(^144) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
chants greedy of gain." To which Antonio van Diemen, writing from
the Indies, made reply: "There is a great deal of difference between the
general and the particular, and between one kind of trade and another.
We are taught by daily experience that the Company's trade in Asia
cannot subsist without territorial conquests."^8
Over the years, the men in the field made like monarchs and the
burghers back home wrung their hands. How could the directors make
the decisions? It generally took two to three years for instructions to
go from Amsterdam to the Indies and for replies to come back. By that
time, done was done. The history of overseas empire, and not only for
Holland, is largely a story of faits accomplis.
It would take too long to review the history of these done deeds—
of Dutch attacks on the Portuguese (often in connivance with local
Muslim rulers), of sallies into Spanish territory, of fights with the Eng
lish, of pursuit of pirates and practice of piracy (one country's piracy is
another's police), of punitive expeditions and preemptive strikes against
local rulers, of promises and treaties, cross and double cross. Suffice it
to say that the Dutch came to "own" the Moluccas (the Spice Islands)
and Java while establishing an effective sphere of influence over the rest
of the Indonesian archipelago. They also took Ceylon and Formosa
(Taiwan) and planted factories along the east coast of India (Coro-
mandel and as far north as Bengal). They did less well on the western
side (Malabar)—too close to the Portuguese, who could still defend
their own turf. The Dutch tried and failed to snatch Macao too, but
eventually got permission (along with others) to trade at Canton; and
in Japan they were the only Europeans allowed, on condition that they
accept confinement to a tiny island in Nagasaki harbor and submit to
condign humiliation. Profit goeth before pride.
From this experience of combat and commerce, the Dutch drew
certain lessons: no one could be trusted, not even one's fellow Chris
tians (they had good reason to know); and Asians in general and Mus
lims in particular were lying, thieving scoundrels. In return, other
Europeans came to think of the Dutch as avaricious, sanctimonious
hypocrites; while the Muslims and other natives were convinced by
faith, fear, and contact that no stratagem was too duplicitous for such
infidels as these. None of these stereotypes was wholly true or wholly
false. Life and work in the Indies did not bring out the best in people.
Besides, although the Asians could not know it, they rarely met the best
of the Dutch. The VOC recruited to its lower ranks the dregs of Dutch
and German society; at the higher levels, the company got the greed
iest of the greedy. Batavia had a murderous reputation, and no one
nora
(Nora)
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