The Dutch in Taiwan: 17th century Chinese tea trade at Fort Zeelandia in Tainan
“Determining the Weight of the Tea,” c. 1770 print that shows Chinese tea merchants weighing tea packaged with the Dutch United East India Company, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) logo on it, Rijksmuseum Collection
Usually when most people think of the historical global colonial tea trade, we think of the British East Indies Company (EIC).
But actually the Dutch United East India Company, in Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), was a dominant player before the EIC came to control the global tea trade.
It was in fact the Dutch who created a market for tea in Europe and set up the global colonial tea trade connecting Europe and its colonies to the tea cultures and tea production in Asia.
On a recent trip to Tainan, Taiwan at the site of an old Dutch trading fort, Fort Zealandia, now known locally as Anping Fort 安平古堡, I had a chance to learn more about the history up close.
Along with Tony and my mom, we started our day trip with a high speed train ride into Tainan from Taichung.
While the capital and biggest city of Taiwan today is Taipei in the north,
Tainan on the coast on the southwest of the island is actually the oldest city on the island when it was established by the Dutch and the VOC in 1624.
TIME TRAVEL BACK TO 16th CENTURY
Portugese map of Eastern Africa, Asia and Western Oceania c.1550. public domain
Rewind to the late 16th century, the dominant global superpower are the Portuguese controlling global maritime trade and by the end of the century, the Dutch are trying to catch up.
The Portuguese opened the lucrative and highly sought after trade with Japan and China and the Dutch want in on it.
Painting of Portugese carrack ships, the sailing vessel they used to dominate maritime exploration and trade, early to mid-16th century; circa 1540. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
The Portuguese first reached China’s two trading ports Canton (Guangzhou) in 1515 and Amoy (Xiamen) in 1516 and Japan in 1543.
In 1544 en route to Japan, the Portuguese noted the island of today’s Taiwan when sailing by and called the island “Formosa” (beautiful in Portuguese).
Formosa was the western name for Taiwan from 1544 onwards for the next 400+ years.
“Portuguese vessels were the only Occidental vessels in the Orient until 1596, when the Dutch first entered East Asian waters.” pg.263, Tale of Tea
Japanese painted screen showing Portugese traders in Nagasaki, mid 16th century, by Kano Naizen from Kobe City Museum collection.
THE DUTCH ARRIVE ON THE SCENE
The Return to Amsterdam of the Second Expedition to the East Indies, Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom (1566–1640), oil on canvas, 1599, Rijks Museum Collection
It took the Dutch 86+ years to catch up to the Portugese and establish relations at these key trading ports.
The earliest record of Dutch traders in Canton (Guangzhou) is 1601, they reached Amoy (Xiamen) in 1604, and established their base in Hirado (Nagasaki) Japan in 1609.
THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY (VOC)
The Arms of the Dutch East India Company and of the Town of Batavia, 1651 by Jeronimus Becx
VOC company flag with logo from 1630
To manage trade at these newly opened ports in addition to trade in other parts of Asia, The Dutch East India trading Company (VOC) was founded in 1602.
The charter of the VOC gave it a monopoly on all Dutch trade in Asian waters from the Cape of Good Hope.
The mandate of the VOC, like the British EIC, went beyond merely trade and included negotiating treaties and colonial governance.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the world’s largest trade and shipping company. With a fleet of over a hundred ships, thousands of employees and almost thirty offices in Asia and six branches in the Republic, each with their own offices, warehouses and shipyards. (Dutch National Maritime Museum Het Scheepvaart)
map showing the trading region of the VOC, from the Atlas Van der Hagen, published by Nicolaas Visscher II (1649-1702), Koninklijke Bibliotheek / Royal Library of the Netherlands
SO HOW DID THE DUTCH END UP IN TAIWAN?
photo I took in Dec 2024 at the site of the old Fort Zeelandia
With an established VOC Asian headquarters set up in Batavia (Jakarta), a base for trade with Japan in Hirado (Nagasaki), the Dutch needed a base for trade with China.
Naturally they looked to a spot China’s imperial Ming Dynasty already reluctantly allowed the Portuguese to establish: Macau, a small trading colony close to Canton (Guangzhou).
In their bid to displace Portugal’s role as the premiere European presence in East Asia for trade, the Dutch tried taking Macau from the Portuguese.
19th century painting of Portuguese Macau, (Asian Civilizations Museum collection, Singapore)
The VOC unsuccessfully tried to attack the Portuguese at Macau four times, with their last failed attempt in 1622.
Finally accepting they weren’t going to be able to take Macau from the Portuguese (which btw the Portguese managed to hold onto until 1999), the Dutch eventually retreated to Formosa (Taiwan) to set up Fort Zeelandia in 1624.
Fort Zeelandia was intended as a base for themselves to engage in trade with China and get their hands on some precious silk, porcelain, and tea.
annotated contemporary map
close-up of the same region from the historical 17th century Atlas Van der Hagen map.
THE LOCATION OF FORT ZEELANDIA
17th century watercolor of Fort Zeelandia, from the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem in the collection of the Austrian National Library.
What is known today as the Taijiang lagoon, has a sandbank that isolates the waves from the shore creating a protected bay of calm waters, which geographically made it a natural place for boats to dock for trade.
Even before the Dutch arrived in the early 17th century, this lagoon was a site of local and regional trade:
Sampans and sailboats traded with the local aboriginal Siraya people who traded products made from deer skin and venison with maritime merchants and fisherman from China, Japan, Siam (Thailand), Qiang Nam (Vietnam) and Java (Indonesia). Taijiang lagoon was a bustling Commerical transaction center in the 16th century. (Fort Zeelandia Museum exhibit)
from the Fort Zeelandia Museum exhibit
The word “Zeelandia” was Dutch for “the place where land meets the sea.” (Which explains some other places in the world the Dutch have been that are similarly named because it is also where land meets the sea.)
Without a base with proximity to Canton (Guangzhou) and Chinese Ming Dynasty officials repeatedly chasing the Dutch away from Chinese shores, the spot of Fort Zeelandia was ideal for the Dutch to control the Fukien (Fujian) trade and the Formosa (Taiwan) strait.
The spot of Fort Zeelandia was choosen purely for it’s strategic trade location.
The site were Fort Zeelandia was built was not really ideal for putting up a fortification. The decision for the location was largely due to the fact that the local aborigines and the Chinese posed no threat to the Dutch whose primary concern was protecting their trade opportunities. (Fort Zeelandia Museum exhibit)
And this calculation paid off. Because the Dutch managed from 1624-1662 to trade in tea from their base at Fort Zeelandia. Chinese trading junks directly from Fukien (Fujian) would sail on over to Fort Zeelandia to trade tea with the Dutch.
THE DUTCH CREATE A MARKET FOR TEA IN EUROPE
The Dutch were the first people to bring tea to Europe in 1610, and it was tea from Japan.
Even though the Portuguese Jesuits in Japan noticed and documented this new beverage tea and observed the rituals of Japanese tea culture in the mid 16th century, they didn’t bring tea back to Europe to trade.
Instead the Portuguese focused on silver from Japan and silk from China, not tea.
The Dutch, however, successfully created the hype for this “exotic Asian drink” and built the market for tea back in Europe.
“Dutch Family Taking Tea” circa 1680, attributed to Roelof Koets II (1650-1725) in a private collection and last displayed at the exhibit Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age at the Rijksmuseum and Peabody Essex Museum.
A great blog post by an Asian antiques expert analyzes the “Javanese table”depicted in this painting which really shows this painting was meant to showcase the wealth and sophistication of this family by depicting them in relation to their exclusive treasures from Asia (tea, teaware, furniture) that the VOC had brought back to Holland.
The Dutch then introduced tea to France in 1636 and to England in 1645. It was the Dutch who introduced tea as a commercial import, health beverage, and as a fashionable pursuit to demonstrate sophistication to the British.
It took some time to educate the European consumer base on the pleasures of tea, however:
The trade in tea began as a trickle, and tea featured as just one exotic commodity in the array of goods traded by the Dutch East India Company.
In the ensuing decades, the trade would balloon and soon come to embody a major segment of world trade and global capital flow. The globalisation of tea began when this new commodity was introduced to Holland by the Dutch East India Company and began to arouse the curiosity of the well- to-do. (pg.315, Tale of Tea)
If you developed a taste for tea in Europe in the early to mid 17th century, and only the most privileged in society even had access to this exclusive import, you were getting tea from Holland.
Holland was where tea was most readily available in Europe and where it was directly imported into from Asia via the VOC.
FORT ZEELANDIA’S ROLE IN THE BURGEONING GLOBAL TEA TRADE
In the early to mid17th century there were three main ports a European could gain access to tea in Asia: Canton (Guangzhou) and Amoy (Xiamen) in China, and Hirado (Nagasaki) in Japan.
The Seldon Map of China, 1620–1629, the earliest surviving Chinese merchant map of East Asia, “painted with watercolours and ink on Chinese paper, is a unique example of Chinese merchant cartography depicting a network of shipping routes.”© Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
close-up of the present day Taiwan Strait from The Seldon Map of China, 1620-1629, © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
Amoy (Xiamen) is located in present day Fujian and as you can see on a map, an easy sail across the Formosa (Taiwan) Strait from Fort Zeelandia (Tainan).
As mentioned earlier, the VOC created a great system for themselves where Chinese merchant traders themselves would sail over from Amoy (Xiamen) on their own boats and deliver tea to the Dutch.
A bill dating from 1643 shows that Chinese vessels had delivered 1,400 pounds of tea and 7,675 tea cups to the Dutch at Taiyouan [site of Fort Zeelandia] on Formosa [Taiwan], which was then shipped to Batavia [Jakarta], where tea was consumed avidly by the Dutch colonial community. Tea was traded more profitably, however, when it was being shipped onward to Holland. (320)
To learn more about the history of Xiamen check out Tranquil Tuesday’s previous trip there.
Much like how the British controlled 18th and 19th century global tea trade was a complex web of wares (sugar, slaves, silver, tobacco, opium, and tea) touching on multiple colonial holdings,
the Dutch controlled 17th and early 18th century global tea trade spanned a multi-pronged network of their colonial outposts trading in the most prized objects of the day (spices, porcelain, furs, and tea).
A great map detailing the network of VOC outposts in Asia from the Fort Zeelandia Museum exhibit
In Asia, the VOC established factories and godowns:
in 1608 at Ayutthaya (Thailand)
in 1609 at Hirado (Nagasaki, Japan)
in 1613 in Pulicat (part of modern Chennai, India)
in 1616 in Surat (India)
in 1616 at Mocha (Yemen)
in 1619 at Palembang in Sumatra
in 1624 at Formosa (Taiwan)
in 1625 at Shiraz and Isfahan (Iran)
from the Fort Zeelandia Museum exhibit
On the other side of the world, the Dutch in America built their first trading fort in 1624 Fort Amsterdam (New York City), the same year they built Fort Zeelandia in Formosa (Taiwan).
When looking at the old Dutch maps of Fort Zeelandia (Tainan), Tony a history scholar, noted that the maps looked very similar to the early Dutch maps of Fort Amsterdam (New York City).
Another similarity between Fort Zeelandia and Fort Amsterdam was the brick wall surrounding the settlement.
The legacy of, maybe one of the most famous streets named after a wall: Wall Street in New York City.
Tony and me at “Wall Street”, Fort Zeelandia Taiwan in 2024. The only surviving wall from the Dutch era.
THE VOC BROUGHT TEA TO EUROPE, BUT NOT THE GOOD STUFF
It is important to remember though, this highly prized commodity of tea which the Dutch were bringing back to a Europe in a marketplace they created for it, were not Asia’s best or finest teas.
After centuries of China and Japan each developing a highly refined tea culture, locals really prized tea and had expertise and an informed tea appreciation. The best teas were saved and sold (and priced) for such connoisseurs.
In the 17th century, new to the tea game, even the richest Europeans were not ready to lay down the high prices for the finest Japanese or Chinese teas.
portion of the scroll painting Banquet at the Peach and Plum Garden on a Spring Evening, Leng Mei (fl. 18th c.) from the National Palace Museum Taiwan collection
A print showing Japanese tea vendors. Print from a 1632 original. Copied by Kanō Osanobu and Kanō Masanobu. (From Poetry Competition of Artisans, vol.2), Tokyo National MuseumCollection
Additionally the realities of wooden sailing ships that took many months to cross two oceans meant that tea did not arrive at its freshest or best once it finally reached the shores of Europe.
Considering these two factors, the best and most expensive teas were not what Dutch traders bought in bulk and shipped as cargo to Europe.
Even with more efficient shipping methods and better technology for preserving the freshness of teas today, the best and finest teas still remain in Asia.
Asia still is the best market for the world’s most expensive teas today.
THE DUTCH LOSE FORT ZEELANDIA
Frederick Coyett, a Swede who had an illustrious career with the VOC, arrived at Fort Zeelandia in 1656 to be the Governor of Formosa.
What he didn’t realize was, that he would be the last VOC Governor of Formosa (Taiwan).
Portrait of Koxinga (aka Zheng Chenggong), 17th century, National Taiwan Museum Collection.
In 1659, a Chinese man named He Bin working for the VOC went to Amoy (Xiamen) and gave a map of the island of Formosa (Taiwan) to Zheng Chenggong, known more commonly as Koxinga, the title the Longwu Emperor gave him .
Koxinga was in Xiamen trying to rally troops to restore the Ming Dynasty and overthrow the current rulers of China: the Qing Dynasty.
After a few failed attempts at taking down the Qing rulers, Koxinga wanted to decamp to Taiwan and regroup.
Junius Baptising the New Christians (Aboriginal Taiwanese) at Formosa depicts Dutch missionary Robert Junius performing a baptism on a group of Siraya people in the 17th century. Private collection last exhibited at National Museum of Taiwan History.
Inconveniently, however, the Dutch were running things on Formosa (Taiwan), so Koxinga first planned a seige to take Taiwan from the Dutch.
According to the book Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West:
Frederick Coyett, the governor of Taiwan for the Dutch East India Company, was stationed in Fort Zeelandia with 1,733 people: 905 soldiers and officers, 547 slaves, 218 women and children, and 63 married men (page 189)
Koxinga first made an alliance with local aborginal people who were chafing under Dutch colonial rule and agreed to ally with Koxinga to take down the Dutch and went on a spree of beheading Dutch people. (😳!)
Brutal and violent warfare tactics were undertaken by the Dutch, the Chinese, and aboriginal groups—nobody is innocent on that ground.
“The Siege of Taiwan”, woodcut print from the book The Authentic Story of Taiwan: An Illustrated History, Based on Ancient Maps, Manuscripts, and Prints, by Christine Vertente.
In1661, Koxinga and his troops laid seige to Fort Zeelandia.
Intriguingly, Koxinga, according to Coyett’s first person account of the seige translated into English and published in Formosa under the Dutch : described from contemporary records, with explanatory notes and a bibliography of the island:
He had also two companies of 'Black-boys,' many of whom had been Dutch slaves and had learned the use of the rifle and musket-arms. These caused much harm during the war in Formosa. (page 421)
Even after the VOC sent two rounds of reinforcements from Batavia (Jakarta), and after many battles on sea and on ground, Koxinga and his aborginal allies were able to hold the seige.
Finally after eight months, on January 12, 1662, Coyett ordered the hoisting of the white flag and the Dutch officially surrendered. This ended the Dutch’s time on Formosa (Taiwan).
1662 Peace Treaty between Koxinga and VOC Governor Coyett, from the Dutch National Archives
THE DUTCH CONTINUE THE TEA TRADE FROM FUZHOU
Evicted from Formosa (Taiwan), the Dutch needed a new base for their lucrative China trade.
Maybe because they had suffered under their own enemies, the Qing Dynasty decided to throw the Dutch a bone.
From 1662, the Dutch were permitted to establish an outpost for the trade in tea, silk and porcelain at Hoksieu (Fuzhou) in Fujian up the coast from Amoy (Xiamen).
With this new outpost directly on the shores of China, the VOC didn’t really even need Formosa (Taiwan) or Fort Zeelandia anymore anyways.
The British were starting to threaten the Dutch dominance of the tea trade though as the British East India Company (EIC) were granted permission to set up their own trading based on Amoy (Xiamen) in1678.
FORT ZEELANDIA AFTER THE DUTCH
Koxinga and his crew remained in Fort Zeelandia and turned it into their own government offices. But not for long.
After this Fort Zeelandia became a site where the successive regimes who ran Taiwan (Qing Dynasty, British-French forces who defeated the Qing, Japanese colonists, KMT in Taiwan, today’s government in Tawian) used the site for administrative purposes and built various buildings to reflect the architectural styles of their culture and era.
Fort Zeelandia is now a public museum dedicated to telling some of the stories of its history including an intriguing corner of Chinese tea trade history and the Dutch’s unique role in spearheading the Chinese tea trade to Europe.
Below is an ancient Banyan Tree that has witnessed all these chapters of history on site at Fort Zeelandia.
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