Steven van der Hagen

Steven van der Hagen (Amersfoort, 1563 – 1621) was the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He made three visits to the East Indies, spending six years in all there. He was appointed to the Council of the Indies. Van der Hagen protested against the harsh administration of the administrators, who wanted a monopoly on the clove trade and were willing to fight against their Spanish, Portuguese, English or Asiatic trade competitors in order to get it. Laurens Reael and Steven van der Hagen wrote with disapproval on how the Heren XVII treated the interests and laws of the Maluku population.^[1]

Both argued that the company had no right to compel the natives of the Moluccas to sell their spices exclusively to the Dutch, unless the latter could supply them in return with adequate supplies of food and clothing at reasonable prices. They urged that it was better, in the long run, for the Dutch to content themselves with large sales and small profits rather than strive for a rigid and oppressive monopoly which aimed at small sales and big profits. Moreover, Laurens Reael and Van der Hagen, while prepared in the last extremity to use force against their English competitors in the Moluccas were reluctant to do so otherwise, for fear of unfavourable repercussions on Anglo-Dutch relations in Europe - a possibility that did not worry Coen. Finally they both considered that it might be unjust and unwise to exclude Asian traders, whether Chinese, Malay or Javanese, from the Moluccas by force.^[2]