The Dutch presence in Yemen has been welldocumented for more than two decades by C. G. (Kees) Brouwer, whosepreviously reviewed study on Mocha (See YemenUpdate #40 (1998) was a gem. Thepresent volume provides a broader view of the trade history betweenthe United East India Company and Yemen during the 17th century andfirst half of the 18th century. In fact, this is a collection ofseven previous studies published betwwwn 1978 and 1988. A couple ofthe article republished here have been translated into English, somuch will be new to the majority of us who find it rather daunting todecipher Dutch articles. Once again, anyone who has an academicinterest in this time period or the Red Sea/Indian Ocean tradenetwork should have a copy of this book. To order the book, contactD'Fluyte Rarob, Ceintuurbaan 81, 1072EW Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The primary value of the text is its richdocumentation, especially bringing together in one volume a number ofarticles spread in sources that may be difficult to locate. There isa fair amount of repetition, as is to be expected from a collectionof articles rather than a continuous narrative. As the table ofcontents indicates, much more than trade is covered in the articles.One learns about people, prominent Yemenis and a series of Dutchadventurers and merchants, as well as the trading context in itspolitical dimension. The chapter (5) on Willem de Milde meeting theTurkish Beglerbegi is a fascinating historical reconstruction --using a variety of sources -- of a specific event.
Before all else, it is a pleasure toacknowledge the level of scholarship to be found in the articlescollected in this volume. It is a tribute that articles written backover two decades have not lost their value. Brouwer uses a largenumber of primary and secondary sources in several languages. Inaddition, he has an excellent track record of stepping outside theacademic ivory tower and communicating with the public. Chapter 7, anexcerpt of which is reproduced here, was written to accompany anexhibit at the Tropenmuseum in 1988-1989 on the role of the UnitedEast India Company in Yemen. The book is quite user friendly with anumber of indices, separated according to persons, places, ships, andsubjects. There is also an extensive listing of the Dutch recordsreferred to in the studies.
One of the laudable aspects of Brouwer'spresent text, also evident in the volume on Mocha, is how readable itis. If I may beg the author's indulgence for a moment, the subject ofdata about 17th century trade in the archives of a company could beas dry as the Tihama soil surrounding Mocha. I can only imagine theamount of really boring and useless information gathered in thebusiness mode of the day and the endless tallies of what was boughtand sold. But the author has a flair for making his materialinteresting to read about. In reading through the chapters Isometimes found myself thinking what a good mystery could be spun offof the Dutch experience. Think of poor soul Herman van Gill, whoabout six months after opening the first Dutch trading office inMocha in 1621 suddenly died. Was he poisoned by a jealous Indianmerchant? What secrets did he find out about the local Turkishofficials? Did the qat not agree with him? What a novel novel couldcome of this stuff...
Plates
Maps
Abbreviations
1. Dutch archival sources for the economichistory of Yemen in the early seventeenth century
2. Under the watchful eye of Mimî ibn'Abd Allâh: The voyage of the Dutch merchant Pieter van denBroecke to the court of Dja'far Bâshâ in Sana'a,1616
3. The expedition to Yemen in 1620 by Pietervan den Broecke (servant of the VOC), according to his book ofresolutions
4. Rediscovered after more than threecenturies: Pieter van den Broecke's original Resolutieboeckconcerning Dutch trade in Northwest India, Persia and SouthernArabia, 1620-1625
5. Wilhelm de Milde, KânîShalabî and Fadlî Båashåa or, A servant ofthe Dutch East India Company received in audience by the Beglerbegiof Yemen, 1622-1624
6. A stockless anchor and an unsaddledhorse: Ottoman letters addressed to the Dutch in Yemen, first quarterof the 17th century
7. The United East India Company (VOC) inYemen, 1614-1759: exhibition at the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, 14 Dec.1988 - 3 Sept. 1989
Dynastic Tables
Dutch Records
Bibliography
Indices
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION [pp.223-228]
When in 1498 Vasco da Gama ventured thecrossing from Africa to India he relied on an Arab pilot. this is notsurprising as the Arabs had sailed the Indian Ocean for ages. Theytransported spices from the Indonesian Archipelago, textiles fromIndia, and ivory from Africa to Aden. After transshipment, suchcommodities found their way to Egypt, Syria and, finally, Venice. ThePortuguese penetrated by force of arms into this commercial networkand established a maritime empire with Goa as its centre. In order totransfer the spice route, via the Cape, to Lisbon, they wanted toblock the Red Sea. From 1513 onwards they launched attacks on Aden,Jedda, and Suez. In 1538, therefore, the Ottoman Sultan SüleymanI ('the Magnificent') dispatched a war fleet to India to protectMuslim trade and the Holy Cities (Mecca and Medina). This naval forcesuffered a defeat off Diu, but conquered Aden. Thus the Red Seabecame a Turkish inland sea, and Yemen an Ottoman province for ahundred years.
In 1609 the first ship of the English EastIndia Company appeared before Aden, some years later followed by ajacht ('yacht') of the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC),i.e., 'United East India company'). Far into the eighteenth century,both trading companies would continue sailing to Yemen. althoughthere was fierce competition between them, they ousted, in fraternalcooperation, the Portuguese from a great number of their Asianbases.
Establishment of the South Arabian office(1614-1638)
On 30 August 1614, after a tiring journeyalong coasts for the greater part unknown, the Nassau reached Aden asthe first Dutch ship ever. The Turkish Governor of the city, however,'Alî Âghâ, considering the highly-laden but heavilyarmed vessel to be a war craft, expelled it. The opperkoopman('senior merchant') did not have at his disposal a fermânissued by the Sultan, that is, an official document in which thesovereign instructed his subordinates to allow Dutch merchants to goashore and trade in Yemen.
On 25 January 1616, the Nassau, againcommanded by Van den Broecke, dropped anchor before Mocha(al-Mukhâ), the port city which in a short space of time hadcompletely eclipsed Aden. But again no permission was granted tofound a factory. Hereupon Van den Broecke resolved to set out on ajourney to the court in Sana'a, the capital. The company, which wasescorted by a platoon of Turkish soldiers under the command of theinterpreter and captain of the galleys, Mimî, reached that cityon 4 May. Although the reception in the Castle by Dja'farBâshâ, the province's Governor General, was magnificent,during an audience on 12 May the latter turned down the merchant'srequest for approval of the establishment of an office. He feared anexpansion of Dutch power in the Red Sea. Christians, moreover, werenot allowed to live ion the neighborhood of the Holy cities withoutthe consent of the Sultan. Subsequently, the Nassau's Commander leftSouthwest Arabia empty-handed.
In 1618, the Sultan in Istanbul granted theCompany the desired fermân. This decree warranted full freedomof movement, establishment and trade in the Yemeni province, for aslong as the servants of the VOC relinquished unfriendly acts. In 1620Van den Broecke, passing through on his way to Surat in India, againmade the harbour of Aden. There he left Herman van Gill behind. Thissenior merchant travelled to al-Mukhâ, where he hoisted theflag over the first Dutch trading office in Yemen in early 1621.After his sudden death, barely six months later, Willem de Milde wasappointed head of the comptoir or factory.
Regular voyages to al-Mukhâ(1638-1655)
After the Turks has been expelled from Yemenin 1635, the flute the Rarob under Van den Broecke went on areconnoitering expedition to al-Mukhâ. From there Cornelis vande Graeff travelled in December to Dawrân, the residence of theself-styled Imâm Husayn. With the consent of the latter, Dutchtrade got under way again.
Year after year Company ships called atal-Mukhâ, under the command of competent merchants such asJohan Sigismund Wurffbain (in 1640, with the 't Vliegende Hart) andWillem Aleman (in 1645, with the Overschie). The office wassemi-permanently manned. Strong fluctuations in the market andcutthroat competition by Indian traders, however, prevented theCompany's Arabian factory from blossoming. Some of the commodities itsupplied from the East, such as pepper and textiles, were even makinga loss. The building up of their own distribution system in theYemeni hinterland was not permitted as this would have sidelined theArab middlemen. Only in the coffee trade some profit wasrealized.
In 1655 the branch office of the VOC inal-Mukhâ was shut down, after the Company had entertained forhalf a century the hope, literally, to cash in on its Arabian trade.The VOC, after all, did not dispatch its flutes to al-Mukhâ forreturn goods, but for comptanten or 'cash', i.e. golden Hungarian orTurkish ducats and silver Spanish reals. The cash was required forthe purchase, elsewhere in Asia, of those commodities which theCompany sought to sell in Europe.
However, there was almost no demand for themerchandise the VOC supplied to al-Mukhâ: pepper, cloves,nutmeg, mace, benzoin, sandalwood, camphor, lead, sugar, chinawear,etc. Only spices and porcelain paid a reasonable profit. Pepper fromSumatra and cloth from India, on the other hand, proved to be nothingless than a disastrous trade item. The VOC was no match for thenumerous, cheaply operating, Arab, Persian, and above all, Indianmerchants. Sometimes small lots of myrrh, frankincense, and opiumwere purchased. In fact, cauwa or 'coffee' was the sole product whichwas shipped more systematically and in larger quantities; sold inBasra and Gamron (Bandar 'Abbâs), this product yielded someadditional cash.
Incidental voyages(1655-1696)
After 1655, for no less than four decades,only incidental voyages to al-Mukhâ were organized by the VOCin 1658, 1661, 1669, 1670, 1677, 1679, and 1684. Even when, towardsthe end of the century the call for coffee beans in Europe rose, theCompany could initially confine itself to buying it in Surat andMalabar from the hands of Indian traders. Actually, the VOC was notsorry at all about the predatory raids by the so-called 'French'privateer Hubert Hugo in the Red Sea, in the early 1660's.
Prosperity and decline of the Dutch trade(1696-1759)
For coffee, in particular, regular tradewith al-Mukhâ was resumed in 1696. A decade later, in 1706, areal boom set in with the arrival of Johan Ketelaer. Coffee beans,then exclusively destined for the European market, were purchased inal-Mukhâ and Bayt al-Fakîh as well. To this end huge sumsof money from the Netherlands were required. Their own sailing route,via Ceylon and the Cape, was prescribed for the special coffeevessels.
In 1718 the coffee price in Yemen reached arecord level as a result of both the fierce competition amongst theTurkish, English, French, Belgian, and Dutch buying agents, and thesupply running short. At the same time, auction prices in theNetherlands were dropping. The VOC reacted by extending its owncoffee cultivation on Java. In 1724 the Javanese production surpassedthe Yemeni purchases. Thus, a permanent factory in al-Mukhâbecame superfluous.
Nonetheless, the Company initially continueddispatching ships to Southwest Arabia. Not only did some consumersprefer the Yemeni flavour to the Javanese, but the presence of aDutch vessel in al-Mukhâ's harbour also boosted the price atthe expense of competing companies. This, of course, was highlyfavourable to the Javanese beans. After 1739 only incidental voyagesto Yemen were realized. In about 1759 al-Mukhâ disappearedentirely from the books of the VOC.
During the early decades of the seventeenthcentury, Yemen, an eyâlet of the Ottoman Empire, passed througha bloody war of liberation under the leadership of the ImâmKâsim al-Mansûr bi-'llâh and his sons which in 1635resulted in the expulsion of the Turkish occupying armies. Halfwaythrough this final stage of foreign rule, in the autumn of 1614, theDutch 'yacht' the Nassau cast anchor in the roads of Aden. Theaudience granted by the Sandjakbegi, 'Alî Âghâ, tothe 'senior merchant' Pieter van den Broecke, proved to be the firstof a long series of encounters between merchants of the VerenigdeOostindische Compagnie ('United East India Company'), VOC) andTurkish or Yemeni authorities that would not come to an end before c.1760. Throughout this lengthy period of time, the Dutch Republicranked as a maritime and economic superpower and the VOC, whosesphere of influence stretched from Yemen to Japan, as the world'sleading trade company.
In the course of the century and a half thatthe Company maintained a factory in the main port of SouthwestArabia, al-Mukhâ, its servants produced, apart from charts anddrawings, a vast flow of documents dealing with the climate, country,population, government, trade, shipping, and military politicaldevelopments. A considerable part thereof has come down to us in thearchives of the VOC, a small number in private collections. On thebasis of this material, crammed with valuable data about shippingmovements, sailing routes, commodities, prices, duties, coinage etc.,the historian, if sufficiently equipped with knowledge about Yemenand the VOC, language and script, is able to reconstruct not onlyDutch-Yemeni trade in particular, but also Southwest Arabia'smaritime economic past in general.
Page from al-Siddiqî,Istifâ' (ca. 1600) [p. 256]
