Post

Bahrein

Bahrain

Some time after 1640 the Company decided to rent a house in Bahrein for purchasing pearls. The Dutch VOC employee assigned to the task was Costerus. He was soon captured and his cargo confiscated because he had been taken for a Portuguese, who at that time were enemies of the Arabs. After the misunderstanding had been cleared up, the VOC set up a trade office in the region. However the trade proved unsuccessful. In order to maintain their hold over the pearl trade, the local traders sold their pearls for high prices. The VOC office was closed down again within a relatively short period of time. The compilers of this database have not as yet come across a source in the literature that identifies this location as a VOC post.