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In the nineteenth century, the Netherlands and its colonial holdings in Java were the sites of dramatically increased industrialization. Led by a group of “merchant kings” who exemplified gentlemanly capitalism, this ambitious trading project transformed the small, economically moribund Netherlands into a global power. Merchant Kings offers a fascinating interdisciplinary exploration of this episode and reveals not only the distinctive nature of the Dutch state, but the surprising extent to which its nascent corporate innovations were rooted in early welfare initiatives. By placing colony and metropole into a single analytical frame, this book offers a bracing new approach to understanding the development of modern corporations.
“Schrauwers adds new theoretical insights into studies of governmentality through the concepts of corporate governmentality and corporatization as well as his unique conceptualization of assemblage. In this light, Schrauwers’ book will be particularly useful for anthropologists, historians, and sociologists who study governmentality, capitalist modes of production, political economy, and colonial-trade history.” • Society for the Anthropology of Work
“Merchant Kings presents a fascinating and detailed study of corporate practices in the nineteenth-century Dutch colonial empire. It will make an important contribution to our understanding of corporations, colonization, and capitalism.” • Joshua Barkan, University of Georgia
“A well-written and compelling book, offering a new view on the nineteenth-century economy of the Dutch Empire.” • Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Utrecht University
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Section I: State Formation in the Greater Netherlands
Introduction: Corporate Governmentality
Chapter 1. Aristocratic Restoration in the Nineteenth-Century “Greater Netherlands”
Section II: Corporate Governmentality in the Realm of the Merchant-King
Chapter 2. Policing the Pauper in the Realm of the Merchant-King
Chapter 3. The Cultivation System
Chapter 4. Manufacturing Commodity Chains: The NHM and Cotton
Chapter 5. “Sweetening the Pot”: the Javanese Sugar Industry
Chapter 6. Weaving an Empire: G. & H. Salomonson and the “Social Question”
Section III: The Credit Mobilier and Corporate Assemblage
Chapter 7. Political Economy, the “Self-Regulating Market” and “Economic Governance”
Chapter 8. The Credit Mobilier: Constructing an Economic Sovereignty
Chapter 9. The Credit Mobilier and the Railways
Conclusion: Assemblage, Corporatization, and the Government of the Economy
Bibliography
Index