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Today's episode is brought to you by our supporters on Patreon, including our Commodore class.

That's Commodore's Kane, Kenway, Hefei, Jennings, Drunken Dack, Two Gun Tony, The Pirate No Paulace, Matthew the Navigator,

Bull, Vertagon, Rumgut, and Bootstraps Bailey.

And I'm pleased to introduce our newest Commodore Redbeard, the Smoky Mountain Pirate.

I didn't see Captain Redbeard when I visited the Smokies recently, which may be the second time I've missed him, and of course our quartermasters, Samuel and Adam. Oh, Hello, welcome to the Pirate History Podcast. My name is Matt. Thank you for listening. Last time we talked about the Dutch

merchant, Jan Pieter Sun Cohen. To call him a merchant isn't, well it's not inaccurate, but it doesn't bring to mind the right kind of image, does it?

He was a businessman in a much more modern sense, an executive, a titan of industry even.

He was one of the most powerful people of the early 1600s despite not coming from an aristocratic background, despite not having in the every respect a self-made man. He had many benefits going into life for good education and a good

family, but no power to speak of. He rested that power away from his rivals, his underlings, and what were in all but name, his subjects.

Last time we talked about his rise in positions of power within the VOC, the Dutch East India Company,

but today we're going to see him rise to an unequaled standing in Southeast Asia. This is episode 130. No mercy.

When we left off, the Dutch East India Company was in almost total control of the island of Nera just to the north of Great Banda.

That was their center of power in the Bonda Islands, the small nutmeg producing islands in the center of what are called the spice islands, the Malaku Islands which are in the center of Indonesia.

But the island of Nera was not the extent of Jan Pieterun Cohen's ambitions.

He wanted all of the Banda Islands.

...