The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell Read Free Book Online

could retire on the profit from two trading seasons here are long, long gone. Swamp-fever and crocodiles shan't kill you in Japan, but monotony might. But take heart, de Zoet: after one year we return to Batavia where you shall learn how I reward loyalty and diligence. And speaking of diligence, how proceeds your restoration of the ledgers?'
    'The books are an unholy mess, but Mr Ogawa is proving most helpful, and 'ninety-four and 'ninety-five are in large part reconstructed.'
    'A shoddy pass that we have to rely on Japanese archives. But come, we must address yet more pressing matters.' Vorstenbosch unlocks his desk and takes out a bar of Japanese copper. 'The world's reddest, its richest in gold and, for a hundred years, the bride for whom we Dutch have danced in Nagasaki.' He tosses the flat ingot at Jacob, who catches it neatly. 'This bride, however, grows skinnier and sulkier by the year. According to your own figures . . .' Vorstenbosch consults a slip of paper on his desk-top '. . . in 1790 we exported eight thousand piculs. In 'ninety-four, six thousand. Gijsbert Hemmij, who displayed good judgement only in dying before being charged for incompetence, suffered the quota to drop under four thousand, and during Snitker's year of misgovernance, a paltry three thousand two hundred, every last bar of which was lost with the Octavia , wherever her wreck may lie.'
    The Almelo Clock divides time with bejewelled tweezers.
    'You recall, de Zoet, my visit to the Old Fort prior to our sailing?'
    'I do, sir, yes. The Governor-General spoke with you for two hours.'
    'It was a weighty discussion about nothing less than the future of Dutch Java. Which you hold in your hands.' Vorstenbosch nods at the copper bar. 'That's it.'
    Jacob's melted reflection is captured in the metal. 'I don't understand, sir.'
    'The bleak picture of the Company's dilemma painted by Daniel Snitker was not, alas, hyperbole. What he did not add, because none outside the Council of the Indies knows, is that Batavia's Treasury is starved away to nothing.'
    Carpenters hammer across the street. Jacob's bent nose aches.
    'Without Japanese copper, Batavia cannot mint coins.' Vorstenbosch's fingers twirl an ivory paper-knife. 'Without coins, the native battalions shall melt back into the jungle. There is no sugar-coating this truth, de Zoet: the High Government can maintain our garrisons on half-pay until next July. Come August, the first deserters leave; come October, the native chiefs smoke our weakness out; and by Christmas, Batavia succumbs to anarchy, rapine, slaughter and John Bull.'
    Unbidden, Jacob's mind pictures these same catastrophes unfolding.
    'Every chief resident in Dejima's history,' Vorstenbosch continues, 'tried to squeeze more precious metals out of Japan. All they ever received were hand-wringing and unkept promises. The wheels of commerce trundled on regardless, but should we fail, de Zoet, the Netherlands loses the Orient.'
    Jacob places the copper on the desk. 'How can we succeed where . . .'
    'Where so many others failed? Audacity, pugnacity, and by an historic letter.' Vorstenbosch slides a writing set across the desk. 'Pray take down a rough copy.'
    Jacob readies his board, uncorks the inkwell and dips a quill.
    ' "I, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, P.G. van Overstraten," ' Jacob looks at his patron, but there is no mistake, ' "on this, the -" Was it the six teenth of May we left Batavia's roadstead?'
    The pastor's son swallows. 'The fourteenth, sir.'
    ' "- on this, the . . . Ninth day of May, seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, send cordial salutations to their August Excellencies the Council of Elders, as one true friend may communicate his innermost thoughts to another with neither flattery nor fear of disfavour, concerning the venerable amity between the Empire of Japan and the Batavian Republic", stop.'
    'The Japanese have not been informed of the revolution, sir.'
    'Then let us be "the United Provinces of the Netherlands" for