Jacques Specx

Jacques Specx was a Dutch merchant who occupied the highest positions in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies and a member of the Heren XVII, the seventeen active directors.

By 1607 Specx was employed by the VOC, and in that year he sailed for the Indies as an under-merchant. He sailed to Japan and was able to formally negotiate trade between the VOC and Japan, thus establishing new trade route and becoming the first head of the Dutch factory on the island of Hirado (1610-13 and 1614-21). In 1627 Specx was recalled to the Netherlands to brief the Heren XVII in person on Japan. In October of 1628 he was appointed to command the fleet sailing to the Indies. The fleet arrived to Batavia on 22 September, the day after Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Governor-General, had died. Specx was appointed to the position three days after his predecessor’s death. He returned to Europe in 1632, seizing the island of St. Helena in the VOC’s name. In 1642 he became a director of the VOC, one of the Heren XVII, and held the post for the next nine years.