本书大量利用了原始日志、日记和信件。只要浏览下面这份参考文献，就能发现作者在塞缪尔·珀切斯那里所受的恩惠，后者收集了大量关于东印度公司探险家的作品，并将其编进了自己那部不朽的著作《珀切斯游记》中。此书1625年的版本现在极其罕见，甚至1905年再版的二十卷本也只能在专业图书馆找到。
另一个原始资料的来源是哈克卢特学会，但其中多数资料已绝版。大英图书馆东方和印度收藏品部门收藏有这些材料，此外他们还收藏了大量的原始手稿。
想要深入探究海外代理商所写的信件，或者阅读正式的公司文书，就要阅读四十五卷的英国东印度公司档案和殖民地政府文件，这不是一个轻松愉快的任务。下文列出了相关的文献。
关于荷兰东印度公司，有两部权威著作：约翰·德扬的十三卷本《进取集》（De Opkomst），这是一部用古荷兰语写的日志集，以及弗朗索瓦·瓦伦泰坦因的《新旧东印度群岛》（Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien）。详细信息如下。
同时代人的游记及日记Borough, Stephen, in Hakluyt’s The Principall Navigations, 1599.
Chancellor, Richard, in Hakluyt’s The Principall Navigations, 1599.
Courthope, Nathaniel, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Davis, J., Voyages and Works of, Hakluyt Society, 1880.
Dermer, Thomas, in Purchas His Pilgrimes; see also I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1922.
Downton, Nicholas, Voyage to the East Indies, ed. Sir William Foster, Hakluyt Society, 1939; see also Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Drake, Sir Francis, The World Encompassed by Drake, Hakluyt Society, 1854; see also New Light on Drake, ed. Z. Nuttall, Hakluyt Society, 1914.
Finch, William, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Fitch, Ralph, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 2).
Fitz-Herbert, Sir Humphrey, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Floris, P. W., His Voyage to the East Indies in the Globe, ed. W. H. Moreland, Hakluyt Society, 1934; see also Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Hakluyt, R., The Principall Navigations, 1599.
Hawkins, William, in The Hawkins Voyages During the Reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I, ed. C. Markham, Hakluyt Society, 1878. (This is the journal kept by the William Hawkins who sailed with Edward Fenton.)
Hawkins, William, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1). (This is the William Hawkins who lived in India.)
Hayes, Robert, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Hudson, Henry, Henry Hudson the Navigator, Hakluyt Society, 1860. See also Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 3).
Jourdain, John, The Journal of, ed. W. Foster, Hakluyt Society, 1905.
Keeling, William, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Lancaster, Sir James, Voyages of Lancaster to the East Indies, Hakluyt Society, 1877.
Michelborne, Sir Edward, in Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Middleton, David, In Purchas His Pilgrimes, (vol. 1).
Middleton, Sir Henry, Voyage to Bantam and the Maluco Islands, Hakluyt Society, 1855; Voyage to the Moluccas, 1604–1606, ed. Sir William Foster, Hakluyt Society, 1943.
Roe, Sir Thomas, Embassy to the Great Moghul (2 vols), Hakluyt Society, 1899.
Saris, John, Voyage to Japan, 1613, Hakluyt Society, 1900; see also Purchas His Pilgrimes (vol. 1).
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, in Hakluyt’s The Principall Navigations, 1599.
Calendar of State Papers: Colonial (vols 1–9), ed. W. Noel Sainsbury, 1860–1893.
Chalmers, George, A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and Other Powers, 1770.
Collections of the New York Historical Society (vol. 1), 1841.
East India Company, Calendar of the Court Minutes of, 1640–79 (11 vols), ed. Ethel B. Sainsbury, 1907–1938.
East India Company, The Dawn of British Trade to the East Indies …, 1599–1603, ed. Henry Stevens and George Birdwood, 1886.
East India Company, The English Factories in India, 1618–1669 (13 vols), ed.William Foster, 1906–1927.
East India Company, Letters Received from its Servants in the East (6 vols), ed. F. C. Danvers and William Foster, 1896–1902.
East India Company, Register of Letters etc. of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, 1600–1619, ed. George Birdwood and William Foster, 1892.
East India Company, Selected Seventeenth Century Works, 1968.
East India Company, A True Relation of the Unjust, Cruel and Barbarous Proceedings against the English at Amboyna, 1624. The Answer unto the Dutch Pamphlet made in Defence of the Unjust and Barbarous Proceeding against the English at Amboyna, 1624. A Remonstrance of the Directors of the Netherlands and the Reply of the English East India Company, 1624.
A General Collection of Treatys, etc. (4 vols), 1732.
Borde, A., Fyrst Boke of Introduction to Knowledge. Early English Texts Society edition of 1870 (ed. F.J. Furnivall) contains Borde’s Dyetary of Helth.
Chaudhuri, K. N., The English East India Company 1600–1640, 1965.
Crawfurd, John, A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries, 1856.
Danvers, F., Dutch Activities in the East, 1945.
Dodwell, H. H. (ed.), Cambridge History of India, vol. 4, 1929.
Elyot, Sir Thomas, The Castel of Helth, 1541.
Flick, Alexander (ed.), History of the State of New York (10 vols), 1933.
Foster, W., England’s Quest of Eastern Trade, 1933.
Foster, W., John Company, 1926.
Gerard, J., Gerard’s Herbal, 1636.
Hanna, Willard A., Indonesian Banda, 1978.
Hart, Henry, Sea Road to the Indies, 1950.
Jonge, Johan K. J. de., De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch Gezag in Oost Indie (13 vols), 1862–1888.
Keay, J., The Honourable Company, 1991.
Khan, Shafaat Ahmad, The East India Trade in the Seventeenth Century, 1923.
Loon, Hendrik van, Dutch Navigators, 1916.
Masselman, George, The Cradle of Colonialism, 1963.
Murphy, Henry C., Henry Hudson in Holland, 1909.
Parry, J.W., The Story of Spices and Spices Described, 1969.
Penrose, Boies, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1952.
Phelps Stokes, I. N., The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1922.
Pinkerton, J., A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages, 1812.
Powys, Llewelyn, Henry Hudson, 1927.
Rink, Oliver, Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History, 1986.
Rosengarten, F., The Book of Spices, 1969.
St John, Horace, The Indian Archipelago (2 vols), 1853.
Valentijn, François, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (5 vols in 8 bindings), 1724–1726.
Van der Zee, Henri and Barbara, A Sweet and Alien Land: The Story of Dutch New York, 1978.
Van Rensselaer, Schuyler, History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century, 1909.
Venner, Tobias, Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, 1637.
Vlekke, Bernard, The Story of the Dutch East Indies, 1946.
Willson, Beckles, Ledger and Sword, 1903.
Wilson, F. P., The Plague in Shakespeare’s London, 1927.
Wright, Arnold, Early English Adventurers in the East, 1917.