even completed by the end of the period under discussion. In the end, it seems that the eighteenth-century reports from Asia to the Netherlands had survived only in the archives of the Amsterdam and Zeeland Chambers. In 1810, when the colonial home administration was relocated from The Hague to Paris, the actual removal of archival documents was limited to thirteen chests and one iron box, mainly containing papers on current affairs. The intention was to ship much more to Paris, but the collapse of Napoleon's political and military dreams in Europe prevented its realization. After Napoleon had met his Waterloo, the documents were returned to the Netherlands in 1816.26 A glance at the table above shows it is obvious that the volume of documents sent over from Asia declined sharply after 1795. Although, the information collected prior to 1795 was fairly voluminous, during the period of the OIC and the RAB the stream of documents dried up dramatically. In the end, especially after the establishment of the MvK, it was limited to the reporting of the High Government. Within this remaining category, the reporting was just a pale reflection of its former self. Whereas the Generale Missiven of the VOC contained more than a thousand pages each year, by Daendels' time they barely exceeded one hundred pages or indeed they did not even reach this number.27 However, it is essential to remember that by 1795-1796 the VOC empire had already quickly fallen to the British and that the Cape and all possessions in South Asia as well as the western and eastern parts of the Southeast Asian Archipelago had been lost. In so far as there is still archival material left in the Netherlands about a number of temporarily restored provinces after the Peace of Amiens, it can be found in the collection of the High Government of Batavia, transferred to The Hague from Batavia after 1863.28 The transfer of 1863 was later divided into four collections: High Government Batavia proper; Dutch Possessions India; Dutch Factory Canton; Dutch Factory Japan.29 The table above refers to archival collections which were built up in the framework of the governmental administration of the colonies deposited in the National Archives of the Netherlands. However, the National Archives also contain archival collections put together by private persons, formerly employed in these administrations, who kept copies or even original versions of certain documents for themselves. Such collections might be useful to fill gaps in the archives of the governmental administrations. In this case we have to think of Nederburgh.30 In particular during his term of office as Commissioner-General in the East during the 1790s, he was in the habit of keeping quite an extensive number of documents. The first Minister of Trade and Colonies, P. van der Heim, has left a collection.31 Unfortunately, there are no documents in this collection pertaining to the categories mentioned in the table above. Then there are COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA - THE DUTCH ARCHIVES 26 Pennings, 'Geschiedenis archiefbeheer', 34-36. 27 HaNa, Holland Division, entry number 2.01.27.05, inv. nr. 19. 28 HaNA, High Government Batavia, entry number 1.04.17, inv nr. 9. 29 HaNA, High Government Batavia, Dutch Possessions India, Dutch Factory Canton, Dutch Factory Japan, entry numbers 1.04.17, 1.04.19, 1.04.20 and 1.04.21. respectively. 30 HaNA, Nederburgh, entry number 1.10.59. This collection also contains documents of several other members of the Nederburgh family not involved in the colonies. 31 HaNA, P. van der Heim, entry number 2.21.008.71. 32 HaNA, Daendels, entry number 2.21.046, inv. numbers 103 and 105. 104

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Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 2012 | | pagina 106