FOR LOVE OF GAIN^145with a modicum of survivor instinct cared to stay long in these pesti
lential lands whence few returned. These men had to get rich fast.
How to tame this understandable voracity? The company thought to
inculcate habits of modesty by the exercise of parsimony. It paid nig
gardly wages. This, needless to say, proved a bad tactic. Greed elicits
greed, and the meanness of the company's directors brought out the
worst in its representatives. In the end, these were far more concerned
with their own enrichment than with serving their masters back in
Amsterdam. A good lawyer would say in their defense that they had no
choice. They had to find ways to make money; they had to steal if nec
essary.
And so they did. The greater volume of Dutch business in the Indies
was not the company's shipments to and from the Netherlands, but
rather the so-called country trade, the movement of cargoes from one
Asian point to another: cottons from Coromandel to Indonesia and
China, silks from China, Tonkin, India, and Persia to Manila and on to
New Spain (Mexico), bullion and specie from Japan and the Philippines
(out of Mexico), tea and gold from China, coffee from Mocha and later
Java, slaves from Arakan, Buton, and Bali. And so on. A host of mid
dling and small ships and junks (the Chinese were very busy) tramped
the eastern seas, going from port to port as supply and demand sug
gested. Along with these cargoes went the treasures, purchased and pil
fered, that individual sailors carried in their sea chests or hung over
gunwales on company and private vessels. These rascals lived like dogs
and were treated like dogs (slaves got better care, because slaves were
worth money).^9 So they traded. Everyone on shipboard was a dealer,
and captains and supercargoes had to defend their space from the tres
pass of private merchandise. They had their own saleables to move.
One truism of historical evidence: rules that constantly have to be re
peated and strengthened are no rules. So here: the VOC was always re
defining the quality and quantity of goods that could be shipped back
to Holland duty-free and tried to reserve the most valuable com
modities to the company. To little avail. As a British historian wrote of
similar regulations for the English East India Company, "What came
of this egregious arrangement might have been foreseen by the intel
lect of a moderate-sized rabbit."^10 In spite of occasional seizures and
punishments, everyone got away with this illicit trade, if only because
everyone, right up to the top, was doing it.
The big shots had even more incentive than the small fry—their sea
chests were bigger. Even the so-called inspectors could make far more
money by averting their eyes. A governor-general, nominal salary 700