TRADE, RESEARCH AND SCIENCE UNDER THE DUTCH IN ASIA荷蘭人於亞洲的貿易、研究和科學
The article investigates the relationship between trade, research, and "science" in the context of the presence of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Asia, using as a narrative axis an episode of 1779 in West Borneo: scientists and traders associated with the VOC attempted to observe local nature...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2006
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40020/3741 |
| Summary: | The article investigates the relationship between trade, research, and "science" in the context of the presence of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Asia, using as a narrative axis an episode of 1779 in West Borneo: scientists and traders associated with the VOC attempted to observe local nature and capture an orangutan, while the trade mission and collection routines revealed an immediate articulation between economic interests and knowledge production. Based on historical analysis of travel accounts, institutional documentation (especially the initiatives of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen founded in 1778), and historiographical discussion regarding the alleged "anti-scientific" character of the VOC, the author questions readings that describe the Company as indifferent to the arts and sciences and suggests that what seemed like an exception may reflect a more systematic practice of collection, description, and investigation. It concludes that the VOC's policy of secrecy aimed primarily at protecting commercial and cartographic information, not at hindering scientific activities; furthermore, the supposed continuous trajectory of decline in the eighteenth century is relativized. Thus, trade and research appear as complementary processes, capable of expanding both knowledge of the natural sciences and Asian ethnology, with lasting impacts on European collections and research agendas. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |