Table Of ContentBRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS
IN EUROPE AND ASIA
Britain and
the Netherlands
in Europe and Asia
Papers delivered to the
Third Anglo-Dutch Historical Conference
Edited by
J.
S. Bromley and
E. H. Kossmann
Palgrave Macmillan
1968
Editorial matter © J. S. Bromley and E. H. Kossmann
Text © Macmillan and Co Ltd
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1968
Published by
MACMILLAN AND CO LTD
Little Essex Street London WC2
and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras
Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg
The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne
The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd Toronto
St Martins Press Inc New York
Library of Congress catalog card no. 68-27096
ISBN 978-1-349-00048-7 ISBN 978-1-349-00046-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00046-3
PIAE MEMORIAE
PETRI GEYL
PRAECEPTORIS PRUDENTIS
SCRIPTORIS PRAECLARI
AMICI EGREGII
GRATO ANIMO
DEDICATUM
Contents
~~s 8
Preface 9
Abbreviations
I I
I The Netherlands and Europe in the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries by J. W. Smit, Columbia
University, New York I3
2 English Attitudes to Europe in the Seventeenth
Century by J. R.Jones, University ofEastAnglia 37
3 Aspects ofDutch Colonial Development in Asia in the
Seventsenth Century by M.A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz,
Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague 56
4 Early English Trade and Settlement in Asia, I602-I690
by D. K. Bassett, University ofH ull 83
5 Britain as a European Power from her Glorious
Revolution to the French Revolutionary War by
Alice C. Carter, London School of Economics and
Political Science no
6 The Netherlands in the European Scene, I813-1913
by]. C. Boogman, Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht 138
7 England and Europe, 1815-1914 by Alun Davies,
University College of Swansea 160
8 Britain as an Imperial Power in South-East Asia in
the Nineteenth Century by J. S. Bastin, School of
Oriental and African Studies, London 174
9 The Netherlands as an Imperial Power in South-East
Asia in the Nineteenth Century and After by S. L. van
der Wal, Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht 191
10 The Dutch Retreat from Empire by H. Baudet,
Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen 207
n The British Retreat from Empire by A. J. Hanna,
University of Southampton 234
Index 257
7
CONTENTS
MAPS
(i) Dutch and English in the Far East, ca. I68o 88--9
(ii) Malaysia and Indonesia in the nineteenth century 190
8
Preface
With the exception of Chapters 2 and 5, which were specially
written for it, this book consists of papers presented to the Third
Anglo-Dutch Conference of Historians, which took place in
London between 19 and 24 September 1966. The editors wish
to record their keen sense of obligation to the organisers of that
meeting- especially to Professors C. R. Boxer and S. T. Bindoff
and to Mrs Alice Carter - as well as to the Marquess of Salisbury,
the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, the University of
London and several of its constituent Colleges, whose hospitality
they were fortunate to enjoy.
There is another debt of gratitude which it is fitting to record.
While the Netherlands Ministry of Education has generously
continued to meet some oft he expenses oft he Dutch membership,
it is not the practice of the British government to subsidise con
ferences of this kind. This one accordingly owed much to the
kindly interest of the Shell Transport and Trading Company,
Unilever, and Philips Industries, all of whom affirmed their belief
in the value of academic traffic across the North Sea and in the
relevance ofhistorical study.
In spite of unavoidable changes of publisher and format, the
present volume may be regarded as the third in the series 'Britain
and the Netherlands' which was launched in 1960 by Chatto &
Windus, with the backing of St Antony's College, Oxford, and
J.
continued in 1964 by B. Wolters of Groningen, acting for the
Historical Institute of the University of Utrecht. A small addition
to the title on this occasion is intended as a rough indication of the
two major enquiries which formed the programme of the 1966
Conference.
The first of these might be described as the study, still in its
infancy, of changing attitudes in Britain and the Netherlands to
9
PREFACE
the respective situations, at times even to the raison d'ltre, of the
two countries in the highly unstable power-complex which
remains so prominent a feature of modem European history,
however much we should wish to stress (and still need to explore)
the cultural and institutional sympathies implied in the concept
of a Western civilisation. It is to be hoped that English and Dutch
historians will one day be able to confer on the subject of their
cultural and institutional environments, so much akin as the
world goes and yet so strangely and subtly diverse; and there is
need to explain further the contrasts of national mentality which
may strike the attentive reader in the pages here presented. He will
readily understand why their bias is towards Anglo-Dutch
relations in particular, and perhaps concede that these were of
outstanding importance, at least from the sixteenth to the
nineteenth century, to western Europe as a whole.
The history of Anglo-Dutch relations is of course £1led with
tensions and misunderstandings. For the origin of these, as every
one knows, the rivalry between two trading powers in Asia had
much to do, although there is still a great deal that we do not know
about the 'fort and factory' stage of European intervention in the
Far East. Less familiar to most people is the mutual distrust
bequeathed by the East India Companies to the territorial empires
which they founded. It seems hardly too much to say that the
later history of Netherlands India is only now being written,
while recent work has thrown a fresh light on British activity in
South-East Asia during the nineteenth century. The character of
both empires, and not least the motivation which gave rise to
them and influenced the imperial policy-making itself, is still
open to judgement. Meanwhile, historians face problems which
to the unwary may appear no more interesting than yet another
foregone conclusion in the chain of inevitability: the recent and in
many respects obscure history of the 'retreat from empire'. This
group of questions constitutes the second main theme of our
volume.
Since all the questions here discussed are large in proportion to
the scope ofa single chapter, and in many cases are questions under
active revision by scholars, it has been decided to add short reading
lists as an initial guide for the benefit of students or amateurs who
may be stimulated to further enquiry. An attempt has been made
to include representative collections of printed source materials as
IO
PR.EFACB
well as monographs and general histories in these 'bibliographies',
but of necessity they are as a rule highly selective. The place of
publication is London unless otherwise stated.
J. S. B.
E.H.K.
Abbreviations
ARA Algemeen Rijksarchief
BKI Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Neder
landsch-Indie. Uitgegeven door het Koninklijk Instituut voor
de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie
BM British Museum
CCM A Calendar of Court Minutes etc. of the East India Company
1635-1679, ed. E. B. Sainsbury (Oxford, 1907-38)
EFI The English Factories in India, 1618-1621 [1622-1623, etc.]
ed. W. Foster [Sir C. Fawcett, etc.] (Oxford, 19o6
[ 1908, etc.])
EIC East India Company
IOL India Office Library, London
PEC Parlementaire Enquetecommissie Regeringsbeleid, 194o-1945
(The Hague, 1956)
RGP Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatien
VKI Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-,
Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie
VOC V ereenigde Oostindische Compagnie
II
