Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij

In 1863 the British-owned Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij (NISM) won a tender for a number of subsidized shipping lines in the Dutch East Indies. As a consequence the inter-island shipping lines became centered on Singapore. Further, all but two of the many ships required were built in the United Kingdom. The minister of colonial affairs Jacobus Sprenger van Eyk and the businessmen Jan Boissevain (1836–1904), Willem Ruys, and PE Tegelberg responded with a plan for a new "national" shipping line.

On 19 March 1888 a law was made to govern the relations between the (Dutch East Indies) government and the new public company, Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij. KPM had to hold office in the Netherlands or Dutch East Indies; appointments of executives and representatives had to be approved by the government; a government representative would have access to the administration and meetings of the company; half of the required ships must be built in the Netherlands; the company could use only Dutch commanders, navigators and engineers; and the Dutch government would subsidise the company to operate the lines.

The establishment of the KPM did indeed have the desired effects. The KPM supported the unification of the Dutch colonial economy as the Netherlands expanded its territory across the Indonesian archipelago. It brought inter-island commerce back from Singapore to the capital, Batavia (now Jakarta), which shifted economic activity to Java, and supplied more cargo for the shipping lines between Batavia and the Netherlands. Transport on this route was provided by the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (executives Jan Boissevain and PE Tegelberg) and Rotterdamsche Lloyd (executive Willem Ruys).