region. Their first task was to overthrow the ascendancy of the
Portuguese, and in this they were willing to co-operate with the
English traders. But the bulk of the work was done by the Dutch,
for the English East India Company was poor in comparison with the
Dutch, was far less efficiently organised, and, in especial, could
not count upon the steady support of the national government. It
was mainly the Dutch who built forts and organised factories,
because they alone had sufficient capital to maintain heavy
standing charges. Not unnaturally they did not see why the English
should reap any part of the advantage of their work, and set
themselves to establish a monopoly. In the end the English were
driven out with violence. After the Massacre of Amboyna (1623)
their traders disappeared from these seas, and the Dutch supremacy
remained unchallenged until the nineteenth century.

It was a quite intolerant commercial monopoly which they had
instituted, but from the commercial point of view it was
administered with great intelligence. Commercial control brought
in its train territorial sovereignty, over Java and many of the
neighbouring islands; and this sovereignty was exercised by the
directors of the company primarily with a view to trade interests.
It was a trade despotism, but a trade despotism wisely
administered, which gave justice and order to its native subjects.
On the mainland of India the Dutch never attained a comparable
degree of power, because the native states were strong enough to
hold them in check. But in this period their factories were more
numerous and more prosperous than those of the English, their
chief rivals; and over the island of Ceylon they established an
ascendancy almost as complete as that which they had created in
the archipelago.