Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater

Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater was a merchant and official of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Prior to his service in the VOC, he was a conrector (vice principal) of a school in Hoorn and had no commercial experience.

He joined the VOC in 1640, and was sent to India. In 1641 he was fiscaal in Taiwan, and in 1642-3, and again in 1644-5 he was chief merchant of the VOC in Japan. While seving in Japan, he proposed to start a new factorij in the north of Japan but the idea was unacceptable to the Japanese authorities. As Japanese were uninterested to his business proposal, so was Overtwater uninterested in revealing them the secrets how to use a mortar. From 1646 till 1650, Overtwater was Vice-Governor of Taiwan. He returned to Holland in 1650, but returned to Indies in 1663. For a time he was stationed in Ceylon and in 1666 in the Cape colony. Later, Overtwater served in the VOC’s headquarters in Batavia, where he died in April 1682.