Voc Case

Rotterdam School of Management

The VOC

The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC)

Introduction Cornelis Matelief de Jong walked through the streets of Amsterdam. It was the year 1609; he was 39 years old. He was heading for his guesthouse after a meeting with two members of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). One of them was a member of the executive committee of the VOC, the Heren XVII - a very important and influential man. They had asked him to give a presentation of his ideas on the future operations of the company to the Heren XVII. He felt honoured that they had asked him, but he had been pressing for a meeting for some time. He had written several memoirs that set out his vision, but it had taken them some time to respond to these. He was not really sure how he would start his talk, but he was confident that his vision would be appreciated. One other thing was sure as well. The current practice of the VOC was not working well. Matelief was one of the 76 founding trustees of the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie or VOC) in 1602. He was a member of the Chamber of Rotterdam, one of the six chambers that made up the VOC. He had been the admiral of a fleet 11 ships that were sent on expedition to the East in 1605. This expedition, as the one before, and the ones that had followed, also included a mission to attack Portuguese strongholds in Mozambique, Goa (India) and other places. The various attempts of Matelief and others to drive out the Portuguese were hardly successful, even though the voyages themselves had been more or less profitable. Now the Heren XVII has considered that the aggressive policy towards the Portuguese was not the right way forward. Their business was to make money, not wage war. Or rather, wage war only if it helped make money. But they had no real idea how to go about this. Matelief had been contemplating the options ever since his return voyage, which took most of 1608. He...