Ceylon
Van Imhoff's tenure as governor of Ceylon put an end to the chaos that had pervaded the previous administration. He established constructive relations with the king of Kandy, Vira Narendra Sinha.
King Narendra was married to a Tamil princess of Madurai (Tamil Nadu, India), and their child, Sri Vijaya Rajasinha who succeeded him after Narendra's death on May 24, 1739, was seen to be more Tamil than Sinhalese (the majority ethnic group in Ceylon). Imhoff was concerned about this succession because closer contact between the Tamils of Ceylon, under Sri Vijaya Rajasinha, and the Tamils of south India might endanger the Dutch East India Company's commercial monopoly. In his letters, Van Imhoff expressed his surprise that the Sinhalese people had accepted such a king, considering their haughty attitude towards the Tamils of India. However, Van Imhoff saw an interesting opportunity in this turn of events. He proposed to the Lords Seventeen (Heeren XVII, the directors of the VOC) that the kingdom of Ceylon be divided in two, but they rejected the proposition: a war would be too costly.
Despite the profitable production of spices, the colony was always in a state of deficit because its profits were allotted to the VOC in general, not to the colony itself. This practice prevented the Governors from becoming too extravagant in their habits, as was the case in other colonies.
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