|
 |
|
| No.
156 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-156-4 |
| 186 pp. |
| Leiden
2007 |
| Price:
€ 35,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Technology
and Ethical Idealism. A History of Development in the
Netherlands East Indies |
|
| Suzanne
Moon |
|
Technology
and Ethical Idealism
investigates a pivotal intellectual and political
moment in twentieth-century Indonesian history, the
establishment of “development” as both an ideal and
a practice. The focus of this study is on technological
development as a central concern of colonial political
life from 1900 to 1942 in the Netherlands East Indies.
The foundations of developmentalist thinking and practice
in the turn-of-the-century colonial reforms were called
the Ethical policies. Tracing the interplay of Ethical
politics at the highest levels of the Netherlands
Indies colonial government with the technical practices
of development taking place in the fields of ordinary
Javanese farmers, it shows how and why technological
development became such an enduring part of political
and material life in the archipelago.
This
study offers a new history of the Ethical policies
that focuses on their often-neglected technopolitical
character, and the formative influence they exercised
on development thinking in Indonesia among both Dutch
experts and members of the community of Indonesian
activists known as the pergerakan. In startling
contrast with many histories of development, it shows
how the interaction of colonial idealism and scientific
practice led the Dutch to commit to small-scale change
in their “development of the native peoples.” As experts
tailored technical solutions to ecological, social,
and economic conditions of local areas, they eschewed
high modernism in their search for colonial moderni-zation,
unexpectedly prefiguring the appropriate technology
movements that arose decades later. Based on extensive
research in the colonial archives in The Hague, the
National Library in Jakarta, and the Bogor Library
of Biology and Agriculture, this study draws on official
documents and scientific research of the era, as well
as public discussions in both Dutch and Indonesian
language newspapers and journals in order to capture
not just the official plans, but also a wide range
of public critiques and responses to development,
and the day-to-day practices that shaped the productive
lives of ordinary farmers. Offering a new exploration
of politics and technology in colonial Indonesia,
this book will interest historians of Indonesia and
Southeast Asia, historians of technology, and those
seeking to understand the complex colonial roots of
international development.
(In
English, 186
pp. ill., incl. bibliogr. and index)
The
IIAS Newsletter (Autumn 2008) has published a
review of this book. You can read it here.
About the author
Suzanne
Moon is an Assistant Professor in the History of Science
at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D.
in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University,
where she also studied in the Southeast Asia Program.
|
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| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 9 |
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|
 |
|
| No.
146 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-109-0 |
| 474 pp. |
| Leiden
2006 |
| Price:
€ 54,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Merchant
in Asia. The Trade of the Dutch East India Company during
the Eighteenth Century |
|
| Els
M. Jacobs |
|
For
much of its two centuries of existence (1602 to 1799),
the VOC, the Dutch East India Company was the largest
trading company in the world.
Although the VOC was established to operate primarily
as a trading company, it soon also came to play a
prominent military, diplomatic and political role
on the Asian stage and eventually it laid the foundations
of the Dutch colonial empire in the Indonesian Archipelago.
Merchant
in Asia is
the first study to pay attention to the full breadth
and width of the VOC commercial activities in Asia.
It looks at the company from the peak of its fame
until its final decline at the end of the eighteenth
century. The study focuses on the main trade goods
- spices,
Indian textiles, Chinese tea and Javanese coffee -
and
their specific by-products. Els Jacobs has analyzed
in detail the VOC trade in fifteen of the most important
commodities that together made up 85% of the total
turnover.
This
innovative study is based on extensive research of
the VOC archives and many other Dutch sources, as
well as a detailed quantitative analysis of the VOC
bookkeeping records. In the study the author sketches
in vivid detail how the merchants of the VOC sold,
bought, and even supervised the production of tropical
products and how they dealt with Asian suppliers and
consumers. In addition, she looks at the range of
problems the merchants encountered in the maritime
trade from Yemen and Persia in the West to China and
Japan in the East, including India, Ceylon, Malacca,
and the Indonesian Archipelago.
(In
English,
474 pp. ill., incl. tables,
notes, bibliogr. and index)
Reviews
The
Indian Economic and Social History Review (Sage
Publications) has published a review of this
book in June 2008.
You can read the review here.
About the Dutch edition, Koopman in Azië
(published in 2000), G. Knaap wrote: 'This is, as
I have said, an extremely useful monograph, addressing
a wide range of topics and problems. At the same time
its clear structure and functional illustrations make
it a very accessible publication. Hopefully, in the
near future the entire book, or at least its conclusions
in the form of articles, will also reach international
(that is non-Dutch) audiences. Jacobs’ book
has a great deal to say to Asianists everywhere in
the world, and as the number of Asianists capable
of reading Dutch is rather limited, the results of
this study should be brought to their attention in
English.' - Review in: Bijdragen tot de Taal-,
Land- en Volkenkunde 158 (2002) 339-343
About the author
Prior to her present position as secretary-general
of the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO,
Els M. Jacobs (PhD. Leiden 2000)
taught maritime and Dutch national history at Leiden
University for almost twenty years. As guest curator
at the maritime museums in Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
she has been in charge of several major projects,
including the National Anniversary Exhibition The
Colourful World of the VOC 1602-2002, as well
as a well received television series on the history
of the VOC for Teleac/NOT, the Dutch educational broadcasting
company. Among her earlier works is In Pursuit
of Pepper and Tea: The Story of the Dutch East India
Company (1991).
Merchant in Asia was published in Dutch in
2000 as Koopman in Azië.
|
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| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 8 |
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|
 |
|
| No.
142 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-104-5 382 |
| 382 pp. |
| Leiden
2005 |
| Price:
€ 42,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Rivalry
and Conflict. European Traders and Asian Trading Networks
in the 16th and 17th Centuries |
|
| Ernst
van Veen and Leonard Blussé (eds.) |
|
The rivalry between the Dutch and Portuguese in Asia
is one of the classic themes of the early history
of European expansion overseas. Yet it is often forgotten
that until the end of the sixteenth century the seafarers
and traders of Portugal and The Netherlands were the
best of friends and close trading partners in Europe.
This collection of essays seeks to explain the abrupt
change in the relationship by analyzing the European
interaction with the maritime world of Monsoon Asia.
Portuguese as well as Dutch interests, political,
commercial and personal, became closely interwoven
with those of the indigenous rulers, merchants and
financiers. The final outcome of the conflict in Asia
was mainly determined by the different ways in which
both parties were able to cope with the intricacies
of Asian politics. ‘European Expansion in the
Indian Ocean’ was far from a one-sided affair
and its history can only be understood in terms of
the interaction of both Europeans and Asians involved.
(In
English, 382
pp. incl. figs. & index)
Contributors:
Ernst van Veen, Jacques Paviot, Mafalda Soares da
Cunha, Walter Rossa, João Paulo Oliveira e
Costa, Arie Pos, Francisco Bethencourt, Om Prakash,
Pius Malekandathil, Rui Manuel Loureiro, Peter Borschberg,
Arend de Roever, René Barendse, Marcus Vink,
Cátia Antunes and George Bryan Souza.
The
Journal of World History (vol. 18, issue
3) has published a review
of this book.
|
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| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 7 |
|
|
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|
 |
|
| No.
137 |
| ISBN
978- 90-5789-111-3 |
| 422 pp. |
| Leiden
2005 |
| Price:
€ 48,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Java’s
Northeast Coast 1740-1840. A Study in Colonial Encroachment
and Dominance |
|
| Robert
Van Niel |
|
This book narrates the story of a hundred years of social,
economic, and political change in both Europe and Java.
When in the 1740s the Dutch East India Company (VOC) became
the governing authority in the coastal area (pasisir)
of the Javanese Kingdom of Mataram, change was started
that brought about ever stronger control over Javanese
society. At first the Europeans were satisfied to put
themselves at the top of the existing Javanese hierarchy
and obtain economic gains through traditional tribute.
New ideas in Europe relating to personal and economic
freedom, financial rationalization, administrative reform,
and democratic politics began to affect the control patterns
in Java. However, these ideas were not an easy fit
in Javanese society resulting in difficulties that impacted
on profits. Eventually a compromise was devised
between the old and the new that restored the colony's
profitability but also created greater dominance.
Robert Van Niel (1922) has his Ph.D. degree from Cornell
University (1954). His interest in Indonesian history
developed after his experience in the Pacific Theatre
during World War II. He has been Professor of Southeast
Asian History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa since
1965 and is now Emeritus. His earlier books are The
emergence of the modern Indonesian Elite (Den Haag: Van
Hoeve, 1960) and Java Under the Cultivation System
(Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992). Both books have been
translated into Indonesian. From 1971 to 1973 he was Foundation
Dean of the School of Humanities at the newly founded
Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.
(In English, 422 pp. with cd-rom and appendices)
'This is clearly the work of a lifetime. The writing is
lucid and the arguments always judiciously presented,
with the nature of the evidential base clearly stated.
It is obviously a major contribution to the history of
Java and the Dutch East Indies.' - RH Barnes, University
of Oxford, in: Aseasuk News no. 39, Spring 2006,
pp. 24-25 |
|
| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 6 |
|
|
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|
 |
|
| No.
122 |
| ISBN
978- 90-5789-086-4 |
| 276 pp. |
| Leiden
2003 |
| |
| OUT
OF PRINT |
|
|
|
| Cultural
Commerce and Dutch Commercial Culture. The Influence of
European Material Culture on Japan, 1700-1850 |
|
| Martha
Chaiklin |
|
OUT OF PRINT
Closed,
isolated, sealed off - these are all terms that have
been used to describe Japan from the time the Portuguese
were expelled in 1639 until commercial treaties permitting
free trade were concluded in 1856. During this time,
the only Westerners permitted into Japan were the dozen
or so Dutch East India Company servants, who were crowded
onto tiny Deshima Island in the Bay of Nagasaki after
1641. These would not seem to be ideal conditions for
cultural influence. But every year Company vessels transported
hundreds of objects into Japan that reflected European
taste and technological accomplishment.
This study examines how European material culture moved
through the world of Early Modern Japan from port to
end-user. Company trade, private trade, smuggling and
gift-giving practices are elucidated through the extensive
use of the archives of the Dutch East India Company
(VOC) and its successors, personal archives and Japanese
sources. Focused case studies on clocks and clockwork,
glass and firearms show the ongoing influence of Europe
on Japan, demolishing forever the idea that Japan was
culturally isolated.
(In English, 276 pp. incl. photogr.)
'Cultural
Commerce and Dutch Commercial Culture is an important
and timely study. I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone
interested in premodern Japanese foreign relations or
material culture.' - Bruce
L. Batten in Monumenta Nipponica Vol. 60/4
(winter 2005)
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| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 5 |
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|
 |
|
| No.
121 |
| ISBN
90-5789-084-4 |
| 110 pp. |
| Leiden
2003 |
| Price:
€ 20,40 |
|
|
|
|
| Via
Peking back to Manchester: Britain, the Industrial Revolution,
and China |
|
| Peer
Vries |
|
The Industrial Revolution in Britain marks one of the
biggest watersheds in world history. The question why
this revolution happened in Britain, starting in the
eighteenth century, has already been debated for more
than a century. The author wants to contribute to an
answer by using a comparative approach and building
on the latest findings of historical research. His question
is why it took place in Britain and not in China, a
country that in the eighteenth century was considered
by many people to be the richest and most highly developed
in the world. He starts by presenting and discussing
factors that figure prominently in current explanations
of Britain's industrialisation: the nature and policy
of its state, its structure, its science and technology,
and its natural resources. He then analyses to what
extent China was different from Britain with regard
to these factors. He concludes with assessing what the
differences and similarities he encountered mean for
the way in which the industrialisation of Britain and
the non-industrialisation of China have been explained.
It appears that various explanations that had become
stock in trade cannot stand up to the rest of comparison,
while new ones are suggested.
(In English, 110 pp.)
Please
note: last copies left (slightly damaged) available
at 50% discount |
|
| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 4 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| No.
120 |
| ISBN
978- 90-5789-082-6 |
| 220 pp. |
| Leiden
2002 |
| Price:
€ 36,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Shifting
Communities and Identity Formation in Early Modern Asia |
|
| Leonard
Blussé and Felipe Fernández-Armesto (eds.) |
|
The scale, range and intensity of migration and displacement
of people in Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
were among the conspicuous new departures of this era.
Many of the effects have attracted scholarly attention,
especially in the fields of commercial, political, military
and institutional history; but the impact on the formation
of identity remains an under-explored topic, whether among
communities whose self-perception was affected by contact
with others, or among groups affected by their own migrations
or widening cultural contacts, or by the reception of
cultural transmissions from elsewhere. Asian politics
today remain deeply influenced by notions of ethnic consciousness
inherited from the early-modern period, but their origins
have never been studied in context. The contributors to
this volume have aimed to supply some of these deficiencies
by presenting papers on Japan, China and central Asia,
Southeast Asia and South Asia. Asia is observed as an
arena of comparisons, without attempting to represent
it as a coherent unit of study.
(In English, 220 pp. incl. index) |
|
| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 3 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| No.
102 |
| ISBN
978- 90-5789-061-1 |
| 288 pp. |
| Leiden
2001 |
| Price:
€ 30,00 |
| Order
this book |
|
|
|
| Corporate
Behaviour and Political Risk: Dutch Companies in China
1903-1941 |
|
| Frans-Paul
van der Putten |
|
How do multinationals respond to political risk? Especially
in non-Western countries, foreign investors are frequently
confronted with political insecurity. This book takes
a close look at the relationship between multinational
corporations and political factors in early twentieth-century
China, when political change in this country was highly
dramatic. Revolutions and war tore apart many of the traditions
of imperial China, and threatened the interests of foreign
companies in one of the world's most promising markets.
This study focuses on the interests of Dutch firms and
their response to political risk in China before the Pacific
War. This includes very large corporations that are again
active in the Chinese market today, such as Shell, Philips,
Unilever, and ABN-Amro. Their behaviour in China up to
1941 is analysed and explained in order to gain a better
understanding of the attitude of foreign investors towards
political developments during a turbulent and formative
phase in Chinese history.
(In English, 288 pp. incl. photogr., bibl. and index) |
|
| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 2 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| No.
96 |
| ISBN
978- 90-5789-051-2 |
| 306 pp. |
| Leiden
2000 |
|
| OUT
OF PRINT |
|
|
|
| Decay
or Defeat? An inquiry into the Portuguese decline in Asia
(1580-1645) |
|
| Ernst
van Veen |
|
Decay
or Defeat? presents new answers to the question
who or what caused the Portuguese decline in Asia. In
the process, the author explores many of the myths that
exist around the subject.
The vicissitudes of the Portuguese shipping route to
India are discussed against the background of the military
and financial adventures of the Spanish Habsburg monarchs,
who during the 1580-1640 period also ruled Portugal.
During the Habsburg intermezzo the New Christian merchants
in Lisbon played an important role in financing the
Carreira da India and the Spanish troops in Flanders.
The withdrawal of their financial support in 1628 had
serious consequences for Lisbon.
During the 1620s and 1630s political shifts in Asia
damaged the existing alliances of the Portuguese, but
worked in favour of the English and Dutch newcomers
in Asia. The analysis of the Vereenigde Oostindische
Compagnie as a commercial and privateering enterprise
and a war machine shows why.
The inquiry ends with the collapse of the Portuguese
presence in Asia, which began with the restoration of
Portuguese independence and the fall of Malacca in 1641.
(In English, 306 pp. incl. ill. and figs.)
OUT
OF PRINT |
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| Studies
in Overseas History Vol. 1 |
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