VOC - Dutch East India Company
Rekeningen uit de Scheepssoldijboeken 1662-1805
(Accounts from Ships' Pay Ledgers 1662-1805)
Het © Nationaal Archief 2010-2014, Den Haag, Nederland
Introduction
A ship's pay-ledger consists of a series of rekeningen courant (current accounts). At least two pages have been reserved for each employee. Viewed superficially, the left and right hand pages resemble the debit and credit sides of a somewhat overgrown household account book. Closer inspection reveals that it is more complicated. (See the webpage with a model of the layout of the ship's pay-ledgers)
The left hand page. The following items are listed from top to bottom: 1) two months' wages in advance to the employee; 2) his outfit, for which the employee was responsible, with, if necessary, money borrowed from the VOC; 3) if required, any other amount owed by the employee (the vaderlandse schuld or home debt); 4) a single or multiple amounts paid by the VOC in the Dutch Republic to family members or proxies of the employee out of his credit accrued during his appointment in Asia; 5) the final payment in the Dutch Republic after the end of his Asian career, either after his death or upon repatriation.
The right hand page. The following items are listed from top to bottom: 1) the payment, either credited partly or fully by the VOC, for salary due during the voyage to Batavia; 2) any eventual debt from the left hand page deducted from this; 3) sums credited to the employee by the VOC, based on either the whole or, as the case may be, part of the wage he had earned during a whole or part of a financial year (1st September up to and including 31st August). The amount of these sums depended on the extent to which the employee used his official wage to cover his living costs and the amount of private income he had at his disposal, for instance from private trade. These entries were always related to activities carried out in the past financial year. Should the employee have been posted to one particular establishment for many years, his wage was entered annually on 31st August. A new entry was also made in the ledgers each time the employee moved to another establishment. Each time a new wage was credited to his account his place of work was mentioned. There is one exception to the rule that the geographical career of an employee can be traced from the mention of his posting: those employees who were posted on the island of Deshima in Nagasaki Bay (Japan) were registered as being employed in Batavia.
It should be stressed that the items listed on the right hand side of the ship's pay-ledgers are not payments made to the employee while in Asia. This is obvious from the current accounts of the employees who made no claim on payments in the Dutch Republic during the whole of their working lives in Asia (items on the left hand page). In these accounts, the sum of the amounts credited on the right hand page is the only one mentioned on the left hand page as the only amount paid out (final payment) by the VOC in the Dutch Republic.
The items noted on the right hand side refer only to the official VOC wages and therefore do not take account of any emoluments and legal profit shares. There was one exception to this rule for the employees in Canton. Their legal, sometimes considerable, profit shares are noted in the ship's pay-ledgers.
In by far and away the largest number of cases, the series of items concludes either with the date and place of death, or with the date on which the employee left Batavia or arrived in the Dutch Republic. In some cases the last amount credited on the right hand page is the last information about the career of an employee; there is no mention of his decease or of his departure or of his return to the Dutch Republic. It is only very seldom that both the date of departure from Asia and the date of return to the Dutch Republic are noted on the right hand side of the ship's pay-ledgers. Perhaps it was arranged so that the date of departure from the East was recorded if an employee had no paid function on board during his homeward voyage, and, conversely, that the latter had been the case when his date of arrival in the Dutch Republic is recorded.
Source:Tanap
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Date: 27 Feb 2010
Contributed by: eGGSA
Size: 60 items
(208 items total)
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ALBERTIJN Adam - van Delft, soldaat, 1718
VOC 1.04.02 13914 178
Date: 09 Apr 2013
Size: 2 items
Views: 5349
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BECKER Pieter - van Deventer, soldaat, 1694
VOC 1.04.02 5414 151
Date: 10 Mar 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 4588
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BEENKE Joan Diedrik - van 't Meijerse, soldaat, 1734
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5990 129
Date: 23 Dec 2016
Size: 4 items
Views: 3280
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BILLON Bernardus VAN - van Overes, soldaat, 1707
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5567 208
Date: 17 Nov 2016
Size: 4 items
Views: 3408
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BOIJESZ Boij - van Barent, soldaat, 1686
NL-HaNA, VOC, 1.04.02, inv.nr. 5342 fol.232
Date: 31 Aug 2011
Size: 2 items
Views: 5074
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BREDA Pieter VAN - van Sas van Gend, soldaat, 1719
Contributed by Johan van Breda
Date: 18 Apr 2012
Size: 3 items
Views: 4836
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BRINCK Andries - van Waarden, quartiermeester, 1736
VOC 1.04.02 6016 22
Date: 29 May 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3591
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BRON Jacob - van Dierkum, matroos, 1783
VOC 1.04.02 13242 99
Date: 27 Feb 2010
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3571
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BUIJS Barent - uit Bronswijk, soldaat, 1714
VOC 1.04.02 14671 116
Date: 03 Feb 2014
Size: 5 items
Views: 4836
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BURGERSTSZ Barent _ van Halverstad, soldaat, 1686
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5342 153
Date: 31 Aug 2011
Size: 2 items
Views: 4359
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CRAFFORT Dirk - van Utregt, adelborst, 1724
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5822 186
Date: 03 Jan 2017
Size: 3 items
Views: 3094
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DALGIE Isaack - van Holstijn, Adelborst, 1713
VOC 1.02.02 5646 154
Date: 04 May 2014
Size: 5 items
Views: 6173
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DEPNER Johan - van Wellau, soldaat, 1735
VOC 1.04.02 6019 246
Date: 16 Feb 2016
Size: 2 items
Views: 2970
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DIJK Evert VAN - van Middelburg, 1783-1792
Date: 24 Sep 2016
Size: 3 items
(9 items total)
Views: 4119
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DRITER Jan Andriesz - van Oosterroode, soldaat, 1722
VOC 1.04.02 5795 148
Date: 09 Apr 2013
Size: 2 items
Views: 3835
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GROEPLAAR Jan - van Tangermond, zoldaet, 1705
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5549 176
Date: 03 Dec 2016
Size: 5 items
Views: 3672
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HANEKOOM Joris - uit Lunenburgerlant van Radelose, soldaat, 1706
VOC 1.04.02 14111 166
Date: 14 Aug 2012
Contributed by: Johan van Breda
Views: 4393
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HEIJNSZ Poul - van Leijpsich, soldaat, 1680
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5292 292
Date: 05 Dec 2016
Size: 5 items
Views: 3548
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HENDRIK Heronimus - van Bedingen, soldaat, 1734
VOC 1.04.02 5998 260
Date: 29 May 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3573
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HEUVER Pieter VAN DER - van Housum, soldaat, 1718
Contributed by Annelie Els
Date: 16 Aug 2012
Size: 3 items
Views: 5011
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HIJDEN Jakob VAN DER - van Haerlem. matroos, 1682
VOC 1.04.02 5305 37
Date: 10 Mar 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3030
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HOEMAN Jan - van Solinge, soldaat, 1701
Contributed by Sam Odendaal
Date: 23 Apr 2012
Size: 3 items
Views: 4361
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JANSE Steven - van Groninge, soldaat, 1764
VOC 1.04.02 14025 293
Date: 15 Apr 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3023
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JANSZ Gerrit - van Deventer, soldaat, 1683
NL-HaNA, VOC, 1.04.02, inv.nr. 5316, fol. 114
Date: 05 Sep 2011
Size: 2 items
Views: 4179
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KEIJSER Paulus, van Saltsdingh, soldaat, 1707
VOC 1.04.02 5575 189
Date: 10 Mar 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3320
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KRIJGER Jacob - van Berlijn, soldaat, 1713
VOC 1.04.02 12754 128
Date: 10 Mar 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 3396
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LABUSCAGNE, Pieter - van Enkh: tamboer, 1711
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 14664 112
Date: 31 Aug 2017
Size: 2 items
Views: 2449
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LANGEVELT Pieter - uit Durgerdam, Adelborst, 1714
VOC 1.04.02 14670 109
Date: 06 Sep 2016
Size: 4 items
Views: 3286
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LEEUWENBERGH Cristiaen - van Munchenbergh, soldaat, 1715
Contributed by: Willieta de Swardt
Date: 16 Aug 2012
Size: 2 items
Views: 3745
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LOSCH Michael - van Amertinge in de Palts, soldaat, 1774
VOC 1.04.02 14045 140
Date: 04 Oct 2016
Size: 4 items
Views: 3375
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MARCKS Dirk - van Hols weder, soldaet, 1724
VOC 1.04.02 12841 129
Date: 10 Mar 2011
Contributed by: Corney Keller
Views: 6858
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MARTENS Jochem - van Brandenburg, soldaat, 1747
VOC 1.04.02 6209 209
Date: 26 Oct 2014
Contributed by: Johan van Breda
Views: 3360
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MONCK Thomas - van Stockholm, adelborst, 1680
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 5292 262
Date: 26 Dec 2016
Size: 13 items
Views: 5508
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MULDER Michiel - van Mitskidde, soldaat, 1734
VOC 1.02.02 5998 251
Date: 05 Sep 2014
Size: 3 items
Views: 4228
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NEETLINGH Christiaan Ludolf - van Willinge, soldaat, 1740
NL-HaNA 1.04.02 6106 197
Date: 27 Nov 2016
Size: 13 items
Views: 5212
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ODENDAAL Willem - van Ceulen, soldaat, 1705
Contributed by Sam Odendaal
Date: 23 Apr 2012
Size: 3 items
Views: 4267
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