Chapter 1181: Tremble, Batavia!

Western calendar year 1663, late October, Java, the city of Batavia.

The inhabitants of this city, which lay under Dutch colonial rule on the island of Java at the southernmost end of the Southern Ocean islands, were in fact predominantly Chinese.

As early as when Anthony van Diemen served as Governor-General of Batavia, the Dutch East India Company had begun recruiting Chinese in large numbers. In the eyes of the Dutch colonizers of that time, the Chinese were not only industrious but also timid by nature, making them excellent merchants and laborers.

Of course, using Chinese to build Batavia was also the only choice the Dutch had, because they had no one else to use. Colonizers from Europe simply could not adapt to Java's scorching heat and humidity; even sitting inside houses that shielded them from the sun and rainstorms, they found the heat unbearable — how could anyone expect them to build a city themselves?

As for the natives of Java, not to mention that they were not as industrious or skilled at business as the Chinese, even if the Dutch had been willing to tolerate their indolence, there were not many who could be put to use. For in this era the Dutch colonizers had not yet conquered the whole of Java. What they held was merely the city of Batavia, situated beside a bay in western Java, along with some surrounding dependent areas.

Before the Dutch arrived, this territory had been a city-state subordinate to the Sultanate of Banten in western Java. The ruler of the city-state, envying the prosperity of Banten, the capital of his suzerain, had welcomed the Dutch East India Company — which at the time could not gain a foothold in Malacca — to settle in his domain.

After the Dutch arrived, however, they built fortresses and sent warships to harass the normal trade of Banten's harbor, angering the Sultan of Banten. The Sultan then joined forces with the English to attack the Dutch fortress at Batavia. But the Sultan of Banten's skill at war was truly nothing special, and the siege ended in failure. Moreover, as the Banten forces retreated, they conveniently seized the local ruler of Batavia and relocated most of its inhabitants.

When the Dutch saw that Batavia's ruler and inhabitants had all fled, leaving behind an empty city that looked rather fine, they simply occupied it.

That was how the Dutch acquired their first colony on the island of Java!

This act of seizing another's nest naturally drew deep hatred, and so Dutch-ruled Batavia became a thorn in the side of the feudal rulers on Java who professed the faith of Arabia. Before the conflict with the Sultanate of Banten had even fully ended, the powerful Sultanate of Mataram twice sent armies to besiege Batavia. In the second siege of Batavia, Sultan Agung of Mataram even dispatched a great army of as many as 100,000 men.

Although the Dutch emerged victorious from both battles of Batavia, they lacked the strength to follow up their victories and destroy Mataram, and were even unable to prevent Mataram from continuing to grow. In the thirty-odd years since their second defeat of Mataram up to the present, that state had kept expanding on Java, and now ruled all of the island except Banten and Batavia. And it continued to eye Batavia and Banten hungrily!

Faced with the threat of Mataram and Banten, two local Javanese regimes right on their doorstep, how could the Dutch colonizers of Batavia dare to make large-scale use of the local natives?

Even after the Celestial Empire awakened, the Dutch East India Company still had no way to expel the Chinese of Batavia. Far from being able to expel them, because the Ming dynasty had begun implementing its "rice embargo" policy, the Dutch colonizers were forced to bring in even more Chinese, letting them contract the fertile lands around Batavia to grow rice.

Thus, from the late 1650s onward, more Chinese immigrants began pouring into Batavia. By the end of 1662, 121 of the 130 rice plantations opened up around Batavia belonged to Chinese immigrants.

And within the city of Batavia itself, the streets were filled with Chinese faces, each one tanned dark by the equatorial sun. The shops lining the streets were also mostly run by Chinese, and these were not all small businesses — there were plenty of large enterprises as well. The Yiguan Party (the name of the Zheng family's head commercial house), the Imperial Merchant Guild, the Sand Ship Guild (the head commercial house of the Shen Tingyang family), the Jiale Market Firm, the Guanglian Firm (a great commercial house of Guangzhou Prefecture), the Folian Firm (a commercial house jointly run by the Foshan iron industry), the Jingde Firm (a commercial house of the Jingdezhen porcelain industry), the Mancini Tea Firm (a tea house opened by Zhu Cilang under the name of Marie Mancini, chiefly exporting Keemun black tea), and other great Chinese commercial houses had all opened branches in Batavia.

Because of the arrival of so many Chinese merchants and great Chinese commercial houses, the Governor-General's office in Batavia had even specially set aside a "Chinese Quarter" for the use of the great Chinese commercial houses, the Celestial Empire's legation, and the Chinese schools that taught the Confucian classics.

This "Chinese Quarter" was separated from Batavia's old city by a canal that ran straight to the harbor, and by crossing the bridges over the canal one could enter the "Dutch Quarter," which was likewise full of Chinese.

Because Batavia's "Chinese Quarter" lay in the western part of the city, near the territory of the Sultan of Banten, the overland road from Banten to Batavia connected directly to the "Chinese Quarter." John Maetsuycker, Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company, who had just paid a visit to the Banten court, was at this moment riding in a Western-style four-wheeled carriage built by the Shanghai Shen Carriage Works, passing through the streets of the "Chinese Quarter," which was already under military martial law.

This Dutchman, who had served continuously as Governor-General of the East India Company since 1653, had never been as anxious as he was now.

The Emperor of the Celestial Empire no longer bothered to conceal his ambitions toward the Strait of Malacca!

After defeating the four-nation coalition of Pattani, Perak, Johor, and Aceh, and completely annexing the kingdom of Pattani, this Emperor of the Celestial Empire had publicly revealed his next objective — the Strait of Malacca!

He had even already worked out the post-conquest arrangements for the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra — the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra would be divided into twelve portions, then handed over to the Emperor's twelve sons to rule, and twelve vassal duchies subordinate to the Celestial Empire would be established.

According to publicly circulated reports, this Emperor was already using titles and land to recruit high ministers for these twelve vassal duchies. He had even published the recruitment notice in the newspapers, and a Chinese-language commercial newspaper published locally in Batavia had reprinted the news!

Governor-General Maetsuycker, who had originally been a guest at the Banten court, lobbying the Sultan of Banten to join the anti-Celestial-Empire "Malacca Alliance," had no choice but to cut short his visit upon receiving this news and hurry back to Batavia to take charge.

On his way back to Batavia, he issued orders for mobilization and martial law in Batavia.

The object of mobilization was all adult Dutch males residing in Batavia — Batavia's standing army was far too small, a mere 2,000 men, and they were moreover pinned down by Batavia's Chinese residents and utterly unable to leave the city to fight. In order to be able to send troops to Malacca when necessary, Governor-General Maetsuycker had to mobilize.

As for martial law, it was even more necessary, because Batavia's Chinese residents were by no means unarmed, and they had their own organizations, such as native-place associations and Confucian classics schools, and had even formed a loose Chinese Association centered on the Confucian classics schools and the Ming legation.

Governor-General Maetsuycker was now truly surrounded by troubles both at home and abroad!

For this Governor-General of the East India Company, apart from the exceptionally strong Batavia bastion (located north of the Batavia city proper), there was probably not a single place that was truly safe.

Even with martial law declared, even with East India Company mercenaries armed with loaded rifles visible everywhere on the streets of Batavia's Chinese Quarter, Maetsuycker could not feel the slightest bit of security.

He knew that unless Ming troops were bearing down in force, he could not expel the Chinese from Batavia, and as for massacre, he dared not even think of it. Because what stood behind him was not a great empire, but a trading company! The shareholders in Amsterdam were extremely satisfied with the dividends the East India Company had provided in recent years, and the ultimate source of those dividends was the trade with the Chinese and the financial services attached to that trade.

(End of Chapter)