Dutch commercial success was weakened by a failure to reinvest enough in ships, dockyards, infrastructure, and manpower. The VOC pursued high short-term margins but did not build an Indian Ocean support system on the scale of the East India Company. Trading access to Japan, spices, and long-established routes gave the Dutch ample reason to create a stronger regional base. This was a recurring danger of profit maximization: exceptional returns in one year can expose the enterprise to ruin in the next. For a smaller power, sustained investment mattered especially because the best deterrent was to make conquest difficult, slow, and expensive.
Chapter · 1:35:19-1:40:17
The strategic cost of underfunded colonial defence
The VOC's pursuit of short-term profit left too little dockyard, shipbuilding, and military infrastructure to protect its Indian Ocean trade.