Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:830Hits:21728226Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID171999
Title ProperCornelis Matelief, Hugo Grotius, and the King of Siam (1605–1616)
Other Title Informationagency, initiative, and diplomacy
LanguageENG
AuthorBorschberg, Peter
Summary / Abstract (Note)This article addresses the proactive agency of the Siamese kings in cementing commercial and diplomatic ties with the Dutch in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. The focus will be on two interrelated developments: one, the first diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic in 1608–1610 and, two, a scheme hatched by Siamese officials to assist the Dutch in obtaining access to the Chinese market. This was deemed necessary after the Dutch, supported by some overseas Chinese businessmen from Southeast Asia, failed to gain trading access in 1604. On the Dutch side, two men stand in the limelight: Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge, a director of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and supreme commander of its second fleet to Asia, and Hugo Grotius, who at the time was a rising star in the Dutch government and would later be celebrated as one of the pathfinders of modern international law. Both their published and unpublished manuscripts will be examined to ascertain how Matelief and the VOC directors reacted to these Siamese initiatives and how, in turn, the admiral sought to mobilize and co-opt the Siamese into his own commercial and military agenda, with the help of Grotius.
`In' analytical NoteModern Asian Studies Vol. 54, No.1; Jan 2020: p.123-156
Journal SourceModern Asian Studies 2020-02 54, 1
Key WordsHugo Grotius ;  Cornelis Matelief ;  King of Siam ;  1605–1616