Building maritime empire: Shipbuilding and networks of coercion under the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) in South and Southeast Asia

Abstract

This article maps the overseas infrastructure of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for ship maintenance and shipbuilding. Reversing the perspective on the VOC, emphasizing the centrality of the ‘overseas’ or Asian activities, it studies how the VOC set up an infrastructure for shipbuilding, ship maintenance, and the necessary supporting industries in Asia. Historians have primarily examined the Company as a ‘merchant’, but the organization of the workplaces and underlying infrastructure for building and repairing ships reveals how important it activities and role as ‘potentate’ and ‘producer’ were. Mobilizing the resources and labour needed for the maintenance of its maritime infrastructure, especially in shipbuilding and repairs, the Company alternated monopolistic and outsourcing strategies, and regularly resorted to coercion.