| Abstract: |
Neither European institutions nor indigenous polities could effectively channel growing traffic on the high seas. Control was only possible where patrolling was feasible, at choke points where routes converged or in the waters close to Dutch Maluku or the more powerful states. Not even Ternate and Makassar, keystones of the VOC’s repressive apparatus, could fully control nearby seas, while Banjarmasin illustrates how geography undermined attempts at monopoly. Shippers generally had little to fear, apart from encounters with pirates, possible punitive raids on repeat offenders’ home villages, and the ever-present perils of the sea.
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