A Bankrupt Merchant Turned VOC's Governor-General

ANTHONY van Diemen was considered to be having a good reputation during his time as a VOC (Dutch East India Company) employee and later as a governor-general in Batavia. He was even cited as one of the three most successful governors-general during the mid 17th century alongside Joan Maetsuycker (1653–1678) and Rijkloff van Goens (1678–1681).

Van Diemen's illustrious career as a VOC employee contrasted with his youth days during which he was a merchant. Van Diemen, who was born in Culemborg in 1593, began his career in 1616 at the age of 23 as a merchant in Amsterdam, a bustling port and one of the fastest growing commercial cities in Europe.

Van Diemen established a business relationship with entrepreneur Jan Engels. On Engels' advice, the inexperienced young man engaged in speculative ventures that resulted in heavy losses as his businesses failed. Van Diemen was disheartened because Engels refused to help him, which made him eventually declare bankruptcy. Alfons van der Kraan wrote in "Anthony Van Diemen: From Bankrupt to Governor General, 1593-1636", in the journal The Great Circle, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2004) that Van Diemen not only lost his business capital, but also owed 20,000 guilders debt that put him in a severe financial difficulty.

For Van Diemen, bankruptcy was a very serious problem not only because of the material losses he had to bear, but also because in the 17th century bankruptcy was seen as a moral failure. "Bankrupts were regarded as dishonorable characters; they were shunned in polite society, and were excluded from most types of employment," Van der Kraan wrote.

Van Diemen made various attempts to settle his debts to creditors. He wrote to his principal creditor, the Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company, asking to be sent to the Dutch East Indies to work as a merchant or young merchant to pay off his debts. As a guarantee, Van Diemen proposed in his letter that the Company withhold his monthly salary so he could gradually settle his debts.

However, his suggestion was ignored because the Company's employment policy, which was established by the Calvinist directors, prohibited the engagement of not only all criminals and people with a bad reputation, but also all bankrupts.

Failure made Van Diemen decide to return to his parents' house in Culemborg where he stayed for more than a year. Driven by despair, Van Diemen ultimately decided to enlist as a VOC soldier. Fearing rejection because the Company knew he was bankrupt, Van Diemen registered under the pseudonym Thonis Meeuwisz van Utrecht.

According to historian W. Ph. Coolhaas in “Gegevens Over Antonio Van Diemen,” in the journal Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Deel 103, 3/4de Afl. journal (1946), Van Diemen used the name Thonis Meeuwisz van Utrecht most likely because of his family history. The name Meeuwisz relates to his father, Bartholomeus, who was nicknamed Mees or Meeuwis. Meanwhile, Van Utrecht refers to the place where Van Diemen lived and went to school.

Life in the Indies

Using a pseudonym, Van Diemen managed to become one of those who would be sent to the Indies to work for the VOC. He became a cadet with a salary of ten guilders per month. Van Diemen sailed on the Mauritius, one of the Company's best ships, to the Indies in early January 1618 and docked in Batavia in late August 1618.

The Mauritius arrived at a crucial time, as a few months earlier Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen had moved the headquarters of the Company's operations in the Indies from Banten to Jacatra, later renamed Batavia. Coen worked hard to build a fort in the area, as the relocation of the Company's headquarters was a result of defiance against the sultan of Banten who claimed Jacatra. In addition, an English fleet sailing under Sir Thomas Dale had gathered in the Indies, and would likely join forces with the sultan of Banten to expel the Dutch from Java.

It is likely that Van Diemen and his fellow soldiers who had just arrived were asked to build Batavia fortress. However, Van Diemen instantly attracted the attention of Coen who exempted him from manual labor. According to Van der Kraan, it is likely that Coen, who had a habit of personally inspecting all newly arrived personnel, chose Van Diemen because he was considered more cultured than the other soldiers. "It is also possible that Van Diemen addressed a number of petitions to the Governor-General on behalf of his fellow soldiers and that these petitions attracted Coen's attention for their excellent composition and style," Van der Kraan wrote.

Coen summoned Van Diemen to appear before him, and that meeting became a turning point in Van Diemen's life. In front of the governor-general, Van Diemen revealed his true identity. He told Coen that he had enlisted in the army under a false name. He also told him about his childhood in Culemborg and his education at the Latin School in Utrecht, where he studied theology, mathematics, accounting and various subjects deemed necessary for a career in commerce.

Bankrupts were regarded as dishonorable characters; they were shunned in polite society, and were excluded from most types of employment.

Van Diemen also told Coen about his bankruptcy and his efforts to solve the problem. Impressed by the young man's honesty and his ambition to build a city with cultured and educated people, Coen forgave and protected Van Diemen. Coen didn't even hesitate to allow van Diemen to work on probation in his secretariat where he was given the task of taking care of general administration such as keeping account books and copying letters.

It didn't take long for Van Diemen to prove his worth and gain Coen's trust. Not surprisingly, when he received a letter from the director of the Company in the Netherlands demonizing Van Diemen and asking him to dismiss the young man from his job, Coen refused. 

Van Diemen later found out about the letter of the Company director to Coen. Feeling that his dignity had been tarnished, he wrote directly to the Company director. Although the Company director did not reply to Van Diemen's letter, Coen, who knew about this, appreciated Van Diemen even more and promoted him as an assistant with a salary of 20 guilders per month in early October 1619. The following year, Coen entrusted Van Diemen to audit the Company's trading post in Hirado, Japan. In recognition of Van Diemen's accuracy in carrying out this task, in January 1621 Coen raised Van Diemen's salary to fifty guilders per month, and further raised his rank to senior merchant with an income of 90 guilders per month. 

Van Diemen's career continued to rise. "In just over six years he had risen from the ranks of the soldiers to become a Councilor of the Indies, a member of the six-man executive board that, with the Governor-General himself, deliberated on all important matters concerning the Company's operations in the East," Van der Kraan wrote.

Becoming a Governor-General

After Coen's death in 1629, Van Diemen established good relations with Governor-Generals Jacques Specx (1629-1632) and Hendrik Brouwer (1632-1636), keeping him in prestigious positions. In fact, during Brouwer's administration, Van Diemen was appointed director-general, the highest official or second in command after the governor-general in the colony. After three years in office, Brouwer voluntarily resigned to be replaced by Van Diemen who was inaugurated as governor-general in January 1636.

During his nine years as governor-general, Van Diemen was deemed successful in strengthening the Company's grip on the lucrative clove trade in Maluku. However, according to Holden Furber in Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600-1800, Van Diemen was seen as more successful in preventing Mataram or other local powers from dominating the heart of Nusantara–Java and Sumatra–than in strengthening the spice monopoly.

"It was comparatively easy to negotiate a truce with Banten and, in other cases, to take advantage of the new wave of Islamization which during the quarter century 1625-50 was sweeping the islands fostering the pride of local rulers in their own identity," Furber said.

Meanwhile, historian and archivist Mona Lohanda in Sejarah Para Pembesar Mengatur Batavia said Van Diemen was known as the governor-general who set the foundation for the city's administrative institutions. "He did this institutional consolidation by arranging a compilation of all the regulations that had been promulgated regarding urban life in the VOC administration," wrote Mona.

The collection of regulations is known as De Bataviasche Statuten, which was published in 1642. Anthony van Diemen's tenure ended when he died in Batavia on 19 April 1645 and was succeeded by Cornelis van der Lijn (1645-1650).