Zwaardecroon, Hendrick

▪ governor general of Dutch East Indies

born Jan. 26, 1667, Rotterdam, Neth.

died Aug. 12, 1728, Batavia, Java, Dutch East Indies [now Jakarta, Indon.]

      governor-general (1718–25) of the Dutch East Indies who introduced the cultivation of export crops there.

      Zwaardecroon went to the Indies in 1684 as secretary to the commissioner-general of the Dutch East India Company and advanced steadily until he was appointed governor-general in 1718, when the company was in serious financial difficulties. He took harsh steps to halt smuggling and, more constructively, introduced new products into Java and expanded trade with China. He stimulated the production of indigo, improved cotton cultivation, and encouraged the production of sappanwood (from the tree Caesalpina sappan), used for dye. Most important, he imported the coffee tree, a future staple of the economy.

      Zwaardecroon also was responsible for the ruthless repression (1721) of the so-called conspiracy of Pieter Erberfelt, who, it was claimed (probably falsely), was plotting to expel the Dutch from the Indies.

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