CfP: Objects in Transit: Dutch Trading Companies and the Circulation of Things as Knowledge Practice (17th-19th Centuries)

The early modern Dutch long-distance companies such as the East India Company (VOC) and their 19th-century successors were not only economic enterprises but also key actors in the circulation of knowledge with and through objects from the 17th to the 19th century. Their trade networks facilitated the movement of goods that transcended their immediate economic value without negating their commercial roots: things collected were traded goods but gained epistemic value not only because of their rarity or curiosity, but also as tokens of Dutch trading, European and non-European epistemic-commercial interactions, and negotiation of value. The companies maintained a specific way of circulating objects that shaped discourses on value, collecting practices, and knowledge formations embedded in pre-national forms of epistemic identity-building.

In line with James Secord’s concept of Knowledge in Transit, this workshop will consider objects not merely as static entities but as integral part of larger communicative processes acting out in parallel, in combination, or in conflict. We will focus specifically on objects traded or otherwise transported by the VOC and other Dutch companies from their domains from the 17th to the 19th century, which acquired meanings beyond their collective or economic value. We are particularly interested in how this dual identity — both commercial and epistemic — was shaped by actors within the long-distance trading companies and acknowledged by their business partners and other stakeholders. In addition to negotiations within the companies, we also aim to explore how these objects gained new significance through interactions between the companies and their agents or customers, including collectors, curators, and scholars.

We aim to explore these dynamics by focusing on three interrelated issues:

Negotiating Value

Objects in trade and collections were not static commodities but actively shaped by processes of valuation, discourse, and negotiation. How and at which point of their itinerary were different meanings ascribed to goods? How were price-making mechanisms and labelling practices influenced by knowledge about materials, origins, or intended uses and vice versa? How did institutions and individuals reframe the status of objects as epistemic capital and what consequences did this have for the objects? Can changes in value attribution practices be recognised over time? We also invite contributions that examine how capitalist and institutional knowledge systems maintained and transformed these value structures and explore the ways knowledge about value was communicated, translated, and recontextualized across different settings.

Using Things

The material handling of objects was a crucial aspect of knowledge-making within a commercial context. While objects in collections were integrated into a system that recognised and treated them as epistemic artefacts, trading companies and their agents primarily dealt with objects as commercial items. Transferring these heterogeneous objects meant to transport, trade and use them within a different framework. We invite contributions that examine practices of collecting, cataloging, classifying, exhibiting, or representing objects specifically in negotiation or cooperation with Dutch trading companies. How did objects acquire new meanings through their integration into collections or auctions? How did they differ or were labelled as different from objects obtained by other means? How did these processes shape the distinction between commodity and cultural object, particularly in relation to VOC and post-VOC institutions? Did companies use such objects for their ‘image building’? Here, we particularly encourage perspectives that consider how knowledge about objects was embedded in communicative acts, whether verbally, in written form or through visual displays.

Identifying Actors

Who were the key agents involved in these processes? Beyond the VOC and similar institutions, we are interested in European as well as indigenous individuals and groups — merchants, brokers, collectors, scholars, artisans — who facilitated the movement of objects in the context of intercontinental trade. How did their practices shape the global itineraries of goods and the identity of long-distance trading companies in the Netherlands in relation to knowledge-gaining and epistemic developments? How did physical locations, such as trading hubs, company (head-)quarters or storage facilities as well as institutes and museums, contribute to these processes? We encourage discussions on how these actors functioned within broader political, scientific and economic systems and how their roles transformed in the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. We particularly welcome contributions that examine how knowledge through and about objects was not merely produced, but transported, translated, and repurposed by different actors within and in collaboration with these trade companies.

The workshop topic spans two periods, one focusing on the VOC and Dutch long-distance trade during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the other on the re-negotiation of Dutch trading companies and their role in Dutch efforts to remain competitive in international epistemic developments of the 19th century. We welcome contributions focusing on either period, as well as contributions bridging both. Our workshop can only cover a small section of the topic, but we also encourage general considerations on the possibilities and limitations inherent in this historical approach.

Please note that this workshop is designed as an open exchange and debate, based on short ten-minute introductory presentations followed by guided discussion. Works in progress are therefore highly welcome. When submitting your abstract, please provide us with the topic of your intended short presentation as well as with some remarks on your broader project and its connection to the themes outlined in the above workshop description. After evaluating all submissions, we will send a brief catalogue of preparatory questions to all participants, which will serve as the basis for the roundtable discussion.

We aim to provide feedback on the selection results in the week of 15 December.