'The Best Timber in India': Shipbuilding Supplies and the Dutch East India Company in Cochin, 1663-1795

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) maintained a presence in the present-day Indian state of Kerala from the 1660s until the British conquest of the Dutch positions in the 1790s. The company maintained a shipyard in the Dutch capital of Cochin (present-day Kochi). This article examines the use of loc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:South Asia Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 428 - 446
Main Author: Odegard, Erik
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Routledge 04.03.2025
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
18th century
Companies
Dutch East India Company (VOC)
Exports
Forest products
Forests
Indian Ocean world
Kochi
Lumber industry
Manufacturing
merchant networks
Shipbuilding
teak
Trees
Western Ghats
ISSN:0085-6401, 1479-0270
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The Dutch East India Company (VOC) maintained a presence in the present-day Indian state of Kerala from the 1660s until the British conquest of the Dutch positions in the 1790s. The company maintained a shipyard in the Dutch capital of Cochin (present-day Kochi). This article examines the use of local forest products for shipbuilding and as export products, with a special focus on shipbuilding timbers. The presence of teak in the forests of the Western Ghats had long been a major asset for Cochin as a shipbuilding centre. The Dutch Company tried to use these and other timber resources for its own needs but was reliant upon local suppliers and networks to connect its coastal shipyard to the inland forests where the trees grew. By the late eighteenth century, teak had also become an export product, especially being taken to Muscat on local vessels.
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ISSN:0085-6401
1479-0270
DOI:10.1080/00856401.2025.2487347