Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya

Book excerpt: No European country enjoyed such long-standing relations with the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya as the Netherlands. This study focuses on the perceptions of the merchants of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) of the Thai royal court in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Basing herself on a wealth of Dutch primary sources, the author shows how trade, politics, and diplomacy shaped a unique relationship based on ‘partnership’ and a ‘sense of differences’. The book contributes to expanding the study of the history of Ayutthaya—known for its scarcity of sources— with the help of contemporary Dutch views.