Jacob Mossel (28 November 1704 – 15 May 1761) went from being a common sailor to become

Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies (, ) represented Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949. Occupied by Japanese forces between 1942 and 1945, followed by the ...

from 1750 to 1761. He was of noble birth, born in

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbour-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade ...

. When he was 15 he left as an able-bodied seaman aboard a

Fluyt A fluyt (archaic Dutch language, Dutch: ''fluijt'' "flute"; ) is a Dutch type of sailing ship, sailing vessel originally designed by the shipwrights of Hoorn as a dedicated ship transport, cargo vessel. Originating in the Dutch Republic in the 16 ...

(a type of Dutch sailing cargo vessel) called ''de Haringthuyn'', bound for the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found i ...

. As his family had a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

, he was able to obtain a privileged position, through Dirk van Cloon, and was sent to the

Dutch Coromandel Coromandel was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company on the coasts of the Coromandel region from 1610, until the company's liquidation in 1798. Dutch presence in the region began with the capture of Pulicat from the Portuguese in Goa and ...

(1721). On 30 March 1730, he married Adriana Appels, the fourteen-year-old stepdaughter of Adriaan van Pla,

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of Dutch Coromandel. Jacob Mossel worked himself up finally to ''Governor and Director'' of Dutch Coromandel. In 1740 he got the title of ''Counsellor-extraordinary of the Indies'' and in 1742 he became a member of the

Dutch Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies (; ) was a body established in 1610 to advise and limit the powers of the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies (, ) represented Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies ...

(''Raad van Indië'') in Batavia/Jakarta. In 1745, he became the first Director of the Amfioensociëteit, which tried to regulate its monopoly of the trade in

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

. In 1747, he was named as the ''Director-General'' (the second highest post in the Dutch East Indies). When in 1750,

Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff Gustaaf Willem, Baron van Imhoff (8 August 1705 – 1 November 1750) was a Dutch colonial administrator for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He served as Governor of Ceylon from 1736 to 1740 and as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies fr ...

died, Mossel succeeded him as

. He remained in post until his own death in 1761. Jacob Mossel ruled the Indies during a period in which things got steadily worse for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. He made may economies and he ended the war in Bantam Province, recognising that his predecessor had handled things badly. The Dutch were threatened by the expansion of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. In the battle for

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

, Mossel lost to the British. Mossel was a supporter of the policy to allow private entrepreneurs to trade for themselves in the territory of the Indies. This concerned small scale trading in which the Company could make no profit. Following that, Batavia/Jakarta underwent a period of growth, which, because of his successors tax regulations, came to nothing. The Company was plagued by corruption and self-interest among its office holders. Jacob Mossel was also involved in this. His great fortune could not in any case have been put together from his official salary. The initiatives he took against corruption were not very effective. To curb exaggerated displays of wealth, in 1754 he brought in a so-called "''Regulation against pomp and splendour''", which tried to lay down exactly what wealth an officer could display. These details went from the number of buttonholes they could have to the size of their houses. Of course, the regulations did not apply to himself, and there was great feasting at his daughter's wedding. After his death at Batavia/Jakarta, from a wasting disease, he was given a magnificent funeral.

Sources

*Comprehensive Dutch website on the history of the Dutch East Indie

*''Inventaris van de collectie Jacob Mossel, 1699–1801''. (1971) . URL bezocht op 10 juni 2006.
Emmer, P. C. e.a. (1986) "Colonialism and Migration: Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery"
in: Ross, R. J. e.a. ''Colonial Cities. Essays on Urbanism in a Colonial Context. Series: Comparative Studies in Overseas History , Vol. 5.'', Springer, pp. 81–83. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mossel, Jacob 1704 births 1761 deaths People from Enkhuizen Dutch nobility Governors-general of the Dutch East Indies Governors of Dutch Coromandel