Nieuwe Kaart van Choromandel ende Malabar opgesteld door Francois Valentyn

1726`

Copper engraving on paper

Print size: 20 x 23.25 in (51 x 59 cm)
Sheet size: 21.75 x 24.5 in (55.5 x 62.5 cm)

Valentyn’s Foundational VOC Trade Map of Southern India—A Rare, Insider Cartographic Record of Dutch Commercial Power in the Early Eighteenth Century

François Valentyn’s 1726 map of Southern India, published within his encyclopaedic Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, stands as one of the most authoritative cartographic expressions of VOC intelligence during its mature commercial phase in the Indian Ocean. From its meticulous delineation of coastal settlements to its dense network of inland routes and trading centres, the map represents a uniquely privileged insight into how the Dutch East India Company conceptualised and managed its South Indian operations at a moment of profound geopolitical and economic transformation.

Valentyn, having spent years in the VOC’s service in Amboina and Batavia, had unparalleled access to manuscript charts, factory reports, naval logs, trading diaries, missionary accounts, and administrative memoranda. His map, therefore, does not merely reproduce existing geographic knowledge—it embodies the VOC’s internal cartographic worldview. It synthesises shipping intelligence from Dutch captains, overland route information from Tamil merchants, as well as data from Jesuit correspondents who provided detailed geographic and ethnographic descriptions of the Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam-speaking regions.

Southern India appears in Valentyn’s rendering not as isolated regions but as an integrated commercial ecosystem structured around textile production (Coromandel), pepper and timber extraction (Malabar), and rice, pearl, and cattle economies (southern Tamil polities). The inland routes—linking weaving towns such as Trichinopoly, Salem, Tanjore, and Madurai to the ports of Pulicat, Masulipatnam, Sadras, Porto Novo, Nagapattinam, and Tuticorin—are depicted with a clarity rarely achieved in earlier European mapping. These networks illuminate the VOC’s dependence on pre-existing South Indian mercantile circuits, revealing a delicate balance between European corporate power and local commercial expertise.

Crucially, Valentyn’s map also captures the complex political geography of the period. The Mughal decline in the Deccan, the rise of the Nawabs of Arcot, the continued influence of the Maratha–Tanjore court, and the fragmentation of Vijayanagara’s successor states all find spatial expression. The VOC’s diplomacy and trade were intimately tied to these shifting hierarchies; Valentyn’s mapping reflects not a static administrative world but a dynamic field of negotiation between company officials, local rulers, and merchant communities.

The coastline, rendered with remarkable accuracy for the early eighteenth century, demonstrates the VOC’s mastery of maritime intelligence. Anchorages, coastal profiles, sandbanks, and depth-sensitive approaches appear with the practical detail needed for VOC shipping; these features represent the cumulative knowledge of decades of Dutch navigation in monsoon conditions. Valentyn’s work here anticipates later hydrographic mapping efforts, including those of Bellin and the British East India Company.

As a printed artefact, this map exemplifies the shift from decorative mapping to systematically researched, administration-orientated cartography. Valentyn’s work retains aesthetic clarity, but its core purpose is informational: to document the commercial, logistical, and political foundations of Dutch activity in South India. In doing so, it captures a world on the cusp of profound upheaval, as French and English rivalries would soon challenge the VOC’s dominance.

Today, Valentyn’s South India maps are prized for their rarity, detail, and insider perspective. They remain indispensable sources for reconstructing the VOC’s operational geography and the wider trade systems of the Indian Ocean in the early eighteenth century.

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