Tanassiry transcriptie

Dear Jim, it takes some time to decipher the items in this list. Even for people familiar with seventeenth-century Dutch a number of words are probably a bit unusual, but I hope someone will be able to read the three items. The last item seems the easiest to read: Cooper, à 20 taijl de baer, dat van de Hollanders wt Japan / ende van Tananerij comt, wierden van clingers goed / naa gebracht

Dear Otto, thanks very much for your reply. Indeed, some of the words seem to be Indian Ocean trade terms which I can probably figure out if I have approximate spellings. So, perhaps the first line means, 20 tael (likely 1200 grams of silver in Siam at the time) bought 1 bahar (180-190 kg) of copper (?)

My primary interest is the weights. VOC records seem to prove that massive amounts of heavy metals and bulky textiles were carried overland via Tenasserim. This matches extensive ceramic sherds that I find on the ground. 

Again, thank you for the assistance. Even provisional transcriptions are very helpful. :-)

jp.

Dear Jim, you know probably there is a modern VOC g;lossar, alas only in Dutch, see https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vocglossarium/index_html_en, also downloadable as a PDF. I cannot readily detect the products amphioen and cayogaro listed in the two other items, IO had rather not guess about the meaning of words; names and locations can be hard to get right because there was no official spelling in the seventeenth century. The taël was often 37,5 gram, but it could differ, just as the bahar and the maas, according to the trading partner of the VOC and the period.

Dear Otto, thanks very much for the tips. The glossary is a huge help. I am mystified by amphioen and cayogaro as well, but sometimes strange words turn out to be transliterated Thai or Malay. I will keep working on it. Are there any published guides to reading old VOC Dutch? The archives are so valuable that eventually I should learn how to transcribe them myself.

Beste,

Jim

I can help you out about the term amphioen = opium

Thanks very much, René. Another piece of the puzzle! :-)

For military matters around the VOC a glossary was recently published by J.R. Verbeek, Vocabulaire van het VOC-artilleriewezen en de wapenkamer 1602-1796 (2021), online as a PDF, https://www.marsethistoria.nl/images/Woordenlijst_VOC_artilleriewezen.p… . Kees Groeneboer wrote Weg tot het westen. Het Nederlands voor Indië 1600-1980 (Leiden: KITLV 1993), online, https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/groe050wegt01_01/index.php , with much attention to the VOC and references to scholarly literature. The website of the KITLV, https://www.kitlv.nl, and the Maritiem Portaal, https://maritiemportal.nl/, and not forggeting the digitized version of the Maritieme Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/retroboeken/mgn , can all help you in some ways for further orientation.