ompetitors. It was
supreme in the Indian archipelago and along all the shores washed by the
Indian Ocean. The governor-general was invested with great powers and,
owing to his distance from the home authority, was able to make
unfettered use of them during his term of office. He made treaties and
conducted wars and was looked upon by the princes and petty rulers of
the Orient as a mighty potentate. The conquest of Macassar in 1669, the
occupation of Japara and Cheribon in 1680, of Bantam in 1682, of
Pondicherry in 1693, together with the possession of Malacca and of the
entire coast of Ceylon, of the Moluccas, and of the Cape of Good Hope,
gave to the Dutch the control of all the chief avenues of trade
throughout those regions. By treaties of alliance and commerce with the
Great Mogul and other smaller sovereigns and chieftains factories were
established at Hooghly on the Ganges, at Coelim, Surat, Bender Abbas,
Palembang and many other places. In the Moluccas they had the entire
spice trade in their hands. Thus a very large part of the products of
the Orient found its way to Europe by way of Amsterdam, which had become
increasingly the commercial emporium and centre of exchange for the
world.

The West India Company, on the other hand, had been ruined by the loss
of its Brazilian dominion followed by the English wars. Its charter came
to an end in 1674, but it was replaced by a new Company on a more
moderate scale. Its colonies on the Guiana coast, Surinam, Berbice and
Essequibo were at the end of the 17th century in an impoverished
condition, but already beginning to develop the sugar plantations which
were shortly to become a lucrative industry; and the island of Curacoa
had the unenviable distinction of being for some years one of the chief
centres of the negro slave trade.

In the United Provinces themselves one of the features of this period
was the growth of many new industries and manufactures, largely due to
the influx of Huguenot refugees, many of whom were skilled artisans. Not
only did the manufacturers of cloth and silk employ a large number of
hands, but also those of hats, gloves, ribbons, trimmings, laces, clocks
and other articles, which had hitherto been chiefly produced in France.
One of the consequences of the rapid increase of wealth was a change in
the simple habits, manners and dress, which hitherto travellers had
noted as one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Hollanders.
Greater luxu