Duit voor Nederlands Indië op naam van de VOC en de stad Utrecht met jaartal 1790 1827

This copper coin for the Dutch East Indies, bearing the mark of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company, and the city of Utrecht, dates to 1790. This coin embodies the complex interplay of commerce, colonialism, and civic identity in the late 18th century Netherlands. The VOC, a powerful multinational corporation, held a monopoly on trade with Asia. The coin reflects the economic structures of the time, where the Dutch Republic extracted wealth from its colonies through chartered companies, impacting the social fabric of both the colonizer and the colonized. The VOC’s logo reminds us of the institutional powers at play here, and its effects on the social and political structures in the East Indies. To fully grasp the implications of this coin, one needs to consult sources from economic records to travel logs to understand the full impact of the VOC and its currency. Examining this artwork can serve as a starting point in understanding the intertwined histories of trade, colonialism, and the social conditions that they produced.