Jacques de Coutre's Singapore and Johor, 1594-c.1625

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2014

NUS Press Pte Ltd eBooks, 2013

Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge, a Director in the Rotterdam chamber of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) for three decades during the early 17th century, set sail from the Dutch Republic for Asia in 1605. He launched an attack on Portuguese Melaka in 1606 and subsequently signed landmark treaties with the rulers of Johor (1606) and Ternate (1607). After returning to the Netherlands in the autumn of 1608, he wrote a series of epistolary reports and memoranda that were carefully studied by leading policy makers in the Republic, among them the renowned jurist Hugo Grotius, and the statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. These materials yield candid insights into key issues of trade, security, the diplomacy of regional polities and relations with Spain and Portugal, and they contributed substantially to the formulation of early VOC policy for the Southeast Asian region in the period 1605-20. Here translated into English for the first time, and illustrated with 70 drawings and maps from the period, this collection of treaties, reports and excerpts from Matelieff’s travelogue make a substantial contribution to Southeast Asian and early colonial history, international relations and international law. (http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/2015-journal-memorials-and-letters-of-cornelis-matelieff-de-jonge-security-diplomacy-and-commerce-in-17th-century-southeast-asia?variant=1302894468)

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2016

This is a generous book in every respect. It contains a 140-page Introduction to a selection of translations from Dutch documents, 71 illustrations, several in colour and some never before published, a 48-page index and a 60-page glossary of places mentioned in the texts. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the University of Greifswold, the Singapore National Archives and Education Ministry and the Lee Foundation, its very existence is a sign that colonial history, or more exactly the history of European expansion, is back in fashion after a half-century in the shadows. Colonial Eurocentrism and triumphalism had spawned a necessary nationalist reaction that tended to lose sight of the interconnectedness of global histories. Fortunately, the necessary interdependence has returned through such terms as the Early Modern (roughly sixteenth to eighteenth centuries), Global, Economic or Maritime History. Peter Borschberg and NUS Press had already given us the translated documents of another important Dutch pioneer, Jacques de Coutre, in 2014. Before that there were two well-documented and illustrated studies of the Singapore/Melaka Straits (2010) and Hugo de Grotius (2011). Peter Borschberg is putting Anglophone students of Early Modern Southeast Asia greatly in his debt through this series of publications. Dutch historians and government agencies had provided a steady stream of such documents in the original Dutch in the period 1880s-1960s, but Indonesian and Malaysian students no longer have access to that language. Who then was Matelieff de Jonge, and what did he do to merit such impressive treatment? Born around 1570, he was a prominent merchant-captain of Rotterdam, who had been one of the founders of the Rotterdam East India Company, the smallest of six companies that merged into the United East India Company (VOC) in 1602. He spoke fluent Portuguese, the most useful European lingua franca in Asia, and had a shrewd understanding of VOC business and strategy. He was thus put in command of the biggest fleet the VOC had yet mounted, leaving Holland in May 1605 with 11 ships. Its task was to pursue the Dutch war against Spain and Portugal in the East, take as many ships and strategic strongholds as possible, and return with cargoes that would more than recompense the great expense of fitting out. Matelieff's first mission was to Johor, some of whose envoys to Holland he was returning home, to manage an alliance with them that would oust the Portuguese from their Southeast Asian stronghold of Melaka (Malacca). In this he failed, becoming disillusioned with Johor's unwillingness or inability to mount any effective assistance. Nevertheless, it is this early section of the Dutch narrative of the voyage (published in 1646, and in a modern Dutch edition in 2013) that is translated here (141-229), because the account of dealings with Johor and the Dutch siege of Melaka is of greatest to Borschberg's target Malaysia/Singapore audience. His ships nevertheless visited Banten in west Java (twice), nearby Jakarta, Ambon and nutmegproducing Banda in the spice islands, and clove-producing Ternate. There he established a

Moussons, 2016

2015

"This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas. Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful. Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers. This book will be released for sale in Australasia and Europe in June 2014 and available in the Americas after September 2014 """"

2010

The Singapore and Melaka Straits are a place where regional and long-distance maritime trading networks converge, linking Europe, the Mediterranean, eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent with key centres of trade in Thailand, Indochina, insular Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. The first half of the seventeenth century brought heightened political, commercial and diplomatic activity to this region. It has long been clear to both the Portuguese and the Dutch that whoever controlled the waters off modern Singapore gained a firm grip on regional as well as long-distance intra-Asian trade. By the early 1600s Portuguese power and prestige were waning and the arrival of the Dutch East India Company constituted a major threat. Moreover, the rapid expansion and growing power of the Acehnese Empire, and rivalry between Johor and Aceh, was creating a new context for European trade in Asia. Drawing on maps, rare printed works, and unpublished manuscripts written in Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Latin, Peter Borschberg provides new information on the diplomatic activities of Asian powers, and shows how the Portuguese and Spanish attempted to restore their political fortunes by containing the rapid rise of Dutch Power in the region. Key documents, transcribed and translated into English for the first time, make up a series of appendices. The product of more than two decades of research in European libraries, archives, The Singapore and Melaka Straits will be of great interest to readers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where little is known about this pivotal pre-colonial period. It is also an invaluable resource for historians and other students of early modern Europe and of the European presence in Asia. """

Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS), 2018

This paper attempts to examine the development of the Zheng family's trading activities in the Malay Archipelago, especially during the time of Zheng Chenggong, when the family had to compete with the Dutch in the Straits of Malacca. For this purpose, the qualitative analytical approaches are employed with reference to the primary sources of the Western and Chinese travellers during the 17th century, namely, Willem Ysbrandsz Bontekoe and George Hughes, apart from the gazettes annotated by Li Jinming and Liao Da Ke. In addition, secondary sources, such as the books, monographs, articles and journals written by some distinguished scholars in the field of international maritime research have been studied. The works of Patrizia Carioti, Leonard Blusse, Meilink-Roelofsz and Xing Hang, among others, have also been investigated for their critical views and arguments. In sum, this study aims to show that trade conflicts and competition between the Zheng family and the Dutch in the 17th century have impacted particularly the Chinese traders in the Malay Archipelago. This is because both of these powers are seen trying to assume the role which had hitherto been played by these Chinese merchants as a strong competitor in the marine trade in the east and southeast of the Malay Archipelago. In this regard, discussions on this topic would contribute to a better understanding of the big powers competing in the region to dominate the Straits of Malacca. Additionally, this study sets to prove that private trading activities in the Malay Archipelago which flourished during the 17th century was built and developed by the Zheng family from Taiwan and not merely attributed to the Chinese traders from China.

Itinerario, 2014