The VOC minted these small tin pieces in Cochin, on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, where the Company held a fortified trading post from 1663. The bazaruk was a local unit of account, and the VOC adopted it wholesale rather than imposing Dutch denominations — a pragmatic concession to the existing market infrastructure of the Malabar spice trade.
Tin was sourced largely from VOC-controlled deposits in Bangka and the Malay Peninsula, making the coinage almost entirely self-supplied from Company territories.
The VOC minted these small tin pieces in Cochin, on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, where the Company held a fortified trading post from 1663. The bazaruk was a local unit of account, and the VOC adopted it wholesale rather than imposing Dutch denominations — a pragmatic concession to the existing market infrastructure of the Malabar spice trade.
Tin was sourced largely from VOC-controlled deposits in Bangka and the Malay Peninsula, making the coinage almost entirely self-supplied from Company territories.