Introduction

Abstract

The extremely important propositions about the commercial traffic of the Indonesian Archipelago advanced by B. Schrieke in The Shifts in Political and Economic power in the Indonesian Archipelago in the sixteenth and seventeenth century and by J. C. van Leur in Indonesian Trade and Society ¹ inspired the present author to undertake the research which led to the writing of this book. Both Schrieke and Van Leur, however, started from sociological premisses. To supplement their work and to form a basis for comparison, an account is given here of the historical development of this trade, seen from a historical instead of from a sociological standpoint. This was made possible by new sources of information becoming available to augment those already at hand. In the main, therefore, this book is a comparative study of the position of native trade in Indonesia before and after the coming of the Europeans, the central theme being, of course, the appearance of foreign traders, both Asian and European, in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago. A completely integrated picture proved to be an unattainable ideal, owing to the nature of the sources of information. Besides referring to previously published sources, we also drew on original documents in the Dutch East India Company records, a desirable if not an essential procedure and one which neither Schrieke nor Van Leur was in a position to follow. Portuguese, English, and a few native sources were also consulted, in so far as the latter were available in translation.