of the Moghul, to Ferando in Japan, and to Bantam and Batana, in Java. They also carried on trading operations, to a greater or less extent, with Borneo, Banda, Malacca, Siam, Celebes, and the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel.[1]
Treaty between the English and Dutch East India Companies,
soon broken.
So prosperous had their affairs now become, that
in 1617, when the stock of the Company had reached
a premium of two hundred and three per cent.,
the Dutch East India Company were induced to
suggest an amalgamation of the two companies, with
a view to crush their common enemy, the Portuguese,
and to exclude all other shipping from obtaining a
footing in India. Though this scheme was never
carried into effect, the two companies concluded, in
1619, a treaty of trade and friendship, whereby they
should cease from rivalry, and apportion the profits
of the different branches of commerce between them.[2]
But the treaty, like most others of a similar character,
was made only to be broken, and in the course of
the following year the Dutch governor-general
really, though erroneously, under the impression that
the English had gained undue advantages, attacked
their possessions of Lantore and Pulo-Penang. A
long series of hostile acts ensued, including the
massacre of various Englishmen by the Dutch in
Amboyna, and numerous conflicts between the merchant
vessels of both countries, resulting in the
exclusion of the English from the valuable trade of
the Archipelago, and in losses most disastrous to the
Company.
