Research On Tea Trade Of The Dutch East India Company With China During The 17^th And 18^th Centuries

At the beginning of the 17th century, Holland introduced the Chinese tea to Europe for the first time, and became the pioneer of Chinese and Western tea trade, Therefore the Holland played an important historical role in the rise and development of the tea trade between China and western countries. All through the early modern period, the Sino-Dutch trade of tea was monopolized by the Dutch East India Company. The main problems explored in this paper are what the conditions of the rise of tea trade were, how the form of tea trade developed from indirect to direct, what the specialty of different type of trading was, reasons why the tea trade changed from prosperity to decline and what the influence of tea trade on Europe was. Making a comparison with the Dutch East India Company and British East India Company in the management organization, pattern of trading and the species of tea purchased is also a significant part of this article.The paper is divided into five parts. The first section casts back the rise of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China. From the perspective of that Holland introduced Chinese tea to Europe firstly, The first section discusses the cognition of Chinese tea for European. It was the tea-drinking, which was widespread in every walks of life, stimulated the development of tea trade. While, relying on the strong economic strength and powerful navy force Netherlands built up a commercial network which was centered in Batavia in the first half of 17century. There was no doubt that the commercial network provided a convenient for the trade of Dutch East India Company with China. At the beginning of 18 century, the quantities of tea purchased kept growing, as a result, the tea trade gradually thrived.The second and third part discusses the development history of tea trade in the form of indirect trade and direct trade. In chronological order, this paper discusses the reasons why the different types of trade established and what the advantages of them were.The biggest advantage of tea trade in the form of Dutch-Batavia-China embodied in its means of payment. The Dutch East India Company can buy the tea shipped by junk with tropical products which was monopolied by the Netherlands. This means of payment not only made high profits but also reduced the use of silver, Consequently it brought prosperity for company and Batavia. The indirect trade also had some disadvantages like bad-taste tea and sluggish transportation. The purpose of tea trade in the form of Dutch-China was making up for those disadvantages; Analyzing the quantity and profit margins of tea in every period, It showed that the tea trade met its first prosperity in the 1730s, Because the quantity of tea purchased had increased by 15 times in 30 years.1756-1780 can be called the golden age of direct trade, because the gross profit margin on the tea trade in some years up to 300%. As to the reasons of Golden Age, we must not only investigate the Dutch East India Company’s internal management and trade policy, but also consider the external factors in political, social, economic development of the Europe and China; Through the analysis of the tea trade route and sales problems, The biggest characteristic of the tea sales of the Netherlands was the tea smuggling. The UK was the biggest market of smuggling tea for the Netherlands. Once the The UK cracked down the smuggling tea, the Netherlands lost the largest tea sales market gradually. Finally, the company’s tea trade began to decline and disintegrated.The forth part compares with the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company in the management organization, pattern of trading and the species of tea purchased. Two companies had big difference in the pattern of trading. The British East India Company bought tea with silvers before 1750s and after that the quantities of silver in payment falling.While, the means of payment of Dutch East India Company completely reverse. But the two companies presented a lot of similarities in the other two areas. This point also presented the common characteristics in the Far East trade of commercial corporations.The last part discusses the influence of the tea trade on Europe. The tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China existed for about 200 years. The extravagant profit of tea trade accumulated capital and wealth for the Netherlands and Dutch East India Company. For the Holland, the tea trade increased the commercial income and promoted the development of entrepot trade. For the Europe, Holland introduced the Chinese tea to Europe for the first time. Tea-drinking enriched material and cultural life of Europeans.