Equip ships
How shipping works
A ship costs its hull, crew and stores, plus the silver you put aboard. Europe has little Asia wants to buy, so silver is what pays for cargo.
Ships leave only in the sailing seasons, reach Batavia 8 to 11 months later, wait for the return season (November to January) and come home loaded with whatever Batavia has bought. A round trip takes about two years.
More ships only help if Batavia has goods to fill them. Watch "Goods waiting for ships" in the letter from Batavia.
Warehouse & auction
How prices are set
Auctions are held on 1 April and 1 October. The slider sets what share of each good in the warehouse you put up for sale.
The price depends on three things: how much you sell against what Europe wants in half a year, how much the English bring, and how much you keep back. Buyers know what is left in your warehouse, so a big stock pulls the price down too.
Fine spices are the clearest case: demand barely grows, so selling more can earn you less. The Company sometimes burned spices to hold the price.
| Goods | In store | Sell | Est. price |
|---|
Accounts Amsterdam chamber
What these numbers mean
This is the Amsterdam side only: auction sales coming in, ships, silver, interest and dividends going out.
Silver sent east is not lost. It sits in Batavia and buys the cargo that comes home a year or two later. That is why a busy year can look like a loss. Batavia's own books arrive with each letter, a year late.
The VOC never added the two sets of books together.
Shareholders meeting each May
How shareholders react
Each May you pay the dividend you set here, as a share of the ƒ6.4 million original capital. If the treasury cannot cover it, the rest is borrowed.
Shareholders expect roughly what you paid over the last five years. Paying less raises discontent; high discontent brings pamphlets. The share price follows the dividend, not the real health of the Company.
The bookkeeper's notes
The route east presumed positions
Amsterdam sees only the schedule. A ship that sank keeps sailing on this map until word arrives.
Fleet
| Ship | Status | Silver |
|---|
Chronicle
The Seventeen's aims monopoly
Why monopoly
The Heeren XVII wanted to be the only sellers of the fine spices in Europe, so they could set the price. Each monopoly here was won by force or by forced contracts. When you secure one, its cost is entered in the other ledger.
Each one cuts the rivals' supply at auction. They are counted once a letter from Batavia confirms them.
Letter from Batavia
Instructions to Asia
How orders reach Asia
Your choices here are written into a letter. It sails with the next ship and takes effect only when that ship reaches Batavia. If the ship sinks, the letter is lost; every ship of the season carries a copy.
The Governor-General does not always obey.