Sugar

Abstract

Sugar was a typical ballast commodity. As such it ranked with salt-petre, copper, and other heavy goods. Its example reveals the changeable character of the East India trade, just as it demonstrates the interplay between the European and the Asiatic market, the latter perhaps even more distinct than in the case of the other commodities, for while e.g. the export of Japan copper might at times be stimulated by the European demand, there had, partly because of the restrictive character of the trade to Japan, partly because of the necessary placing of copper in the Asiatic factories as a substitute for gold and silver, been set limits to the question how profoundly changes in the Dutch orders might interfere with the Company’s arrangements in Japan. The case of sugar was different. The European demand in the 17th century started a cultivation of sugar in Java which soon gave rise to planters’ interests which in several cases collided with the Heeren XVII’s commercial points of view. Once established this cultivation was a factor to be considered, especially by the Batavian Government, which was engaged on the cultivation of sugar.