Guide to the Papers of Frederick Charles Danvers (as filmed by the AJCP), 1600-1700

Summary

Collection number:

M550 - M576

Creator:

Dutch East India Company

Extent:

112 items

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library, Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234).

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Transcripts, created by Frederick Danvers, of selected Dutch documents relating to India and the East held in the State Archives in The Hague. They deal with all activities of the Dutch in the East from the regulation of trade to the treatment of indigenous peoples, and particularly relations with Chinese, French, Spanish, English and Portuguese traders and officials.

Biographical / Historical:

The Dutch East India Company

{"corpname":"Dutch East India Company","content":["The","\u003cspan class='corpname'\u003eDutch East India Company\u003c/span\u003e (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was established in March 1602 following negotiations between the States-General and the directors of six companies that had been trading with the East Indies since 1596. It comprised six regional chambers based in Amsterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Rotterdam, Delft and Middleburg. In 1609 it decided to appoint a governor-general and council to regulate the activities of its captains and factors in Asia."]}

The Company's first fleet sailed to the East Indies in 1603 and its first trading post was at Banten in Java. It is initial interest was the Moluccas and the trade in cloves and nutmegs and it captured Amboina in 1605 and Ternate in 1606. Within a few years it had established factories over a vast area, including Siam, Japan, the Coromandel coast and Surat in India, and Sumatra. In 1619, after the Dutch had stormed the English fort at Jayakarta in the sultanate of Banten, the Company transferred its headquarters from the Moluccas. Jayakarta was renamed Batavia in 1621. The Dutch had major victories over the Portuguese, English and French and for most of the seventeenth century they were the dominant European power in Asia. They took control of Malacca in 1641, Ceylon in 1656, Ternate in 1662 and Makassar in 1667. By this time, the VOC had over 140 ships and 25,000 employees, making it by far the largest trading company in the world.

In the eighteenth century the Company consolidated its position in Java, but its military, shipping and financial power declined. By the later decades of the century it had lost all its settlements in India, Japan, Siam and the Persian Gulf. The Company was dissolved in 1800. Its surviving records were transferred to the General State Archives in The Hague in 1856.

Frederick Danvers

{"persname":"Frederick Charles Danvers (1833-1906)","content":"\u003cspan class='persname'\u003eFrederick Charles Danvers (1833-1906)\u003c/span\u003e was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and King's College in London. He studied civil and mechanical engineering before joining the East India Company as a writer in 1853. Following the nationalisation of the Company in 1858, he transferred to the India Office. He worked in several departments, in particular the public works department, where he became assistant secretary in 1875. In 1884 he was appointed the Registrar and Superintendent of Records, a position he held until his retirement in 1898. In 1891-1892 Danvers was sent to Lisbon to examine and transcribe Portuguese records relating to India. He then made three trips to The Hague in 1893-1895 and studied many of the seventeenth century records of the Dutch East India Company. He selected 2646 documents for transcribing, 1517 of which were subsequently translated into English."}

Danvers was the author of a number of publications on technical and engineering matters and later wrote reports and papers on Indian subjects. His most substantial work was The Portuguese in India (2 volumes, 1894)

Related

Existence and Location of Copies:

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1856212] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Existence and Location of Originals:

British Library, 96 Euston Road, London. Originally filmed at India Office Library, Blackfriars Road, London. Collection Reference: IOR/I/3/1-106. For further information, see British Library Manususcripts and Archives Catalogue: Reference Code: IOR/I/3/1-106. (http://hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100000000027.0x000062)

Conditions Governing Access:

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use:

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library, Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234).

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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