oa De ontbrekende schakels tussen compagnie en consumptie

The missing link between company and consumption. Who were the main buyers at the auctions of the Dutch East India Company in the eighteenth century?

The wholesale and retail market for Asian goods in Europe is still largely unexplored. Historians’ growing interest in consumption patterns is now revealing the importance of Asian products in the nascent European consumer market. Earlier studies have already found that the Dutch East India Company moved from shipping only luxury commodities to supplying Europe with products (coffee, tea and sugar) intended for an increasingly broad range of consumers. By compiling and analyzing a database of purchases at the auctions of the VOC in Zeeland in the eighteenth century this article investigates a crucial link between trade with Asia and consumption in Europe. It also reveals that the company catered to the burgeoning slave trade of Zeeland. We find that the auctions were dominated by a small group of wholesalers who potentially had the power to dictate the commercial policy of the company in Asia.