Minerva’s Army and the Battle for Green Gold: Leiden University as a Catalyst for the Seventeenth Century Spice Trade

Abstract

This thesis examines the socio-cultural climate of the Dutch Republic and its primary established knowledge systems that aided in the identification, access, production, use and transmission of plant-based knowledge. A cross analysis of these intellectual exchanges are explored in order to assess their role upon the Dutch Republic’s ascension as leaders of the seventeenth century spice trade. It identifies Leiden University (est.1575) as a key intellectual conduit for the Dutch Republic’s social and economical outcomes during the late sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century. Three key social factors differentiated the university from its contemporaries and advanced its capacity for knowledge production: (1) a policy of religious tolerance; (2) better inclusive gender relations compared to greater European contemporaries; (3) and pedagogical innovation anchored in humanistic principles. As a result of the relationship between Leiden University and the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, also regarded as the Dutch East India Company), communication channels that transported and exchanged a variety of knowledge were established between the two organizations. These engendered an influx of intellectual capital that led to the acquisition of ‘green gold.’