Java Sea

The waters off Cirebon connected Java's northern coast with Batavia and the wider Java Sea. Cirebon's courts stood behind a port whose overseas relationships became increasingly entangled with the Dutch East India Company. Surviving correspondence records exchanges between Cirebon and Batavia in the 1670s and 1680s, when the Company's influence over the port was growing.

The treaty of 1705 transferred Mataram's claims over Cirebon to the Company, confirming a position already built through earlier agreements. Dutch residents acquired influence over the port's trade and over produce coming from the interior. Rice, sugar, pepper and other agricultural goods linked the coastal trading place with its hinterland. The sea before Cirebon consequently formed the maritime edge of a changing political economy: local rulers remained involved in government, while Company officials sought to direct commerce and deliveries. This history belongs to the Cirebon coast bordering these waters.