Friend or foe: an exploration of the modus operandi of the VOC in Palembang, 18th century

Abstract

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is often regarded as both a trading company and a sovereign authority that owed its success to cunning economic strategies which often entailed the extortion of local authorities by backing its demands with military threats or actual violent interventions. In this thesis, the dynamic between one of the Company’s outposts, the Palembang Sultanate, located in South-Sumatra, Indonesia, and the VOC is explored. While the VOC and its outposts have already been researched extensively, the resurfacing of documents that have not previously been described, in Huis van het boek warrants a new exploration of the relationship between the Palembang Sultanate and the VOC. The contents of these documents; MMW 10 A 10 – 54, MMW 10 B 36 – 144, and MMW S 174/27, are examined and compared to the extant sources and studies regarding the VOC’s presence in the Palembang Sultanate in the first half of the 18th century.