Company of Missives: the Epistemic Potential of Colonial Records in the Dutch East India Company (1727-1770)

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/76632

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History (MA)

Tilburg, Richard van (2019)

Company of Missives: the Epistemic Potential of Colonial Records in the Dutch East India Company (1727-1770)

Master thesis | History (MA)

This thesis looks at the role and usage of colonial archival documents in the knowledge production of the eighteenth-century Dutch East India Company (VOC), through a case study of the Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (OBP) of the regional establishment of Malabar. By looking at documentary practices regarding the OBP, conceptualised as an early modern colonial archive, this research traces its epistemic potential through several stages: creation and selection on the Malabar Coast, dispersion through the information network of the company and dissection by the Haags Besogne. The findings presented here show that the epistemic potential of the OBP was eroded in every stage and only partially actualised by company officials in the Dutch Republic. In line with recent studies on early modern colonial archives, this thesis raises scepticism towards the equation of knowledge and empire through colonial archives, but offers new arguments and explanations for doing so.

VOC

TANAP

Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (OBP)

Documentary Practices