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Jan van Riebeeck

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Jan van Riebeeck

Jan Van Riebeeck as Commandeur of Malacca

Jan van Riebeeck (1619–1677) is best known for establishing the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, yet his brief and troubled tenure as Commandeur of Malacca (1662–1665) reveals the economic and diplomatic challenges of maintaining a strategically vital but financially unprofitable VOC outpost in the Straits of Malacca.[1] Appointed on 18 September 1662 to a rank lower than that of his predecessors, Riebeeck governed a town that had long been a shadow of its former self, its harbour blockaded for years and its importance for navigation seriously diminished.[1, pp. 173–174]

Administrative Context and Personal Difficulties

Riebeeck’s appointment to the lower rank of Commandeur rather than governor reflected the Company’s assessment that Malacca, making no profit, did not warrant a higher-paid officer.[1, p. 174] His predecessors—Jan van Twist, Jeremias van Vliet, Arnold de Vlamingh van Oudtshoorn, and Jan Thysz. Payart—had all held the governorship, and Thysz. in particular had risen from common sailor to Councillor Extraordinary of India.[1, p. 173] Riebeeck, a trained surgeon from a different social stratum, never attained the rank he sought; his repeated petitions to the Heren XVII for promotion to councillor of India, beginning in 1655 and continuing until 1674, were always refused, and he died in 1677 as clerk of the Council of India.[1, p. 174] The death of his wife, Maria Quevellerius, in November 1664 at the age of thirty-five, leaving him with four small girls, prompted his request to return to Batavia, which was granted in May 1665.[1, p. 174]

Economic and Diplomatic Dynamics

Malacca’s economy centred on the transshipment of tin and the sale of Company textiles. The town and its surroundings produced next to nothing; the small district was encompassed by jungle, and rice had to be imported from other trading countries.[1, p. 175] The best month was December, when Company ships arrived from Japan laden with copper, silver, lacquer-work, camphor and porcelain, and departed with tin and spices destined for Bengal, Coromandel, Surat, Ceylon and Persia.[1, p. 176] The Perak tin trade was particularly significant: after the Perak lodge was closed in 1663 and replaced by a guard ship at the river mouth, a “voluntary” navigation developed from Perak to Malacca, yielding approximately 738 bahar (a unit of roughly 187.5 kilograms) in 1663, though by 1665 no increase was expected as two-thirds of Perak’s population had disappeared.[1, p. 177] Relations with Kedah were more troubled, marked by blockades, the murder of Dutch residents in 1658, and persistent smuggling through the many estuaries.[1, pp. 178–179]

The financial trajectory under Riebeeck showed marked improvement. In 1662, expenditure of 228,806 guilders far exceeded receipts of 112,192; by 1665, receipts of 234,050 marginally surpassed expenditure of 230,423, with tolls contributing 62,502 guilders and commercial profits in Malacca amounting to 168,137.[1, p. 181] The Heren XVII described this favourable result as “completely unexpected” but withheld any word of appreciation for Riebeeck.[1, p. 182]

The Fortress Question and Departure

Riebeeck proposed reducing the fortress to a pentagon at an estimated cost of 200,000 guilders, which would allow a garrison reduction of 150 men and a yearly saving of 30,000 guilders.[1, p. 181] He began collecting materials but encountered difficulty obtaining stone. Before the work had proceeded far, the Heren XVII decided the fortress must remain as it was, partly because they considered his estimate too optimistic and partly because Malacca’s financial position had improved.[1, p. 181] When Riebeeck departed in October 1665, he handed over Company assets valued at 1,159,807 guilders to his successor, the Commandeur Balthasar Bort.[1, p. 182]

Research and Documentation

Coolhaas’s 1965 article fills a gap in the administrative history of Dutch Malacca by providing a detailed economic and diplomatic account of a period that had received little prior attention.[1] The study draws on the Dagh-Register van Batavia, the Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII (of which Coolhaas was himself the editor for the relevant volume), Pieter van Dam’s Beschrijvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, and the Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlandico-Indicum.[1, p. 180] The article serves as a companion piece to Coolhaas’s own edition of the Generale Missiven for the same period, and it situates Riebeeck’s Malacca tenure within the broader context of VOC financial management in the western quarter of the Company’s trading sphere.[1]

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. W.Ph. Coolhaas (1965). Malacca under Jan van Riebeeck JMBRAS 38(2): 173–182.