Cargo

rom Europe ships sailed with cargoes consisting of :

Precious metals: bars of silver, (small amounts of) gold and copper as coins. In India the bars were turned into coins, which could be used practically throughout Asia; the gold coins mainly went to India. The precious metals amounted to approximately 2/3 of the cargo.

Trading Goods: e.g. textile fabrics, linen and wool. They were sold in Japan, China, Persia and to rich merchants in India. Furthermore small amounts of beer and wine were taken and some small cargoes consisting of dyestuff, lead and luxury goods.
Consumer Goods: for the VOC company in Asia, mainly consisting of goods that were hard to come by or not available at all, e.g. repair goods for ships like nails, masts, cables and compasses and goods like ink, clothing, pots and pans.
Ballast: i.e. goods to weight the ship, like canons and anchors. Gravel and sand were also dumped into the bottom of the ship. The Batavia, which sank, carried a ballast of worked stones, intended to be used for the new water gate in Batavia.