Article

Malacca in the eighteenth century: two Dutch governors’ reports; . Harrison

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Malacca in the eighteenth century: two Dutch governors’ reports; . Harrison

Brian Harrison translated and published two Dutch governors’ handover memoranda from Malacca in 1954, providing rare primary-source insight into VOC colonial administration and trade policy in the Straits of Malacca during the mid-eighteenth century. The documents, authored by Governor W.B. Albinus (1750) and Governor Thomas Schippers (1773), reveal how the Company managed its tin monopoly, navigated Malay succession politics, and adapted its commercial strategy as direct trade profits declined (pp. 24–25).

Summary

Albinus’s memorandum, written after six years in office, centres on the recovery of the tin trade from Perak, which he had secured through an exclusive contract in 1746 at a price of 26 new ducatoons per bahar of 375 lbs. (p. 26). He reports that by 1749 the post had fulfilled all home-country and Indies requirements—420,250 lbs. for the Netherlands, China, and Surat—plus an additional 100,125 lbs. shipped to Batavia, totalling 520,375 lbs. (p. 26). Albinus also details the complex succession politics in Perak, where the eighty-year-old king feared that Raja Alim might contest the Raja Muda’s succession, and recommends that both men be held under guard in Malacca as leverage over the young prince (pp. 27–28). On the gold trade, he acknowledges that the spread of Arab Sayyid merchants and the independent shipping of the kings of Achin and Kedah were steadily eroding the Company’s competitive position in the cloth-and-gold exchange, though it still yielded 53,640.7 guilders in gold dust from Patapahan and Indragiri in 1749 (pp. 28–29).

Schippers’s memorandum, written twenty-three years later, marks a fundamental shift in the post’s economic rationale. He states plainly that the Company’s own sales had been reduced to nothing and that the colony’s welfare now rested “purely and simply in trade”—that is, in the collection of customs duties on passing vessels rather than in direct commerce (p. 31). His advice is therefore less about expanding the tin monopoly and more about maintaining security, enforcing neutrality in the quarrels of the Prince Regent of Riouw and the King of Trengganu, and keeping the disloyal inhabitants of Naning and Rombouw in check (pp. 32–33). He also flags structural problems with the fortress, noting that the great gate’s vaulted roof was cracking from gun vibration and dry-season conditions, and that local bricklayers were making matters worse (p. 33).

Key Findings

  • Albinus secured an exclusive tin contract with Perak in 1746 at 26 new ducatoons per bahar (375 lbs.), later revised to 34 new round Spanish reals, and by 1749 had shipped a total of 520,375 lbs. of tin from the post (p. 26).
  • The gold trade, though declining due to competition from Sayyid merchants and independent Malay shipping, still produced 53,640.7 guilders in gold dust from Patapahan and Indragiri in 1749 (p. 29).
  • Albinus’s accounts show Malacca running credit balances of 90.8, 2,149.18, and 9,188.12 guilders for the fiscal years 1746–7, 1747–8, and 1748–9 respectively, after deducting incidental expenses (p. 29).
  • Schippers explicitly states that the Company had “long abandoned its sales, on which it never made any profit, and only persists with the collection of duties,” marking the post’s transition from a trading factory to a customs station (p. 31).
  • The 1750 memorandum records a VOC expedition dispatched on 10 January 1749 to the Nicobars and Sombreros to investigate mast-timber supplies, referencing James Lancaster’s 1602 account of the islands (pp. 30–31).
  • Schippers identifies the Prince Regent of Riouw (Dain Cambodia) and the King of Trengganu (with his son-in-law Raja Ismail) as the most dangerous political actors in the region, advising strict neutrality (p. 32).

Conclusion

Together, the two memoranda trace the arc of Dutch Malacca from an actively managed trading post dependent on the Perak tin monopoly to a diminished customs station whose value lay in taxing the traffic of others. Albinus’s document captures a moment of confident expansion and political manipulation, while Schippers’s reflects a more defensive, revenue-oriented posture in which the Company had conceded that its direct commercial role in the Straits was effectively over.

Context

  • The memoranda are drawn from the Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague (V.O.C. 2654, ff. 351–368 for Albinus; V.O.C. Overgekomende Papieren, 1773, vol. 2, ff. 795–98 for Schippers), confirming that such handover reports were a routine feature of VOC governance across its Asian settlements (pp. 24, 31).
  • Harrison’s translation follows his 1927 publication of Governor Bort’s 1678 report in the same journal, establishing a series of primary-source documents for the study of Dutch Malacca across two centuries (p. 24).

References