Last updated 09/07/24: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
The great commercial emporium of Melaka in the Malay peninsula, which was in Portuguese hands for over a century and a quarter (1511–1641), has received a good deal of attention from historians in the past. Of the available studies on Melaka in the 16th and 17th centuries, those of M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz. and Luís Filipe F.R. Thomaz are particularly outstanding, being rich both in detail and in implications. Though less well-known than Meilink-Roelofsz.'s monumental work, Thomaz's essays on the early 16th century are particularly important for being based on a mass of fresh documentation, belying earlier beliefs that “a lack of relevant data” from the archives would force historians to rely heavily on a limited set of sources — notably Tomé Pires's Suma Oriental.
1 Cf. Meilink-Roelofsz, M.A.P.., Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago Between 1500 and About 1630 (The Hague, 1962)Google Scholar; Thomaz, Luís Filipe F.R., ‘Maluco e Malaca’, in A viagem de Fernão de Magalhães e a questão das Molucas, ed. da Mota, A. Teixeira (Lisbon, 1975)Google Scholar; Thomaz, Luís Filipe, Os Portugueses em Malaca (1511–1580), baccalaureate thesis, University of Lisbon, 1964, 2 VolumesGoogle Scholar. Also see the useful but rarely cited paper by Macgregor, I. A., ‘Notes on the Portuguese in Malaya’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 28, Part 2 (1955): 5–47Google Scholar.
2 Meilink-Roelofsz., ibid., p. 136; also see Thomaz, , De Malaca a Pegu: Viagens de um feitor português (1512–1515) (Lisbon, 1966)Google Scholar, and Thomaz, , ‘Nina Chatu e o comércio português em Malaca’, Memórias, Centro de Estudos de Marinha, Lisbon, Vol. V, 1976Google Scholar.
3 Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Distrital, Évora (henceforth BPe AD), cxvi/2–3, fls. 51–58. I thank Isabel Cid of the Évora archives for furnishing me a photocopy of this document.
4 Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden, BPL, nr. 876. I am grateful to Dr. André Wink of the Instituut Kern, Leiden, for help in microfilming this document.
5 Cf. Disney, A.R., Twilight of the Pepper Empire: Portuguese Trade in Southwest India in the Early 17th Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1978)Google Scholar; also see idem, ‘Goa in the Seventeenth Century’, in The First Portuguese Colonial Empire, ed. Newitt, Malyn (Exeter, 1985), pp. 85–98Google Scholar.
6 See Thomaz, ‘Maluco e Malaca’, op. cit.; also his ‘Nina Chatu e o comércio português’, op. cit.
7 These concessions included freeing the first keling ships that entered Melaka after August 1511 from customs duties; cf. Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘The Coromandel-Malacca Trade in the 16th century: A Study of its Evolving Structure’, Moyen Orient et Océan Indien III (1986): 55–80Google Scholar.
8 On Pulicat, see Subrahmanyam, ibid., pp. 60–61; on Chittagong, idem, ‘Notes on the 16th Century Bengal Trade’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 24, no. 3, 1987. On the colonies of private traders at Patani, Sunda and elsewhere, Thomaz, Luis Filipe, ‘Les Portugais dans les mers de l'Archipel au XVIe siècle’, in Archipel 18 (1979): 105–125CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 See da Luz, F. P. Mendes (ed.), ‘Livro das Cidades e Fortalezas que a Coroa de Portugal tem nas partes da India’, Boletim da Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra XXI (1953): 1–144, especially pp. 82–84Google Scholar.
10 Cf. Meilink-Roelofsz., Asian Trade and European Influence, op. cit., pp. 166–70; Thomaz, ‘Les Portugais dans l'Archipel’, op. cit., pp. 111–12; Subrahmanyam, ‘The Coromandel-Malacca Trade’, op. cit., pp. 61–62.
11 Cf. ‘Livro das Cidades e Fortalezas’, p. 87. “A qual travessa hé em muito prejuizo do povo e do rendimento da Alfândega, e total destruiçāo de Malaca, por que nem deixāo aos estrangeiros vender, nem aos Christāos comprar como deve ser”.
12 See Botelho, Simāo, ‘O Tombo do Estado da Índia’, in Subsídios para a história da Índia Portuguesa, ed. de Lima Felner, R. J. (Lisbon, 1868), p. 106Google Scholar.
13 This was a move suggested by Juliāo de Campos Barreto; see ‘Apontamentos sobre a alfândega de Malaca’, in Documentos Remettidos da Índia, Vol. I, ed. de Bulhāo Pato, R.A. (Lisbon, 1880), pp. 318–22Google Scholar.
14 Meilink-Roelofsz, ., Asian Trade and European Influence, pp. 170–71Google Scholar.
15 Cf. Subrahmanyam, ‘The Coromandel-Malacca Trade in the 16th century’, op. cit.; this also emerges from the report of the Dutch commissioner Joost Schouten in the 1640s, cited in that paper, note 59.
16 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘Trade and the Regional Economy of South India, c. 1550 to 1650’ (unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University of Delhi, 1986), pp. 301–383Google Scholar; also idem, ‘Staying On: The Portuguese of Southern Coromandel in the late 17th century’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 22, no. 4 (1985): 445–52.
17 For an analysis, see Thomaz, ‘Les Portugais dans les mers de l'Archipel’, op.cit., pp. 119–23.
18 For the best recent analysis of Johor's history in the period, see Andaya, Leonard Y., The Kingdom of Johor, 1641–1728: Economic and Political Developments (Kuala Lumpur, 1975)Google Scholar.
19 For example, see Gupta, Arun K. Das, ‘Acheh in Indonesian Trade and Politics, 1600–1641’ (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1962)Google Scholar; Lombard, Denys, Le Sultanat d'Atjéh au temps d'Iskandar Muda, 1607–1636 (Paris, 1967)Google Scholar; more recently, Reid, Anthony, ‘Trade and the Problem of Royal Power in Aceh: Three Stages, c. 1550–1700’, in Pre-Colonial State Systems in Southeast Asia, ed. Reid, A.J.S. and Castles, L. (Kuala Lumpur, 1975)Google Scholar.
20 On the Acehnese trade to the western Indian Ocean, see, in addition to the references cited above, the classic paper of Boxer, C.R., ‘A Note on the Portuguese Reactions to the Revival of the Red Sea Spice Trade and the Rise of Atjeh, 1540–1600’, Journal of Southeast Asian History X (3) (1969): 415–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on Acehnese trade within the Bay of Bengal, Lombard, Le Sultanat d' Atjéh, op. cit., and Subrahmanyam, ‘Trade and the Regional Economy of South India’, op. cit., pp. 124–45.
21 de Lemos, Jorge, História dos Cercos de Malaca, facsimile edition (Lisbon, 1982)Google Scholar.
22 For a summary of D. Joāo Ribeiro Gaio's plans, see Boxer, C.R., ‘Portuguese and Spanish Projects for the Conquest of Southeast Asia’, Journal of Asian History III (2): 118–36Google Scholar.
23 Cf. Noonan, Lawrence, ‘The Portuguese in Malacca’, Stadia, no. 23 (04 1968): 88–89Google Scholar; for more general discussions of Dutch plans in the period, see Meilink-Roelofsz., Asian Trade, op. cit.; Masselman, George, The Cradle of Colonialism (New Haven, 1963)Google Scholar; also, the dated but still useful account in Macleod, N., De Oost-Indische Compagnie Als Zeemogendheidin Azië, Vol. I, Rijswijk, 1927Google Scholar.
24 See Macleod, ibid.; Thomaz, ‘Maluco e Malaca’, op. cit., pp. 38–39.
25 These incidents are discussed in Subrahmanyam, ‘The Coromandel-Malacca Trade’, op. cit., 69–70. For the original documentation, see De Reis van joris van Spilbergen naar Ceylon, Atjeh en Bantam, 1601–1604, (The Hague, 1933)Google Scholar, and Commelin, Isaac, ed., Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Compagnie, 2 Volumes, Amsterdam 1646, Vol. IIGoogle Scholar.
26 Meilink-Roelofsz, ., Asian Trade, p. 163Google Scholar; for the best recent discussion, see Reid, Anthony, ‘The Rise of Makassar’, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 17(1983): 117–60Google Scholar.
27 ‘Livro das Cidades e Fortalezas’, op. cit., p. 143.
28 See Chaunu, Pierre, Les Philippines et le Pacifique des Ibériques (XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles) (Paris, 1960), pp. 148–55Google Scholar; also BP e AD, Evora, cxvi/2–3, fl. 65, ‘Sobre o governo de Malaca’.
29 ee Souza, George B., The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea, 1630–1754 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 35–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 See note 4 supra.
31 The published Documentos Remetidos da Índia and other references contain no mention of his name. It is possible however that he was the same as the Francisco Lobo da Gama mentioned in Bocarro, António, Década 13 da História da Índia, 2 Vols. (Lisbon, 1876), Vol. II, p. 662Google Scholar.
32 On Fernāo de Cron, see inter alia, Doc. Rem. da India, Vol. II, pp. 327, 390–91; Vol. III, p. 328; Vol. V, pp. 155–57, 285–88; Vol. VII, p. 419; Vol. X, pp. 47, 128. This collection comprises ten volumes, the first five edited by R. A. de Bulhāo Pato et al.. (Lisbon 1880–1935), and the last five by A. da Silva Rego (Lisbon, 1974–82). On Garcia de Melo, Valentim Garcia, and other associates of Francisco da Gama, see Disney, , Twilight of the Pepper Empire, pp. 88–100Google Scholar.
33 See BPL nr. 876, Leiden, fl. 3, “Conta de Fernāo de Cron”. On Govinda and other Saraswat merchants of the period, see Documentos Remetidos da Índia, Vol. V, pp. 351–52, 355–56. For a more general discussion, also see Pearson, M.N., ‘Banyas and Brahmins: Their Role in the Portuguese Indian Economy’, in his Coastal Western India (New Delhi, 1981)Google Scholar.
34 BPL nr. 876, fls. 7v, 9v, 12–15. The tael of Melaka weighed 41.23 grams, and the maz was 1/16 of a tael — hence 2.57 grams. The pesos of silver mentioned in the text are possibly the same as the Manila peso, which equalled eight reals-weight.
35 For example, there are five ships on this route reported in 1624, three in 1625, one in 1629, two in 1632, and three in 1639. See Subrahmanyam, ‘Staying On: The Portuguese of Southern Coromandel’, op. cit., p. 450, Table 1.
36 On this particular incident, see Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague. Henceforth ARA, Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (henceforth OB), VOC. 1103, fls. 145, 147–49v. For mention of another ship, captured on its way from Manila to Nagapattinam, see AR, OB, VOC. 1094, fls. 79–79v, 88.
37 Chaunu, Les Philippines, op. cit., p. 158.
38 See Bocarro, António, ‘Livro das Plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidades e povoaçōes do Estado da Índia Oriental’, published in Arquivo Português Oriental, ed. Pereira, A.B. Bragança (New series), Tomo IV, Vol. II (Nova Goa, 1938), p. 30Google Scholar. “…fasse também viagem de Malaca pera o Macassá 
he hũa Ilha que está trezentas legoas de Malaca a oueste de hum Rey mouro 
sabe muy bem falar Portuguez e tern muitos em sua terra, e he grande seu amigo”.
39 BP e AD, Évora, cxvi/2–3, fls. 51–58, ‘Memorial pera Sua exla ver sobre o estado das couzas de Malaca e do que tem necessidade athe o Anno de 626”. On the author, D. Gonçalo da Silva, see Documentos Remetidos da Índia, Vol. IV, pp. 301–302; Vol. VIII, p. 424; Vol. VII, pp. 127–28, 226, 392, 407–408. Finally, see da Silva Rego, A., ed., Documentaçāo Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. II (Lisbon, 1962), pp. 57–58Google Scholar.
40 This was true of the Estado as a whole; cf. Disney, , Twilight of the Pepper Empire, pp. 50–55Google Scholar. For a contrary view, see de Matos, A. Teodoro, ‘The Financial Situation of the State of India during the Philippine Period (1581–1635)’, in De Souza, T.R., ed., Indo-Portuguese History: Old Issues, New Questions (New Delhi, 1984), pp. 90–101Google Scholar. Matos ignores the crucial budget of 1630, which is however cited by Disney.
41 BP e AD, Évora, cxvi/2–3, fl. 54v. Elsewhere (fl. 56) while discussing the customs-house and its uncertain yield, the Bishop notes, “I do not know where the money of the revenues of the customs-house is consumed, as it always runs like a sewer, for the ecclesiastic officials lament, and the soldiers do not laugh either, and both the one and the other weep of the hunger…”
42 The 1606 estimate is from BP e AD, Evora, cxvi/1–18, fl. 31; that of 1620 is from BP e AD, Évora, cv/2–7, fl. 55. For the higher estimate of 1635, see Bocarro, ‘Livro das Plantas’, op. cit., n. 38, p. 20. For the lower one, see Thomaz, ‘Les Portugais’, op. cit., p. 116. Finally, for a general survey of the sources of such estimates, see A.T. de Matos, ‘The Financial Situation of the State of India’, op. cit., pp. 90–101.
43 The famous gun-founder family in 17th-century Macau were the Bocarros (no relation of the chronicler), on whom see Boxer, C.R., The Great Ship from Amacon: Annals of Macao and the old Japan Trade, 1555–1640 (Lisbon, 1963), passimGoogle Scholar.
44 BP e AD, Évora, cxvi/2–3, fl. 51. “El Rey de Jor que se dis Rey de Bintāo s
or dos Malayos está acabado. Este Rei foi tambem poderoso no sul, he morto, e o Achém o extenguio, e acabou de tres Annos, ou quatro a esta parte, e assi os ditos Malayos nāo estao ja cō forcas, porque hum Reysinho, filho do dito Rey de Bintāo está recolhido em jambe, sem poder, que de consideraçāo seia…”
45 Ibid., fl. 56v. Also see Lombard, Le Sultanat d'Atjéh, op. cit., pp. 85–87.
46 Ibid., fl. 57v. “…se o inimigo Achem se puzer a sua vista cingindo o mar com as embarcassoins pera nāo entrar socorro nosso, não hão (sic) de pareçer negrinho, como aqui ouço dizer despois 
vim, senao mui feio negro”.
47 Ibid., fl. 55. “…por 
nāo há joa que mais prezem os humanos, que a liberdade, a qual oje tern perdida os Reis do Sul por nāo serem s
ores de navegarem e estarem oppremidos nas suas mesmas terras”. Compare this with the letter of the Sultan of Makassar, addressed to the VOC in 1615, cited in Masselman, The Cradle of Colonialism, op. cit., p. 327.
48 On this scheme, see Boxer, C.R., Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo: A Portuguese Merchant-Adventurer in Southeast Asia, 1624–1667 (The Hague, 1967), pp. 14–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Vieira envisaged a naval campaign extending over four years, and from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea.
49 Cf. Braudel's remark in the record of discussion included in Aymard, M., ed., Dutch Capitalism and World Capitalism (Cambridge, 1982), p. 275Google Scholar. “La fermeture du Japon en 1638 est pour les Portugais le coup de grâce, car ils avaient vécu eux aussi sur le cuivre et l'argent japonais. Plus généralement, l'erreur des Portugais est d'avoir centré leur système sur Goa, et non sur Malacca”.
50 On this set of incidents, see do Couto, Diogo, Da Ásia, Década Nona, facsimile edition (Lisbon, 1975), pp. 1–2, 49–56, 105–120, passimGoogle Scholar.
51 See BP e AD, Évora, cxvi/2–3, fls. 61–64, 65–66, ‘Sobre o governo de Malaca’.
52 Ibid., fl. 66.
53 British Museum Manuscript Room, London, Egerton Collection, Mss. 1131, fls. 73–78v, 132–34, published in da Silva Rego, A., ed., Documentaçāo Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. II, pp. 319–22, 390–92Google Scholar.
54 On the case of Pulicat, see for instance Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘The “Pulicat Enterprise”: Luso-Dutch Conflict in South-Eastern India, 1610–1640’, South Asia (N.S.), Vol. X, no. 1 (1987)Google Scholar.
55 Bocarro, ‘Livro dasPlantas’, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 5; Chaunu, Les Philippines, op. cit., pp. 156–57; finally, for a comparison with Goa in the 1630s, see De Souza, T.R., ‘Goa-based Portuguese seaborne trade in the early seventeenth century’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review XII, no. 4 (1975): 433–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
