The Impact of the Dutch East India Company

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12. -1(367-402) 1904.1.83:25PM 367 CTP-2 2400DPI175LPI T The Impact of the Dutch East India Company(VOC) on the Evolution of Southeast Asian Economy* KIM Dong-Yeob** ABSTRACT * This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (NRF-2009-362-B00016). An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2011 Fall Academic Conference of the Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies on November 21, 2011. ** HK Research Professor of the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies 367 The Impact of the Dutch East India Company(VOC) on the Evolution of Southeast Asian Economy This article is to shed light on the impact of the Dutch East India Company(VOC) on the evolution of the Southeast Asian economy in the early modern era. It specifically focused on the state and merchant capitalists that played an important role in the capitalist development of the time. The VOC was said to be the most advanced capitalist institution of the time. It was not only a corporate entity but also a de facto state in Asia. With its military power the VOC disarmed the role of Southeast Asian states in trade by deteriorating them into either a dependent peripheral state or a non-commercial absolute state. The VOC also limited the commercial role of the indigenous merchants. Instead, the VOC heavily relied on the Chinese to supplement its needs and to connect the local people with the Dutch. Chinese emerged as the major merchant capitalists and the wealthy middle class in Southeast Asia ever since. The opportunity to build a constructive relationship between the state and the indigenous merchant class in Southeast Asia was wasted under such circumstance. And it caused to push further Southeast Asian economy to the periphery of the world economic
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