You are cordially invited to a special seminar by Dr. Peter Borshberg.
The seminar is open to the public.
The details are as follows.

Date: September 24th, 2014
Time: 14:00 – 18:00
Place: Tonan-tei (Room No.201) on the 2nd floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, Kyoto University
Speaker: Dr.Peter Borshberg, Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore
Title: Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and the First Dutch Empire, c.1600-1620

Abstract:
This paper reconstructs the vision of commercial empire staked out by Dutch Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge in his memorials and letters penned between 1607 and 1616. In May 1605 Matelieff was the second fleet commander to set sail from Europe under the flag of the Dutch East India Company, better known by its initials VOC. On his return to the Dutch Republic in 1608 Matelieff penned a series of petitions to the government and the Gentlemen XVII, the VOC’s central board of directors, proposing the monopolization of nutmeg, mace and cloves as well as the establishment of a stable base in Asia which he referred to as the “rendezvous”. Although Matelieff fell out with the VOC directors as time passed, many of his recommendations to change to company’s operations were accepted and implemented, setting the stage for the first DutchEmpire in Asia.

Coordinator: Caroline Hau, CSEAS