How Did European Commercial & Trade Expansion in the Early Modern Era? Shaping Indigenous Maritime Adjustment on Java’s Northern Coast

Abstract

This study explores the impact of European commercial expansion on shipping and maritime trade along Java’s northern coast during the early modern period. Rather than showing the complete disappearance of local maritime activities, the study argues that indigenous sailors and traders experienced a process of adjustment under changing political, military, and economic conditions. The weakening and defeat of port-city rulers on the north coast of Java created new pressures that forced local maritime actors to reorganize their trading practices and shipping networks. Using a historical approach based mainly on secondary sources, this study traces the structure of early modern maritime trade and explains how local traders responded to the growing dominance of European maritime capitalism. The findings indicate that Javanese sailors and merchants were increasingly unable to compete with European actors in terms of shipping technology and long-distance commercial capacity. As a result, they shifted their activities toward economic spaces that were less dominated by European traders. This adaptation also involved a gradual narrowing of local shipping networks, as indigenous maritime actors became more concentrated in local and regional routes. Over time, international and intra-Asian trade became increasingly controlled by European maritime powers, while local seafarers sustained their role by focusing on shorter-distance coastal and inter-island trade.