Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.6194
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    ‘Sugar canes’

    Date
    1669
    Creator
    Wenceslaus Hollar (1607 - 1677, Bohemian) , Engraver
    Object type
    Library reference
    56950
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 100mm
    width (print): 157mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical study of sugar canes. Figures can be seen in the background harvesting the crop.

    Plate from the book An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperour of China...., by John Nieuhoff (London, 1669).

    John Nieuhoff (1618-1672), Dutch traveller, was appointed steward of the mission to China under Peter van Goyer and Jacob van Keyser, ambassadors of the Dutch East India Company.

    The Dutch East India Copmany (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC) was an amalgamation of Dutch trading companies established in 1602 to trade with India, where the majority of Europe’s cotton and silk originated from. It began operating in South Asia, and over the next century expanded its colonial operations to Mauritius and South Africa.

    It is known to have made use of slave labour from early on. Laurens Real, the Governor-General in the East Indies from 1615-1619, first introduced slave labour into the nutmeg plantations on Amboina in the East Indies, and his successor, Jan Pieterzoon Coen (1619-1623 and 1627-1629) introduced it in the remaining of VOC settlements.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > China
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