Abstract
The arrival of European maritime powers altered the trading patterns and shipping practices of the Arabian Sea region. One development was the establishment by Europeans of commercial bases known as factories. These factories were often built according to European styles, which added a new and very different spectacle to the local environment. This research note focuses on a small factory established by the Dutch at Vengurla on the Konkan Coast, which forms part of the western seaboard of India. The factory was established in 1637 and was under direct administration of Batavia (Jakarta). It initially had a strategic function in the context of the rivalry between the Dutch and the Portuguese based at Goa. Eventually, as the political scenario changed, the factory began to trade in local products. It was finally abandoned in 1682, and although it now lies in ruins it offers an insightful case study of how and why factories operated in the European maritime empires of the early modern era.
The tranquil waters and peaceful trade of the Indian coast began to experience turbulence with the arrival of the Portuguese from 1498, when Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. The traditional spice trade from India, dominated by the Arabs, was challenged by the Portuguese who wanted their own share of this lucrative business. With naval superiority assured through their shipboard artillery, the Portuguese used force to enter the trade and establish their control over local traders and shippers. They continued to dominate the Indian spice trade until other European trading powers began to appear in Indian waters and challenge the Portuguese monopoly of the Cape of Good Hope route. The Dutch and the British East India companies were central to this challenge. 1
The Dutch East India Company was created in 1602 as the ‘United East India Company’, or Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC). This multinational company survived for 200 years and issued negotiable stocks and developed into one of the biggest and most powerful trading and shipping companies of the time. The VOC rapidly overshadowed its European rivals in the Asian trade. The VOC sent over a million Europeans to work in Asia on 4785 ships and netted 205 million tonnes of Asian trade during the 1602–1796 period. The rest of Europe combined, by contrast, sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, with the fleet of the British East India Company, the VOC’s nearest competitor, extending to just 2690 ships, which carried just 20 per cent of the goods (by tonnage) carried by the VOC. For much of the seventeenth century, the VOC generated huge profits from its spice monopoly.
In the process of its expanding trade the Dutch began to establish a network of bases that ranged from simple offices and warehouses to massive commercial bulwarks. The largest base, which lay at the centre of the VOC’s Asian operations, was situated at Batavia (Jakarta). The VOC began its trade with India in 1604 and established factories and warehouses from Surat on the west coast to Calcutta on the east. The first Dutch factory in India was established at Masulipatanam in 1605, followed by Pulicat (1610), Surat (1616), Bimilipatam (1641), Karikal (1645), Chinusura (1653), Kasimbazar, Barangore, Patna, Balasore, Nagapatam (all in 1658), and Cochin (1663). 2
One of the smaller, less prominent factories was established at Vengurla, just 50 kilometres north of Goa, a Portuguese territory. Vengurla lies at the heart of South Konkan, and had been a harbour and a trading centre since ancient times. The port was also used by pirates as a place of retreat. In the sixteenth century, the port town was under the control of the Bijapur Sultanate. The Dutch base was initially established in Konkan for strategic reasons, but over time these became less significant and the commercial advantages of the place were exploited as much as possible. The Bijapur Sultanate had offered military help to the Dutch to undermine the Portuguese in exchange for trading rights and concessions wherever they wanted. But early efforts did not materialize into anything concrete. The British and the Dutch, who wanted to oust the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean, undertook joint operations against the Portuguese by blockading their stronghold at Goa from 1621, but this venture only lasted a couple of seasons. When plans for an annual blockade of Goa were initiated, it became necessary to have an alternative port facility nearby. The base was to act as victualing station for Dutch and British ships. Vengurla was identified as a suitable location, and permission was obtained from Adil Shah of Bijapur to setup a factory there in 1637. This was quickly achieved, with the Vengurla factory operating under the direct control of Batavia.
A group of Dutch merchants led by Leendart Janszoons gained permission from Adil Shah in 1639 to build a fort-like structure at a cost of 3000 guilders. The construction was not fully completed until 1655. This small factory was first headed by Pieter Koopman. The establishment of the factory at Vengurla was a great strategic loss to the Portuguese, as Vengurla was just 50 miles north of Goa and readily provided supplies to the Dutch fleet. The primary function of this factory, with its watch tower (uitKijkpost), was to monitor the Portuguese at Goa. The factory also served as a victualing base for the Dutch fleet that annually blockaded Goa from 1636 to 1644 to keep the Portuguese fleet away from the Portuguese–Dutch war in Malacca and Ceylon, which raged until the 1660s. This factory also became a haven for the Dutch spies.
Vengurla itself was a small town situated between the hills and a river and the Dutch factory. The town had a market with an east–west orientation. The lodge was located on the south side of the town on the right bank of the river. This location was just one or two kilometres from the shore upstream, more or less in the classical fashion of the VOC’s Indian factories, which were all fairly sheltered, but still close to the open sea. There was a hill which provided a good view of the sea and passing shipping (see Figures 1 and 2).
Vengurla in 1678.
Vengurla from the air, 2016.
The lodge
Vengurla’s main building was surrounded by fort-like walls and four bastions guarded with guns and cannons. There was a big trench all around the fort, which was accessed via a turn bridge. Inside there were various structures, notably a castle and store houses, which developed as an increasing quantity and diversity of commodities arrived and departed the port from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. The main lodge was probably built in or shortly after 1637, and was an attractive, T-shaped building with cross vaults and beautiful stucco. Originally, it had an earthen rampart, but in 1643 an application was submitted to the Governor in Batavia for the construction of a rectangular stone wall with an octagonal (‘ront’) and a square turret. The lodge, which was surrounded by a dry moat, was accessible only through a larger plot of 40 by 40 rods (40 rods are about 150 m). To the right of the entrance was the garden (17 x 14 rods), with a well, gazebo and laundry. To the left of the entrance were Muslim graves, as well as homes for the lodge’s gardeners and slaves.
The orientation of the main building was north–south in a rectangular shape, with a gallery on the east–west axis. Between the north–west corner and the gallery, probably surrounding the entire building, was a stairway in a T shape that gave access to the upper floors. Under the stairs was a dispensary and a pantry, while to the right-hand side of the entrance were a garden, a well, a gazebo and a place to wash. To the left were homes for gardeners and slaves. Due to the warm climate, the lodge floors and ceilings were plastered in a decorative pattern. On the second floor, the attic had lighter walls with many openings that offered panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. There was small stairway to reach the upper floors. The east façade of the building was divided into three arches and double pilasters, which appeared to be supporting columns and an articulated extension of the wall, but in fact had only an ornamental function. Figures 3 to 6 provide various perspectives of the factory.
‘The Dutch Factory at Vengurla’ (Rober Pouget, c.1850).
The Dutch factory at Vengurla, 1909.
A plan of the fort in 1726.
Vengurla factory in the twenty-first century.
Trade
Until 1673, the Vengurla office was directed by Batavia, and then for three years it was administered by Surat, before in 1676 becoming part of the VOC Malabar area. The factory had to sustain itself and therefore engaged in trade. Though levels of business fluctuated due to local disturbances and riots, for much of the second half of the seventeenth century Vengurla belonged to one of the few profitable factories in the Malabar area. As a consequence, the town grew and received increasing numbers of trading ships from many countries. The Dutch establishments at Batavia used to send Indonesian spices such as cloves and nutmeg, as well as non-precious metals such as lead, to Vengurla. As Om Prakash states: ‘The position of Vengurla was very different from that of major Dutch factories such as those in Bengal and the Coromandel Coast to which the overwhelming bulk of the exports from Batavia consisted of precious metals’. 3 Moreover, the Vengurla trade had to be sufficient to maintain the lodge and support the fleet used for annual blockade of Goa, as well as to pay for the goods procured for export to various parts of Asia and Europe. The sale of goods was accomplished with the help of local merchants.
The unusually high prices in respect of Indonesian spices reflected the monopolistic rights of the VOC. Persia became a major market for the goods exported from Vengurla. ‘The company trade between Vengurla and Persia was mainly an export trade with each other with the balances being settled multilaterally through Batavia’. 4 At the outset, pepper was a staple item of trade to Persia but the company soon realized that they paid 30 to 40 times more than the local Konkani merchants. Accordingly, by 1640, the VOC was considering withdrawing from the pepper trade as higher profits could be obtained, even if pepper was sent from Batavia. The trade in cardamom continued with profits of 72 per cent. By 1650, however, the trade to Persia had changed, with pepper replaced by coarse textiles, but this was short-lived as the textiles from Bengal were more in demand in Persia and the trade with Persia was contracting.
Small quantities of other goods were also sent from Vengurla to Coromandel, Batavia and Tonkin. The chief item of trade was rice, which returned a profit of 100 per cent. Other items including pepper, borax wheat and cotton yarns were sent to Batavia and on to Tonkin. From 1650 onwards, Vengurla sent cotton yarn directly to Holland: ‘the amount sent out in 1664 totalled up to 154,000 pounds, of which 29,000 pounds was intended for Holland and the remainder for Tonkin’. 5
As the Dutch established control over Cochin in 1633, the strategic importance of Vengurla came to an end. Orders from Batavia were not to close the factory, but to end expenditure on the collection of information on Portuguese activities, with the factory to keep in touch with Cochin. The commerce in lead, tin and spices (mainly pepper) was still prosecuted. The Vengurla factory continued to play a role as an important midway stop for the victualing of Dutch ships plying the waters between Surat and the Malabar Coast. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, some 50 paid staff worked at the lodge.
With the rise in conflicts between Shivaji and Bijapur, the Dutch chose to remain neutral. In 1663, they were informed by Shivaji that Vengurla would be brought under his control, at which point the Dutch re-affirmed their neutrality. Shivaji also invited them to establish a factory at Rajapur, and later in 1668 at Dabhol, but both invitations were rejected. The relentless skirmishing of the Maratha forces had begun to unsettle the Dutch. After Shivaji’s death in 1660, the political situation in the region became rather chaotic and peaceful trade was becoming impossible. In 1664, the lodge was attacked by local lords and by 1673 the state had become unsafe due to local robbers and the goods had to be moved to Coondapur. 6 At this time, there was a change in the policy of the VOC, with Surat now preferred for trade. Shortly thereafter in 1676, Vengurla was placed under the management of VOC Malabar. The Dutch eventually left the town in 1682 and the town came under the control of Khem Sawant of Sawantwadi. The factory was more or less abandoned by the VOC, with only a few staff remaining behind. Finally, in 1692, Batavia issued formal orders to close the Dutch factory at Vengurla once and for all, which precipitated the plundering of the base by Sarbat Khan.
The British assumed control of the fort and moved government offices into the premises. The offices were moved to the camp area in 1960 and the fort was left to rot, with all of its rich wooden structures being stolen over time. In 1974, the site was officially transferred to the Archaeological Survey of India. Indira Gandhi’s government initiated some restoration work, with the help of the Dutch government, but this were not pursued and the site is now a total ruin.
Footnotes
1.
F. F. Ambagtsheer and L. B. Wevers, ‘De VOC loge van Wingurla’, Bulletin Knob, 95, No. 5 (1995–1996), 171–83.
2.
R. J. Berendse, The Arabian Seas (New York, 2002).
3.
Om Prakash, ‘The Dutch Factory at Vengurla in the Seventeenth Century’, in A. R. Kulkarni et al., eds., A Mediaeval History of Deccan (Mumbai, 1996), 187–8.
4.
Prakash, ‘The Dutch Factory’, 188.
5.
Prakash, ‘The Dutch Factory’, 189.
6.
Sen Surendranath, ‘The Angrias and the Dutch’, The Calcutta Review, LXVI (1938); Sen Surendranath, Studies in Indian History: Historical Records at Goa (Goa, 1993).