オランダ東インド会社（VOC）の投資者・運営者に関する研究 : 移住フランドル人のオランダ大航海時代への貢献という視点（前）

Abstract

The Dutch East India Company （VOC）, founded in 1602 as allegedly the first publicly traded joint-stock company in the world, seems to have been researched thoroughly already for centuries except in one aspect who administered the Company’s business at home and in East India （e.g., Jakarta and Nagasaki）. That question may be quite reasonably raised by the curious fact that, for example, the Rotterdam company, which was one of precursors of the VOC and dispatched the Dutch ship “Liefde” to Japan for the first time in 1600, was financed largely by Johan van der Veecken originally from Mechelen, Flanders. In addition, its fleet was commanded by Jacques Mahu originally from Saint-Omer, French Flanders. What was the reason for such a background of this “Dutch” voyage piloted by the first Englishman in Japan, William Adams（Miura Anjin）? This paper seeks to research extensively into the ancestry of investors, governors, admirals, etc. of the VOC, and, as a result, made clear that it was indeed a primarily Flemish （or Jewish） venture, and that most of the Dutch senior officers based at home and officers posted abroad in Jakarta or Japan as Chief Factors（ merchants） were of Flemish descent. This research result may eventually & ultimately answer yet another question related to the Euro-Japanese historical relationship, such as the long-lasting controversy on the so-called seclusion（Sakoku）, if any, during the Edo period.