Mattheus de Haan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMattheus de Haan
Dutch colonial governor
Date of Birth: 19-Oct-1663
Place of Birth: Dordrecht, South Holland, Netherlands
Date of Death: 01-Jun-1729
Profession: politician
Nationality: Netherlands
Zodiac Sign: Libra 
About Mattheus de Haan
- Mattheus de Haan (1663–1729) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1725 to 1729.He was born in Dordrecht in 1663.
- On 26 October 1671 he left for the Indies, where his father had been appointed as Underbuyer (onderkoopman) in the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
- He then quickly went through posts in the lower levels of that organisation in Dutch Suratte.
- There, in 1676, he was made Provisional Assistant (provisioneel assistent), and in 1681 he became assistent.
- He became Bookkeeper (boekhouder) in 1683, and, in 1685, onderkoopman (Underbuyer/Undermerchant).
- Ten years later, in 1695, he was promoted to Buyer/Merchant (koopman).
- The next year he had to move to Batavia, to take up the post of Second Senior Buyer (tweede opperkoopman) in the Company's headquarters there.
- Two years later, in 1698, he was promoted to First Senior Buyer (eerste opperkoopman).
- He became Secretary (secretaris) to the High Government of the Indies in 1700 and, in 1702, Vice-President of the Council of Justice.
- He was made a Counsellor-extraordinary (Raad extraordinair) of the Dutch Council of the Indies in 1704.
- He was then appointed President of the College van Schepenen in 1705.
- Five years later, he was made full Counsellor of the Indies and in 1722 he became Director-General.
- On 16 October 1724 he was nominated Governor-General, taking over from Hendrick Zwaardecroon on 8 July 1725. Characteristic of his time in office was his opposition Zwaardecroon's encouragement of silk cultivation.
- Coffee production in the De Preanger region (Parahyangan uplands to the south of Batavia) went enormously well and de Haan felt that this would lead to a decline in coffee prices in Europe, so he lowered the prices paid to the coffee farmers.
- Their response was to chop down some of the coffee plantations.
- This was not what was intended, and De Haan forbade it.
- Meanwhile, there was further heavy damage to the production of coffee.
- Coffee from Java went mainly to Europe.
- They never managed to get into the Asian market.
- Coffee from Mocha took off there, as did the Arabic coffee of the English.
- No action was taken against this.
- The English also began to play a more important role in the cotton and tea trade.
- De Haan died, after lying ill for three days, on 1 June 1729.
- He was buried in Batavia and was followed as Governor-General by Diederik Durven.
Read more at Wikipedia