Constantin Ranst

Semi-detached house De Twee Tijgers on the Oudeschans in Amsterdam

Dejima around the middle of the 17th century ( Arnoldus Montanus : Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan . 1669)

The VOC branch in Hugli, Bengal (Hendrick van Schuylenburgh, ca.1665).

Houses 527 and 529 on the Herengracht in Amsterdam

Constantin Ranst (also Constantijnus Ranst ) (born October 28, 1635 in Amsterdam ; † January 10, 1714 ) had a steep career as a merchant in the service of the Dutch East India Company and was one of the 250 richest merchants in the " Golden Age " of the Netherlands .

Family background

Constantin Rans (t) was a son of Jeronimus / Hieronimus Ranst (1607-1660) and Barbara Carel. The Ranst family had their roots in Bruges . Constantin's grandfather had moved to Amsterdam in the years after 1585 , where he married Constantia Coymans , a daughter of Jeronimus Coymans. Constantin's father, Jeronimus Ranst, achieved considerable wealth. From 1610 a duplex house called "De Twee Tijgers" on the Oude Schans (Alte Schanze) served as residence. In 1633 he invested in peat extraction near Smilde . Two years later he bought land in Schermer when the polder was being drained. In 1638 he became involved in the "Nordic Company" ( Noordsche Compagnie ), a whaling company operated by several cities (1614–1642). A house designed by Philip Vingboons (1607–1678) and immortalized in an engraving in 1644, which he built not far from Edam in the Purmerpolder, an investment and recreation area of ​​the rich merchants and patricians of Amsterdam , also dates from this time . In the vicinity we meet personalities like his brother-in-law, the East India Company advocate and diplomat Willem Boreel , or the company founder and builder of the Coymanshuis in Amsterdam, Balthasar Coymans (1589–1657) . Since the powerful mayor Gillis Valckenier was married to a niece of Jeronimus Ranst, the four children of the Ranst-Carel couple had the most favorable conditions for a successful life.

childhood

Constantin Ranst was baptized as the second son on October 28, 1635 in the "Old Church" ( Oude Kerk ). Nothing is known about the early years. The family background suggests that he received the school education necessary for a commercial career and that he had gained all sorts of experience in his father's environment.

East India

During the early 1650s, Constantin Ranst joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and moved to Batavia . His successful social integration became clear for the first time in 1656 when he married Hester Hartsinck (1636–1683). His wife was the daughter of Carel Hartsinck from Meurs , who had made a steep career and in 1653 rose to the position of “Directeur-generaal van Indië”, the second highest position in the East Indies. In October 1658 Ranst sailed with Douwe Auckes from Texel to the Cape of Good Hope, where Jan van Riebeeck had laid the foundation for the Cape Colony in 1653 with the establishment of a permanent base. They drove on a week later and arrived in Java in June.

In the summer of 1662, Ranst was sent to Dejima in Japan as a subcontractor for a year , where he replaced Ernst van Hogenhoeck and as the second man ( secunde ) gained experience in the management of a trading station. A post here was in great demand because of the lucrative surreptitious trade, which both sides refused to abandon despite all official Dutch and Japanese bans. Even before he officially took up his duties, Ranst demanded that the account books be handed over to him, which, since he cited the gentlemen in Batavia, were also given to him.

After the year in Japan, from 1665 to 1667 Ranst took over the trading post in Tonkin , a small empire in the north of what is now Vietnam , which his father-in-law had founded in 1637 and managed until 1641. Perhaps that was why he received company permission to take his wife with him. In April 1667 he was appointed "head" ( opperhoofd ) of the Dejima factory and moved to Japan for the second time in the summer (November 6, 1667– October 25, 1668). Since the Tonkin trading post delivered the silk for the Japanese market directly to Dejima, all sorts of opportunities for private ancillary business opened up for Ranst. Amazingly, he brought his wife with him, even though the Japanese authorities had strictly forbidden it. She was heavily pregnant and must have been pretty battered by the trip. The baby, stillborn on October 1, was buried in the cemetery dedicated to the Dutch by a Japanese interpreter. Presumably Hester Ranst returned to Batavia in the fall on one of the company ships.

At the end of October 1668, Ransten's service in Japan ended. Immediately after his arrival in Batavia he was appointed to the extraordinary council of India (November 27, 1668). On April 8, 1669, he was appointed “directeur” in Hugli (West Bengal), where he was responsible for purchasing the silk destined for Japan until 1673. There was private business and corruption in other branches of the company, but the situation in Bengal appears to have been particularly dire. Ranst tried to remedy these grievances, but he quickly got caught in a jungle of mutual accusations. In addition, his clumsy approach u. a. the suicide of a local widow. This in turn led to the recall to Batavia (July 28, 1673). As the files show, it took some effort to settle the matter.

Homecoming

At first it seemed as if the events in Bengal had not hurt his career. But his star with Governor General Joan Maetsuycker was falling. In October 1677 he was dismissed from his offices and returned to the Netherlands as admiral of the return fleet.

Thanks to his good family ties and the surely handsome financial endowment, he became captain of the citizenship ( kapitein der burgerij ) and commissioner ( commissaris ) in Amsterdam in the same year . In 1688 he married his daughter Hester, who was born in Bengal, to Jacob J. Hinlopen (1668–1698) . He belonged to one of the regent families of Amsterdam and increased his fortune as director of the Surinam Society .

Ranst bought a house in the Herengracht (Herrengraben) for 40,000 guilders , which he furnished splendidly. Here was u. a. a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn with the Adoration of the Three Kings. In the course of time he also bought the neighboring house and a seven-part warehouse on Prinsengracht . When he died, his real estate and securities owned 496,500 guilders.

Constantijn Ranst de Jonge

Wijnaendts van Resandt and, following this, also other authors mention a second voyage from Constantin Ranst to East India and further years of service in Japan. However, this is Constantijn Ranst de Jonge, who signed a contract with the company on May 4, 1677 as a sub-merchant, in 1680 a merchant, and in the summer of 1683, through the resignation of Isaack van Schinne, became a senior merchant and head of the factories in Japan. From 1686 to 87 he went to Japan a second and last time.

literature

• Zandvliet, Kees: Constantijn Ranst . In: De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam , 2006, pp. 131–132.
• Gaastra, Femme S .: Constantijn Ranst en de corruptie onder het personeel van de VOC te Bengalen 1669 - 1673 . In: Groenveld, S. / Mout, MEHN / Schöffer, I.: Bestuurders en leerden: opstellen over onderwerpen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis van de zestiende, zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. JJ Woltjer bij zijn afscheid as hoogleraar van de Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1985, pp. 127-129.
• Wijnaendts van Resandt, Willem: De Gezaghebbers of the East Indian Compagnie op hare Buiten-Comptoiren in Azië . Amsterdam: Uitgevereij Liebaert, 1944, pp. 29-30.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kees Zandvliet (2006), pp. 131-132.
2. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Wijnaendts van Resandt, p. 30.
4. ↑ Wijnaendts van Resandt, p. 30.
5. ↑ Dagverhaal van Jan van Riebeek
6. ↑ http://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=11814
7. ↑ Occasionally, the Japanese authorities exposed it, but while many of the Japanese involved were executed, the Europeans got away with deportation.
8. ↑ Nationaal Archief, NFJ 75, Dagregister Dejima, August 28, 1662.
9. ↑ Nationaal Archief, NFJ 80, Dagregister Dejima, September 26, 1667.
10. ^ For more details, see F. Gaastra (1985).
11. ↑ Doopbewijzen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Zandvliet (2006), p. 131.
13. ↑ The company's papers also always show this addition.
14. ↑ When the “young” Ranst became a sub-merchant, the “older” had long been a senior merchant and was about to end his career in East India. For the contract and transport data, see the company documents (copy-resoluties van gouverneur-generaal en raden) in the Nationaal Archief: VOC 695, VOC 697 and VOC 698.