Van Leur, a Dutch official in Indonesia, developed a theory about the pre-colonial nature of seaborne Asian trade. According to him it was large in volume but with minuscule units (pedlars). In contrast, the European companies, because of the advantage secured by them through economies of scale, were able to carry on oceanic trade far more successfully and so prevailed over the Asian pedlars. This thesis, along with its later versions, is examined in the following article, with evidence to show that (a) Asian merchants’ establishments could also be very large and (b) could successfully stand up to Europe Companies in fair competition. Moreover, van Leur was further wrong in imagining that pre-colonial Asian maritime commerce was confined to high-priced goods only.

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有关范勒（Van Leur）的“踏板”论点的更多信息

印度尼西亚的荷兰官员范勒（Van Leur）提出了有关亚洲海上贸易的前殖民性质的理论。据他说，它的体积很大，但有微小的单位（小齿）。相比之下，欧洲公司由于其通过规模经济所获得的优势，能够更成功地进行海洋贸易，因此在亚洲小贩中占了上风。在下一篇文章中将对本论文及其后续版本进行研究，以证明（a）亚洲商人的营业场所也可能很大，并且（b）在公平竞争中可以成功地与欧洲公司抗衡。此外，范·勒尔（Van Leur）认为前殖民时期的亚洲海洋贸易仅限于高价商品，这是错误的。