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The Dutch arrived in Asia from Europe in the late 16th century. As the main force for the Dutch to develop Asian trade, the Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie(VOC), founded in 1602, was committed to engaging in trade and colonization. It is related to the land of Taiwan (Formosa) where the VOC occupied from 1624 to 1662 to form its commercial and colonial government. Geographical and political situations in Taiwan at that time were very particular. It was an isolated island and did not belong to any regime. The VOC used Taiwan as an entrepôt to explore the East Asian trade, and the company had to resolve the local particularities to sustain and further to expand the colony, which is a research topic worthy of further discussion. Therefore, this thesis attempts to raise several key questions: How did the company feed its members? What was the company's actual practice for this purpose? How did the company solve the problems of supply and distribution in the main area of Tayouan together with other remote and small posts on the island?
Previous studies were in less detailed on the issue of the VOC’s supply management. The usual explanation is that the Dutch people in Taiwan relied on the Chinese maritime trade to provide a lifeline for their survival. From the perspective of the Dutch considerations, the author tries to clarify the VOC’s involvement in supply practice, namely production, shipping, and trade to show the company’s patterns of supply management. The author argues that the company only relied on Chinese merchants or residents to obtain materials in a limited way, the company had its shipping system to transport all kinds of supplies for its maintenance on the island.
Trade and production played certain important roles in the constant replenishment of diverse goods and made supply management flexible and effective, especially when the shipping system could not run well in time. As for local replenishment, the author shows the company managed to build up an applicable, integrated, and regular shipping operation. However, it had to follow the cardinal principles of the company's management: cost considerations and business priorities in the entrepôt trade.
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