Su Minggang

Su Minggang, also known as Souw Beng Kong, was a wealthy and astute Chinese merchant who was appointed the first “captain” of the Chinese community in Batavia, the capital city of the Dutch East Indies. He was appointed to this position in 1619, the same year when the Dutch east India Company (VOC) made Batavia theirs headquarter in South Asia.

When the VOC established its great power base at Batavia, Chinese settlers from Fujian already were in the area. The VOC authorities realized that the ethnic groups they were ruling might best solve minor disputes and affairs among themselves. In position of captain, Su Minggang became an indispensable ally and adviser of the formidable Jan Pieterszoon Coen, second governor-general of the Dutch company. Su Minggang’s functions were to attend to the needs of his community, collect the poll tax from his countrymen, and simultaneously functioned as an intermediary between the VOC and the Chinese community in various ways.

When the VOC established a trading center on the southwest coast of Taiwan in 1624, Su Minggang spent some time there, organizing the beginnings of sugar cane and rice farming.