Stephen Martin: Was the VOC funding Mozart?

Описание: Wilhelm Buschman, was the Dutch East India Company (VOC) upper merchant on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf during the 1760s. His widow, Anna Maria Pack, had a large inheritance, acquired on her death by her second husband, the VOC surgeon Ferdinand Dejean, who commissioned most of Mozart's flute works, besides works of art. A historical audit of Buschman's reports reveals that the existence and source of most of that wealth was hidden from the official diaries which Buschman sent to the VOC headquarters in Batavia, on Java. The dwindling profits of the VOC, at a time of military turbulence involving Mir Mohanna, do not support Buschman's money originating from bribes or rake-offs. There was however, a private pearl trade on Kharg, which provides a good explanation. Pearls were not just jewels, but an ideal cryptocurrency for concealing, storing, selling, or shifting private wealth. The VOC lost out hugely to private enterprise, which was a culture among senior merchants. About 94% of Dejean’s wealth purchasing art and music came from the pearls. Black market trade did intercontinental economic damage to all parties. Occasionally, it was put to lasting good use.

The paper behind this talk was published in JRAS in 2023:
Martin, Stephen. Was the VOC Funding Mozart? The Diaries of Wilhelm Buschman on Kharg Island. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 33, no. 2 (2023): 489–511.

With a medical background including police surgeon and Court work, Stephen also studied history with Professor Norman McCord on a scholarship for non-historian undergraduates. He became a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2018. He helped to found Baan Dong Bang Museum in Thailand, aimed at arts and general education for people of all ages in the region. He writes about history at the interface of Europe and Asia in the long eighteenth century, focusing particularly on portraiture. Stephen has held three professorships and published 35 arts papers through blind peer review since 2015.