scholarly journals An Instrumental Connection. Economic Diplomacy, International Arms Trade and Overseas Aspirations between Portugal and Sweden, 1640–80

2022 ◽  
pp. 105-132
Author(s):  
Edgar Pereira
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Export Sector ◽  
Economic Diplomacy ◽  
Iron Copper ◽  
Arms Trade ◽  
Naval Stores ◽  
Colonial Settlement

This paper offers an Iberian perspective on Sweden’s ‘Age of Greatness’ by looking at the intersection of international politics and trade involving Portugal and Sweden after Portugal regained its independence from Spain at the end of 1640. Sweden’s exports of timber, naval stores, iron, copper, and weapons to Braganza Portugal are seen in the context of the Portuguese wars for overseas trade and colonial settlement against the Dutch Republic and the struggle for autonomy against Spain in its home turf. By revisiting the accounts of diplomatic actors, this contribution will discuss how Portugal turned to Sweden for diplomatic recognition and new consumption markets and carriers for its export sector. It will also be shown how Sweden stood to gain by adding a new customer to its military export sector and by tapping into Portugal’s colonial goods and salt, while at the same time it entertained the prospect of using the Portuguese offshoots in West Africa and the East Indies to further its ambitions in overseas trade.

Heavy and light money in the Netherlands Indies and the Dutch Republic: dilemmas of monetary management with unit of account systems

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem G. Wolters
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Trading Company ◽  
Netherlands Indies ◽  
Account System

AbstractIn its Asian operations the Dutch United East Indies Company (VOC) (1602–1798) acted both as a territorial ruler and as a trading company. The company shipped large amounts of precious metals to Asia, both in the form of bullion and as coins, to pay for its trade and to provide currency for the areas under its control. The Company faced the problem that silver coins rapidly disappeared from circulation, as demand for silver was high in Asia. The Company attempted to manage the problem with a monetary policy using a unit of account, modelled after the policy of the Dutch Republic. It turned out that the two purposes of the money of account system, viz., putting the bookkeeping on a systematic basis and managing the currency in circulation, were conflicting. The first demanded a fixed unit of account, the second demanded a flexible policy of linking and de-linking the unit of account to real coins. Although the Company managed to muddle through this dilemma, it only succeeded in finding temporary solutions.

The tektite problem

1937 ◽  
Vol 24 (156) ◽  
pp. 503-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
West Africa ◽  
South China ◽  
Ivory Coast ◽  
Volcanic Glass ◽  
Similar Material ◽  
Alluvial Deposits ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Dutch East Indies ◽  
Puzzling Problem

The natural glasses, found as small corroded pieces scattered on the earth's surface and in alluvial deposits in a few limited areas, have long presented a puzzling problem; and many theories have been propounded to explain their origin. They have been known in southern Bohemia and western Moravia since before 1787; and similar material has since been found in the Dutch East Indies, Malay States, Australia, Tasmania, French Indo-China, south China, Philippine Islands, and quite recently in the Ivory Coast in West Africa [M.A. 6-106]. These glasses are distinct in chemical composition from volcanic glass (obsidian), and there are no volcanoes in the districts where they are found. They have been given the names m oldavites, billitonites, austral ites, Darwin glass, indoch inites, rizalitcs [M.A. 4-422; 6-403], &c.

scholarly journals The value of Admiral Matelieff's writings for studying the history of Southeast Asia,c.1600–1620

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-435
Author(s):  
Peter Borschberg
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Political Power ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Malay Peninsula ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
East Indies ◽  
History Of

Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge (also Cornelis Cornelisz. Matelief) was a director of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and fleet commander of a voyage to the East Indies in 1605–08. On his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, he wrote a series of epistolary memorials, or ‘discourses’, in which he recommended sweeping reforms in the way in which the VOC conducted business in Asia. Not only did these recommendations serve as a blueprint for subsequent developments of the VOC during the early seventeenth century, the documents also made astute observations about the dynamics of trade, geopolitics, agency of the Asian rulers as well as political power on the Malay Peninsula, Java, Maluku and Borneo. This article problematises these primary sources and demonstrates how they can be profitably mined for the history of trade and diplomacy of early seventeenth century Southeast Asia.

Between Local and Colonial Perceptions: The History of Slum Clearances in Lagos (Nigeria), 1924-1960

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liora Bigon
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
British Rule ◽  
History Of ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
Colonial Settlement

AbstractFollowing the establishment of the British rule in Lagos in the mid-19th century, the pre-colonial settlement became most central in West Africa, economically and administratively. Yet, scarce resources at the disposal of the colonial government and its exploitive nature prevented any serious remedy for the increasingly pressing residential needs. This article examines slum clearances in Lagos from the early 20th century until the de-colonization era in Nigeria (the 1950s), from a perspective of cultural history. This perspective reveals the width of the conceptual gaps between the colonizers and the colonized, and the chronic mutual misunderstanding regarding the nature of slums and the appropriate ways to eliminate them. Tracing the indigenous perceptions and reactions concerning slum clearance shows that the colonial situation was far from being an overwhelmingly hegemonic one.

England’s ‘Natural Frontier’

2019 ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Charles-Édouard Levillain
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Parliamentary Debates

The purpose of this chapter is to examine Marvell’s attitude to the Low Countries, with a special interest in his Dutch connections. The Low Countries included the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands, two political and religious entities usually analysed separately in the historiography on the 1660s and 1670s. Marvell’s understanding of the condition of Flanders was based on his personal experience of international politics as well as a wide array of sources, ranging from Protestant and Catholic polemics to parliamentary debates. A combined knowledge of Dutch and Spanish sources is particularly useful in shedding light on the porous border that existed between Protestant and Catholic propaganda when it came to the designation of Louis XIV as Europe’s arch-enemy and aspiring universal monarchy. This article comes as the first attempt to reflect on the existence of a ‘Hapsburg connection’ in Marvell’s work.

scholarly journals Hugo Grotius’s De societate publica cum infidelibus, Justifying overseas expansionism or religious toleration?

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 422-439
Author(s):  
Marc de Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Unpublished Manuscript ◽  
East Indian ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
Legal Position

Summary This article provides an analysis of an unpublished manuscript of Hugo Grotius, entitled De societate publica cum infidelibus, ‘On public partnership with infidels’. In the text, Grotius examines the legal conditions under which Christians may enter into treaties and alliances with non-Christians. Grotius’s text has been interpreted by Peter Borschberg and Martine van Ittersum as a justification of the Dutch commercial and military policies in the East Indies. However, as this article shows, Grotius probably conceived of De societate as a more general treatise, which related not only to the East Indian context, but also to the domestic debate about the legal position of non-Christians in the Dutch Republic. The same arguments that served as a justification for overseas expansionism could thus serve as a justification for religious toleration in the domestic context.

scholarly journals Hugo Grotius’s De societate publica cum infidelibus, Justifying overseas expansionism or religious toleration?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Marc de Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Unpublished Manuscript ◽  
East Indian ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
Legal Position

Summary This article provides an analysis of an unpublished manuscript of Hugo Grotius, entitled De societate publica cum infidelibus, ‘On public partnership with infidels’. In the text, Grotius examines the legal conditions under which Christians may enter into treaties and alliances with non-Christians. Grotius’s text has been interpreted by Peter Borschberg and Martine van Ittersum as a justification of the Dutch commercial and military policies in the East Indies. However, as this article shows, Grotius probably conceived of De societate as a more general treatise, which related not only to the East Indian context, but also to the domestic debate about the legal position of non-Christians in the Dutch Republic. The same arguments that served as a justification for overseas expansionism could thus serve as a justification for religious toleration in the domestic context.

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