The Dutch East India Company's Coffee Plantation
The Dutch East India Company first began planting coffee trees on the island of Java in 1699. The coffee plantation became a particularly important economic venture for the company, as coffee was highly prized by European consumers. However, the company's control over the coffee plantation was not without its challenges. In 1740, for example, the Dutch East India Company lost its monopoly over the coffee trade to the British, which led to a decline in the profitability of the plantation. Nevertheless, the company continued to operate the plantation, using slave labor, until the early nineteenth century.
The coffee plantation was just one example of how the Dutch East India Company seized land and then put it into foreign hands. The company also did this with other economic ventures, such as spice plantations and sugar plantations. The introduction of the plantation system meant that the Dutch East India Company could extract more wealth from the land and from the labor of the people who worked on the plantations. This, in turn, helped the company to maintain its control over Java and other parts of its empire.