The valuable trade statistics provided by the Netherlands Indies government are a boonto researchers, but should not be accepted at face value. The extent to which shippersavoided registration is indicated by a comparison of Makassars trade figures beforeand after it was made a free-port in 1847, while early twentieth-century data fromMakassar itself show a significantly higher level of maritime traffic than Bataviasdo. This suggests that central statistical series can seriously misrepresent local trade.Keywords: Makassars trade, Statistics, VOC
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