The arrival of the
Dutch in India,--the subjugation of Portugal by Spain, which circumstance
dispirited and weakened the Portuguese, and the greater attention which the
Spaniards were disposed to pay to their American than their Indian
commerce, seem to have been the causes which produced the ruin of the
Portuguese in India, and the establishment of the Dutch.
The Dutch pushed their new commerce with great vigour and zeal. In the year
1600 eight ships entered their ports laden with cinnamon, pepper, cloves,
nutmegs, and mace: the pepper they obtained at Java, the other spices at
the Moluccas, where they were permitted by the natives, who had driven out
the Portuguese, to establish factories.
In consequence of a wild and ruinous spirit of speculation having seized
the Dutch merchants, the government, in 1602, formed all the separate
companies who traded to India, into one; and granted to this extensive
sovereignty over all the establishments that might be formed in that part
of the world. Their charter was for twenty-one years: their capital was
6,600,000 guilders (or about 600,000_l_.) Amsterdam subscribed one
half of the capital, and selected twenty directors out of sixty, to whom
the whole management of the trade was entrusted.
From this period, the Dutch Indian commerce flourished extremely: and the
company, not content with having drawn away a large portion of the
Portuguese trade, resolved to expel them entirely from this part of the
world.
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