Archives

Abstract

In the Netherlands, all sources which are of interest for colonial history up to 1800, i.e. both those which were acquired from the “Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie” (the United East Indies Company, hereafter abbreviated as V.O.C.) which possessed the monopoly for trade and shipping east of the Cape of Good Hope up to Magellan Straits, and those from the “Westindische Compagnie” (the West Indies Company, abbr. W.I.C.), the area of whose monopoly contained the eastern part of the Americas as well as West Africa, — all these sources have been deposited in the Colonial Section of the Algemeen Rijksarchief, the General National Archives (abbr. A.R.A.) in the Hague (address: Bleyenburg 7). As to the West Indies, the complete archives have been transferred from the overseas territories to the A.R.A. As regards the East Indies, the governors-general were instructed to submit extensive reports which were to be accompanied by the most important papers, either the originals or copies. The A.R.A. also possesses the archives of the governing bodies and ministries which took over the duties of the two Companies at the end of the 18th century, that is to say, in so far as these papers have already been transferred to the central archives service. The length of the shelves for the colonial archives up to 1816 is about 1.800 meters (1.200 m. for papers from the East Indies), the length of those for the period 1816–1850 about 450 m.; I am unable to estimate the papers for the later period, which have been stored separately in an auxiliary depot at Schaarsbergen in the province of Gelderland. Free access is granted to all papers up to 1850; as regards later papers there are certain stringent restrictions for those after 1900. All foreigners may be assured of the greatest possible cooperation by the personnel of the archives. A useful work of reference is De Rijksarchieven in Nederland (The National Archives in the Netherlands; 1953), where all sections are enumerated with an indication whether or not there are printed or manuscript catalogues. Those who cannot read Dutch will find it profitable to consult R. Fruin’s survey of the contents of the General National Archives: The general state archives and their contents, 1932, 80 pp. (Eng.). In the journal De West-Indische Gids, vol. 35 (1955), pp. 1-38, Mrs. M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz published A survey of Archives in the Netherlands pertaining to the History of the Netherlands Antilles (Eng.); for papers from the Netherlands Indies during the period 1813–1875, Appendix A to G. Irwin’s Nineteenth-Century Borneo (Eng. in V.K.I., Proceedings, vol. XV, 1955, pp. 218-220) may be consulted with profit. R. Bijlsma, De archieven van de Compagnieën op Oost-Indië 1594–1603 (The Archives of the Companies trading on the East Indies 1594–1603, 1927) is important.