486 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [Jan. 1, 1900. 
permanent form of administration, which reaches 
its highest pinacle when Coen, one of the boldest 
and most clear sighted governors that ever served 
the Company's cause iu the East Indies, pro- 
claims Batavia the centre of the Dutch forces. 
Holland had become one of the first powers in 
Europe; but the wonderful possessions of the 
Dutch East-India Company in India are of a 
strictly private character, governed by officials 
controlled by the Company only, and the State it- 
self has not the slightest intention to join the dis- 
tant isles to the Mother-country, Monopoly in 
the Moluccan Archipelago is all that is desired, 
and the Company's officials know perfectly well 
how to safe-guard its interest iu this respect. 
We need not enter into the Company's struggle 
for self-preservation which on many occasions 
might have been deemed entirely hopeless, if the 
opponents in Europe had been fully possessed of 
the facts which have since been brought to our 
knowledge. If however we may pass in silence 
the details of war between the Dutch and other 
European nations, we may not wholly do so with 
regard to the struggle between the natives and 
the Dutch in India, which fills many an inglorious 
page in the history of those days. 
As a rule writers of the present century have 
criticised the policy of the Oost Indische Compagnit 
in a most severe way, especially with regard to 
the hard measures carried out in the Banda is- 
lands, and we shall certainly not defend any of 
these unscrupulous acts which were forced upon 
the Bandauese in order to maintain the Monopoly 
of spices in Indian Waters. 
It is clear however that in judging of past 
times, the critic has to bear in mind first of all 
that in the beginning of the 17th century the ideas 
about humanity in war were radically different 
from what they are now. Secondly, equity should 
allow for many an act of bloodshed provoked by 
the constant treachery of the Asiatic tribes, seem- 
ingly eager to grant any amount of privileges, 
solemnly pledged when they considered themselves 
compelled to submit, but as eagerly scouted, as 
soon as they thought the moment fit to do so, 
either on instigation or by instinct. 
No doubt the self-evident want of understand- 
ing of two races so different in character, religion 
and tradition, must be taken into account when 
judging any shortcomings on either side which, 
■ originating in the slaughter of the isolated Dutch 
forces and constant mutinies, ended in a complete 
submission of the monopolised islands and almost 
wholesale massacre of the Baudanese in 1622. 
Whatever we may have to say in these matters 
and wherever our sympathies lie, there is this tes- 
timony which speaks clearly in favour of the 
Dutch rulers, that when in later years the politi- 
cal full of Holland caused the nation to neglect 
the Indian Archipelago, tlie natives complained 
about their being left to thems'elves and protested 
for fear of being wholly abandoned by those 
wliora they had learned to consider their regular 
masters. 
When in 1796 the Spice Islands became English 
for the first time ( they were brought under the 
English fiag for another short period once more in 
1810), the natives still contimiedto consider them- 
selves as subjects of the Dutch and they hoisted 
even then the Dutch flag on all festive occa- 
sions.* 
This single fact appeals to every impartial critic. 
It exonerates neither the rash acts of cruelty nor 
the merciless despotism exercised by the Conquer- 
ors, but it goes far towards excusing them. 
What we needs must blame looking back over so 
many years is the general blindness of those who, 
pretending to govern India on sound commercial 
principles, did not even see that the miserable 
Monopoly was the cause of endless war and should 
in the end drain Indian resources. 
As unwise as the man in the fable who killed 
the goose with the golden eggs to get all the 
profit at once, the rulers of India, alarmed at the 
number of trees " that hear yold," rashly cut 
down so many that they drove the people 
away and wealth with them. 
By restricting the cultivation of nutmegs and 
mace to Banda Neira, Lonthoir and Ay, the 
monopoly caused a great deal of injury to the 
Moluccan Archipelago. By compelling all the 
produce — nutmegs and mace — to come to Europe, 
it crippled the trade, which had ever found its 
natural outlets in Asia, Severe control and con- 
stant vigilance of course could do something te 
maintain the monopoly in the days of the 
Company's utmost glory, but it is easilj' 
understood, that against the unnatural law, 
smuggling was ever on the alert for an 
opportunity to detract the much cherished spices 
from the Company's stores either with or without 
the connivance of the Company's own officials. 
Though estimates differ it is not at all inad- 
missible that over one-fifthf of the yearly Banda 
produce of nutmegs and mace was diverted by 
smuggling in Indian waters, and such notwith- 
standing the excessive punishment inflicted upon 
the offenders. 
Besides the regular loss caused by smuggling, 
there was another which very often swallowed 
t^-e profit for years, viz., the zolcanic eruptions 
alternating with storms or parching drought, 
causing heavy loss of full-bearing trees, whilst 
moreover the scarcity of hands in years of abun- 
dant crops is met with in nearly each of the 
volumes, which deal with this part of the Com- 
pany's arduous administration. 
If we could separate the Moluccan adminis- 
tration from the complex of the Company's exten- 
sive household reaching South as far as Australia, 
and Eastward as far as Japan, including the 
stations at the Cape, in Ceylon and on the Ooast 
of Malabar, a deficit would be shown by many 
years, that were considered extremely profitable 
by the shareholders in former days. 
Leaving aside the years of enormous profit in 
the Indian trade, which may be reckoned to 
have lasted till 1693, there remains a period of 
more than one Century when the returns hardly 
cover the expenses, nay even entail a loss, and we 
may safely state that the Moluccas were for a 
good deal the cause of the disastrous end of a 
management, commenced under the auspices of 
inexhaustible wealth. 
* George Windsor Earl, 
i' La Perouse, Crawford. 
