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Makassar-VOC Trade Disputes
In the 1610s, Makassar (Gowa-Tallo Sultanate), a major free-trade port of eastern Indonesia, clashed repeatedly with the VOC's spice monopoly policie…
Timeline
- 1610–1613Port of Makassar · SulawesiThe Gowa-Tallo Sultanate used Makassar as a hub, maintaining an open port policy that attracted merchants from many countries to trade in cloves, nutmeg, and other spices as well as marine products. After establishing monopoly systems in Ambon, Banda, and elsewhere, the VOC demanded that Makassar stop supplying spices to non-VOC ships and restrict competitors, bringing the two sides' conflicting trade philosophies into initial conflict.
- 1614–1617Strait of Makassar · SulawesiThe VOC intensified interception of unauthorized merchant ships in the waters around Makassar and presented harsh trade terms to the Gowa court through envoys. The Sultan of Makassar refused to abandon the free-port tradition, continuing trade with England, Denmark, and Asian merchants, and relations grew increasingly tense.
- 1618–1619Makassar · SulawesiBy the late 1610s, the trade dispute between the VOC and Makassar had evolved from commercial friction into strategic confrontation. Makassar continued as the last major free port in eastern Indonesia resisting VOC monopoly, laying the groundwork for the VOC's large-scale expedition against Makassar in the 1660s.
Sources
- The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire — M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz (1962)
- Makassar: The Rise and Fall of an Indonesian Maritime State — Leonard Y. Andaya (1995)