The Kandy Kingdom - III

The Kandy Kingdom - III

Contiued with part two   here to go privious one

In April 1665, three months after Rajasimha’s first appeal for assistance, two Dutch companies marched into the Kandyan kingdom, one from Colombo and the other from Galle, and occupied the two strategic strongholds of Ruvanvalla and Bibilegama. The aim was not to save Rajasiihha but to expand Dutch power and this latter objective they proceeded to accomplish; the territory held by the Dutch in the western and southwestern parts of the island was soon almost doubled in area. A mass emigration of people was encouraged from the king's lands to the Dutch possessions, to settle in and cultivate unoccupied land; all the while the impression was sedulously created that this was no aggrandizement at the expense of the king, nor a challenge to his authority. By 1667 Dutch power extended to the Four Korajes, and then up to Alawvva on the Maha Oya, which gave them a controlling position over the Seven Korajes. There was at the same time an infiltration of Dutch power on the east coast: in 1665 an expedition occupied and fortified Trincomalee, and by 1668 Batticaloa and Kottiyar were under their control. As in the west, these Dutch strongholds were used as nuclear areas to establish a dominance over the surrounding countryside.

All in all, the Dutch position in the island improved immeasurably in the period 1665 - 70. The area they now occupied was more than double what they had held before 1665; they had established a firm control over the entire coastline of the island, and this not only gave them much greater security against the prospect of trespassing by other European powers through the ports of the east coast but also gave the Dutch a position of complete dominance over the trade and traffic of the island. At the same time, the fact that they now had a larger population under their control meant that the problem of labor supply would be less acute than previously, just as the acquisition of rice-producing lands in the west improved the position regarding food supply. The cinnamon resources under Dutch control were substantially augmented by the expansion of Dutch power in the west of the island.

The extension of Dutch control over all the ports of the island had an economic motive which was just as compelling as the political one we have discussed so far—to establish dominance over the trade of the island. As we have seen, Kalpitiya was occupied and fortified in 1659, and the ports of the east coast had been brought under Dutch control between 1666 and 1668. With the construction of a lookout post in Panama and Magama in the south-east, the whole coastline was dotted with strategic points of control and inspection. And then in 1670, the decision was taken to establish a commanding position in the island’s trade. Cinnamon had been successfully and exclusively controlled almost from the very moment of the establishment of Dutch rule. The export of elephants, areca, chanks, and pearls was now declared a monopoly of the Company, as was the import of cotton goods, pepper, tin, zinc and other minerals. Rice was the only major item of import left out. What they wanted above all was the control of the import market in textiles, and the export trade in areca.

A series of regulations were introduced to put this monopoly into effect. All vessels sailing to the island had to secure passes from the nearest Dutch factory in India; these were given only to the large well-policed ports of Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna where the visitors could be placed under surveillance. Boats were checked on the high seas. Apart from these restrictive measures, efforts also were made to keep the country supplied with textiles and to collect and export all areca in Dutch vessels. The capital was released for investment in cotton goods for the Sri Lanka market in Madura and Tanjore. These measures had consequences that were not entirely beneficial to the Dutch. Within ten years they contributed to a sharp rise in import prices and led inevitably to the organization of a flourishing smuggling trade in textiles and areca. To combat this an expensive cruising operation, with armed sloops, had to be mounted, and this continued well into the eighteenth century.