'Wie varen wil, zij onvervaard, doch wake voor gevaar': het beleid van de Stoomvaart Maatschappij 'Nederland' en de Rotterdamsche Lloyd tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1914-1918)

The First World War destroyed any complimentary economic relationship between the Indies and the Netherlands that existed before 1914, as both parts of the Dutch Empire focussed on their own domestic markets and nearby hinterlands. In this article I aim to show that the companies responsible for maintaining the main seaborne transport link between the Netherlands and the Indies - the Rotterdam Lloyd and the Steamship Company 'Nederland' - had a part in effecting this rupture. Fearing a colossal conflict between Japanese, British and German steamship lines after the war, they embarked on a massive expansion programme, paid for by substantially increasing freight rates. Moreover, vessels were culled from Netherlands-Batavia service to be employed in others 'stolen' from their pre-war competitors now occupied elsewhere, causing mass resentment among the business community in the Indies. For them, the choice of focussing on markets outside the Netherlands was made much easier by the behaviour of the Rotterdam Lloyd and the 'Nederland'.