Charting Lives and Careers: Enriched Data About the Dutch East India Company’s Eighteenth-Century European Workforce

Abstract

This dataset builds upon the ‘VOC-opvarenden’ database, which documents the Dutch East India Company’s (VOC) European personnel, primarily from the eighteenth century. We refine the 774,200 muster records containing each crew member’s name, place of origin, rank, and the specifics of the ship voyage they enlisted for, by disambiguating to identify 460,452 individuals, standardizing place names, categorizing ranks, and integrating wage information. Hosted on Zenodo, this dataset offers comprehensive insights into the careers of VOC crew and their origins from different parts of Europe. Unique for its exceptional size for early modern data, long time span, and European coverage, this extensive collection offers unprecedented opportunities for in-depth analysis and research. Its potential extends to sociological studies, network analyses, and historical research, particularly when combined with economic and social data from various European regions.

Keywords

• digital humanities
• digital history
• social and economic history
• dutch east india company (voc)
• employment records