Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging

Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging
Native name	Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging
Type	Limited partnership
Industry	Trade
Founded	1869
Defunct	1879
Fate	Bankrupted
Successor	Nieuwe Afrikaanse Handels-Vennootschap

Last updated July 24, 2023

The Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging ("African Trading Association" or AHV) was a Dutch trading company based in Rotterdam which traded in Central Africa, most notably Congo. The company was established in 1869 and operated for eleven years, until 1879, when it went bankrupt as the result of fraud.^[1] The company was reorganized by Hendrik Muller Szn. as the Nieuwe Afrikaanse Handels-Vennootschap (NAHV) in 1880.

History

Kerdijk & Pincoffs

In 1849, the Rotterdam-based merchants Lodewijk Pincoffs [ nl ] and his cousin Henri Polak Kerdijk established a company specializing in the trade of dyes such as indigo and madder. In 1857, they began to trade with Africa after they purchased a firm from Leopold Samson, who had already been trading in Central Africa, likely at Ponta da Lenha, Ambriz, and Quisembo.

A brother of Henri, Lodewijk Kerdijk, was their representative in Congo. He established a factory (trading post) at Banana located at the mouth of the Congo River. As the Congo River is blocked by numerous cataracts, there were already well-established African trade caravans linking the estuary of the Congo river where European trading factories were located, to the interior.

Here, the firm Kerdijk & Pincoffs, participated in trade with Congo, selling products such as cotton, cooking utensils, knives, guns and gunpowder, and liquor, in exchange for African products such as ivory, palm oil, and rubber. The company expanded rapidly and in 1863, shortly after the death of Lodewijk Kerdijk (d. 1861) was reorganized as a limited partnership. By this point the company had dozens of factories along the Congo River.

Trade and enslavement

In 1868, the partnership's West African and Central African interests were split. The Central African interests of the partnership were reorganized into a company called the Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging in 1869. Coming in the years after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, many Portuguese, Spanish, and American slave traders entered into the service of the AHV. Although the Atlantic slave trade had largely ended the company employed enslaved labour in Africa. In 1879, a Dutch employee of the company, Onno Zwier van Sandick, counted several hundred enslaved people working at AHV factories in Congo (called 'coromanos' in Portuguese, and 'Kroo-mannen' in Dutch). They were bound together with chains and collars.^[2]

By 1877, the company operated ca. 44 factories and was the largest European trading company in the region. It operated a small fleet of three steamships (the Prins Hendrik, the Banana, and the Zaire) as well as several schooners (the Henriquette, the Eersteling, the Rotterdam, and the Congo).

Bankruptcy and successor

In 1879, it became public that the books of the AHV had been falsified for years. The company had kept operating through secret loans from the Rotterdamsche Handelsvereeniging, a company that was established by Pincoffs in 1872. After the scandal become public in May 1879, both Pincoffs and Kerdijk fled. Pincoffs, then a member of the Dutch Senate fled to the United States, but Kerdijk was arrested in Antwerp following a suicide attempt. At this point the AHV was 9.5 million guilders in debt. The largest creditors were the city of Rotterdam, and the firms Mees and Zoonen, which was operated by Marten Mees, a friend of Pincoffs. Both partners were convicted (in absentia on Pincoffs part)^[3] of forgery and fraud in 1880.

The respected Rotterdam based merchant Hendrik Muller Szn. was appointed as the liquidator of the AHV. He made arrangements with the company's debtors and with financial support of the city of Rotterdam the AHV was reorganized into the Nieuwe Afrikaanse Handels-Vennootschap run by Muller.^[4]

Influence of the company

Despite its short existence, the AHV was influential in the European trade in the Congo region. Lodewijk and Pincoffs had an interest in the colonization plans of Leopold II of Belgium. Both were present at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876 and helped finance Leopold's Comité d'études du Haut-Congo where both held managing roles. They helped to transport Henry Morton Stanley and his supplies to Banana free of charge. From here, Stanley departed on 14 August 1879 on his expedition in Congo. It was understood that the AHV would in turn receive preferential treatment in Leopold's territory, but following the collapse of the company in 1879 this did not come to pass and Leopold disbanded the committee.

Related Research Articles

Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

Johann Büttikofer was a Swiss zoologist who worked at the Blijdorp Zoological Garden in Rotterdam. After his retirement he settled in Bern, Switzerland. For his extensive contributions to the knowledge of Liberian fauna based on two zoological expeditions to the Republic of Liberia he is regarded as the 'Father of Liberian Natural History'.

The Netherlands–South African Railway Company or NZASM was a railway company established in 1887. The company was based in Amsterdam and Pretoria, and operated in the South African Republic (ZAR) during the late 19th century. At the request of ZAR president Paul Kruger, the NZASM constructed a railway line between Pretoria and Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was built to showcase King Leopold II's Congo Free State in the International Exposition of 1897.

Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland or SMN, also known as the Netherland Line or Nederland Line, was a Dutch shipping line that operated from 1870 until 1970, when it merged with several other companies to form what would become Royal Nedlloyd.

Karel Schoeman was a South African novelist, historian, translator and man of letters. Author of twenty novels and numerous works of history, he was one of South Africa's most honoured writers. Schoeman wrote primarily in Afrikaans, although several of his non-fiction books were originally written in English. His novels are increasingly being translated into other languages, notably, English, French and Dutch.

Hendrik Pieter Nicolaas Muller was a Dutch entrepreneur, diplomat, and publicist who started his career as a businessman, trading with East and West Africa. In his mid-twenties he travelled to Zanzibar, Mozambique, and South Africa for business purposes, but showed himself a keen ethnographer as well.

The Nieuwe Afrikaanse Handels-Vennootschap was a Dutch trading company based in Rotterdam which traded in Central Africa, most notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. The NAHV was established in 1880 following the liquidation of its predecessor company the Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging, which was reorganized by Hendrik Muller Szn. into the NAHV. The NAHV continued to operate until 1982.

Johan Arnold Smellekamp was a Dutchman who pioneered trade with the Boer Voortrekker states in South Africa and later became a civil servant, politician and law agent in the Orange Free State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherlands-African Business Council</span>

Netherlands-African Business Council (NABC) is a non-profit organization for Dutch companies trading and investing in Africa and vice versa. It supports its members with their activities in Africa by promoting trade with the continent. NABC has been working around the world since it was set up by Heineken and other Dutch companies in 1946. The NABC celebrated their 70th year anniversary in 2016. The Netherlands-African Business Council in 2023 had nearly 250 members, both Dutch and African. The NABC has contacts and a wide database within the Netherlands and covers all countries in Africa.

The Dutch male given name Hendrik is a cognate of the English Henry. The spelling Hendrick was interchangeable until the 19th century. Birth names of people with this name can be Latinized to Henderikus, Hendricus, Hendrikus, or Henricus, while common nicknames for Hendrik are Han, Hein, Henk, Hennie, Henny, Henri, Henry, Rijk, and Rik. People with Hendrik or Hendrick as their first name include:

Isaac de l'Ostal de Saint-Martin was a French chevalier, who came in an unknown year from the Béarn to the Dutch Republic.

The Dutch–Ahanta War was a conflict between the Netherlands and the Ahanta between 1837 and 1839. Beginning with a mere economic dispute between the Ahanta and the Dutch, who were based at the Dutch Gold Coast, the conflict ended with the hanging of Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II and the reorganization of the Ahanta state, establishing a Dutch protectorate over the Ahanta.

<i>Congo: The Epic History of a People</i> 2010 book by David Van Reybrouck

Congo: The Epic History of a People is a 639 page non-fiction book by David Van Reybrouck, first published in 2010. It describes the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the prehistory until the present, with the main focus on the period from the Belgian colonisation until the book's release. The book was originally published by De Bezige Bij on 3 May 2010. By the end of 2012 it had sold over 300,000 copies in Dutch. Its English version was translated by Sam Garrett.

Johannes Albertus Munnik Hertzog was a South African politician, Afrikaner nationalist, cabinet minister, and founding leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party. He was the son of J. B. M. (Barry) Hertzog, a former Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

The Zuid-Afrikahuis is a central information point on South Africa and contains the largest library on South Africa in the Netherlands. The institution also organizes literary evenings with writers and poets as well as holding cultural events. It also offers courses on the Afrikaans language. The Zuid-Afrikahuis is home to a number of organizations including: the foundation ZASM, the Nederlands-Zuid-Afrikaanse Vereniging (NZAV), the foundation Stichting Studiefonds, and the Maandblad Zuid-Afrika.

Hendrik Muller Szn. was a Dutch merchant and politician. He is the father of Hendrik Pieter Nicolaas Muller.

Otto Lindner was a German engineer and explorer.

The Nederlandsche Suikerraffinaderij NV (NSR) was an Amsterdam sugar refining company that refined sugar cane to produce white sugar and other sugar products. After its demise, its main sugar refinery became part of the Amstel Suikerraffinaderij and still later part of the Wester Suikerraffinaderij.

References

Bibliography

H. L. Wesseling, "The Netherlands and the Partition of Africa", in: Journal of African History, 1981, p. 495-509
R.J. Willink (2006-03-22). De bewogen verzamelgeschiedenis van de West-Centraal-Afrikaanse collecties in Nederland (1856-1889) (Thesis) (in Dutch). Leiden University.
Onno Zwier van Sandick, Herinneringen van de Zuid-Westkust van Afrika. Eenige bladzijden uit mijn dagboek , Deventer, 1881

Notes

↑ Faber, Paul (2016). "Koopman, verzamelaar, en museumsticther: Hendrik Muller". Afrika 010: 5–7.
↑ Zwier van Sandick, Onno (1881). Herinneringen van de Zuid-Westkust van Afrika. Eenige bladzijden uit mijn dagboek (in Dutch). Deventer.
↑ "L. Pincoffs". www.parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-10-25.
↑ Muller, Hendrik (1977). "Liquidatie en reconstructie van de Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging". Muller: Een Rotterdam Zeehandelaar, Hendrik Muller Szn (in Dutch). Schiedam: Interbook International. pp. 321–340.

External links

Media related to Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Faber, Paul (2016). "Koopman, verzamelaar, en museumsticther: Hendrik Muller". Afrika 010: 5–7.

[2] Zwier van Sandick, Onno (1881). Herinneringen van de Zuid-Westkust van Afrika. Eenige bladzijden uit mijn dagboek (in Dutch). Deventer.

[3] "L. Pincoffs". www.parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-10-25.

[4] Muller, Hendrik (1977). "Liquidatie en reconstructie van de Afrikaansche Handelsvereeniging". Muller: Een Rotterdam Zeehandelaar, Hendrik Muller Szn (in Dutch). Schiedam: Interbook International. pp. 321–340.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]