Overlijden van Gerard van Rhee, boekhouder en eerste klerk te Jaffnapatnam 1693

This silver medal was created anonymously in 1703 to commemorate the death of Gerard van Rhee, a bookkeeper in Jaffnapatnam, modern day Sri Lanka. But what does it tell us about the society that produced it? The imagery offers several clues: on one side, we see a skull, bones and hourglass, memento mori that speaks to the ever-presence of death. The text on the other side reveals that Van Rhee was born in Nagapatnam, India, and died in Jaffnapatnam, Sri Lanka, while working for the Dutch East India Company, or VOC. The VOC was one of the first multinational corporations and a key player in the development of global capitalism. Looking into the archives of VOC we can reconstruct the role of individuals such as Van Rhee in the colonial administration, as well as the history of Dutch presence in the Indian Ocean. This commemorative medal invites us to reflect on the human cost of early globalization.