the sultane of Atjeh conceded to the Compagnie the tolls in the pepper ports of Tikoe, Priaman, Padang and Indrapoera and promised to admit no other European traders there. From 1641 onward, therefore, Tikoe was a named Dutch commercial station.

The 1649 Truytman treaties

The Truytman treaties of November 1649 widened the Compagnie’s privileges from the four named pepper ports to the whole Westkust, “with the exclusion of all other European and native nations — except Atjehers — and a regulation of the pepper prices” (met uitsluiting van alle andere Europeesche en Inlandsche naties — behalve Atjehers — en eene regeling van de peperprijzen). Tikoe was now under Compagnie commercial privilege but still under Atjehsche sovereignty.

The 1656 crisis and the arrest of Anthony van Voorst

The 1656 blockade of Atjeh, ordered in response to the Atjehsche governors’ persistent violation of the Truytman treaties, produced the arrest of Van Voorst and a hardening of Atjehsche feeling on the Westkust. Tikoe, lying “closest to Atjeh” (het dichtst bij Atjeh), was particularly exposed.

The 1663 Painansch Contract and the 1664-1665 ratification

The Painansch Contract of 6 July 1663 named Tikoe(s) as one of the four contracting landheeren. The ratification was achieved by the campaign of Jacob Cau in 1664–1665. At Tikoe “the Holland-friendly party was likewise oppressed by the Atjehers” (de Hollandsch-gezinde partij eveneens door de Atjehers werd onderdrukt). “Also here the weapons decided and, after the expulsion of the Atjehers, the contract was confirmed” (Ook hier beslisten de wapenen en werd, na verdrijving der Atjehers, het contract bevestigd).

When Cau returned to Batavia on 2 January 1665 he had established four definitive factories on the Westkust: Padang (head office), Poeloe Tjingkoek or Salido, Priaman and Tikoe. Tikoe was now one of the four permanent Compagnie factories.

The 1683 rising and the 1684 submission

Tikoe was the site of the last Atjehsch-gezinde rising on the Westkust. “Only in the North the Atjehsch-gezinde party still intrigued, and in 1683 this led to a rising in Tikoe” (Alleen in het Noorden bleef de Atjehsch-gezinde partij nog intrigeeren, en in 1683 leidde dit tot een opstand in Tikoe). The military force sent thither defeated the rebels, and on 20–21 June 1684 the chiefs of Tikoe offered their submission anew.

The 1684 submission is the closing diplomatic act of the 1649–1684 cycle of Acehnese-Dutch conflict on the Westkust. The chiefs acknowledged “that their land had been conquered by the Compagnie with arms; that they ‘on their request were taken as allies for pardon’” (dat hun land door de Compagnie met de wapenen was overwonnen; dat zij ‘op haer bede om pardon als bontgenoten wierden aengenomen). They promised “to acknowledge and obey the commandeur at Padang as their panglima” (belovende de commandeur op Padang voor haer panglima te erkennen en gehoorsamen), granted the monopoly to the Compagnie, and declared “that their regents were to be appointed by the commandeur, ‘by force of the panglimaschap’” (dat hun regenten door den commandeur moesten worden aangesteld, ‘kraghte van het panglimaschap’).

Significance

Tikoe is the Westkust place most consistently in the front line of the Dutch-Acehnese contest. It is named in the 1641 Schouten treaty, the 1649 Truytman treaties, the 1663 Painansch Contract and the 1684 submission — the four great instruments of the Westkust system. It is the closest of the four pepper ports to Atjeh, and it is therefore the place where Atjehsch-gezinde intrigue was most persistent: it produced the 1683 rising, the last Acehnese-instigated revolt on the Westkust.

The 1684 submission is also the formal end of Atjeh’s leverage on the Westkust. After June 1684 the Atjehsch-gezinde partij ceases to be a factor in Westkust politics, and the Compagnie’s sovereignty on the Westkust is asserted in two complementary forms: through the panglimaschap at Tikoe, which assimilates the Dutch commandeur to an Acehnese-Malay office; and through the new fort at Priaman, which projects Dutch military power directly.

See Also

Sources

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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. 111, 116).

Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, by Dr. E. C. Godee Molsbergen, Oud-Hoogleeraar, Landsarchivaris te Batavia (Amsterdam: N.V. Swets & Zeitlinger Boekhandel en Uitgevers Mij., 1932), chapter LIV (“Augustin de Beaulieu en Robert Grave”), pp. 194–197 of the numbered-letter sequence.

De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 16, 22–23 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).

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