ABSTRACT
Change and innovation were the catchwords that characterized the prevalent mood among colonial rulers in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Any development in Europe or Asia inevitably exercised a deep influence on the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie's (VOC) intricate structure. In this context, the consequences of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and the French domination of the Batavian Republic can hardly be overestimated. The wars also became the catalyst for the further dismantling of the VOC network, a process which had started with the rise of English power in Bengal in the 1750s and which had weakened the Dutch position in India. During the nineteenth century, Dutch colonialism became profitable again, when the government combined local ways of production with a system of transferring the proceeds to the Netherlands.
