The Dutch East India Company's Diplomatic Corpus as Seen through Dutch-Safavid Agreements

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K22012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0103:History, archaeology, museology, and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Daito Norifumi 東京大学, 史料編纂所, 助教 (00871237)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: オランダ東インド会社 / 外交 / 契約 / グロティウス / サファヴィー朝 / 史料編纂

Outline of Final Research Achievements

At the vanguard of Dutch overseas expansion, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) launched vast trading projects during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in the process became a crucial link in the diplomatic networks spanning Maritime Asia. However, did the Company ever have a clear idea of how those networks worked together? This study aims to answer this question through an investigation of the Company’s Contract-books (Contractboeken), collections of Dutch-language ‘agreements’ with Asian rulers, now preserved in the Netherlands and Indonesia. There are many gaps in the collections, but these supposed shortcomings offer a chance to understand highly practical ways the VOC dealt with the evolving networks of diplomacy in early modern Eurasia. As part of such adjustments, this study shows the increased need to acquire commercial privileges, and the consequent pursue of firmans or royal edicts from ruling elites in the Indian Ocean, such as the shahs of Safavid Iran.

Free Research Field

歴史学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

上記の先行研究は、オランダの法学者フーゴー・グロティウスの法理論に関するもので、会社による万民法の実践やオランダの植民地主義の発展について論じている。本研究で得られた知見により、それらの研究が、アジアの支配者たちとの関係に対する会社自身の理解の一部しか扱っていなかったことが明らかになった。またそうした関心の偏りが『蘭領東インド外交文書集』から引き継がれていること、オランダ東インド会社のアジア進出の実態をよりよく説明するためには、彼ら自身の手による「契約集」もあわせて参照する必要があることが明らかになった。