Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T08:34:52.181Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Protecting Peasants from Capitalism: The Subordination of Javanese Traders by the Colonial State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Jennifer Alexander
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Paul Alexander
Affiliation:
University of Sydney

Extract

Colonial Java represents the paradigmatic case of an ethnically stratified economy. The Dutch controlled large-scale agricultural production and processing and the sale of these products in European markets. They also monopolised the import of European manufactured commodities, such as cloth. The Javanese provided labour for the cultivation and processing of export crops, maintaining themselves by subsistence farming and subsidiary occupations, such as petty trading and handicrafts. The Chinese linked the other two groups, providing supervisors and skilled workers in export agriculture, bulking peasant crops for interregional trade and export to other Asian countries, and wholesaling the imported and manufactured commodities that the Javanese required. Although ethnic monopoly of economic function was never quite this absolute, the basic hierarchical structure was only momentarily threatened in the mid-1930s, when the Japanese began importing their own commodities and selling them in their own stores to challenge the position of both the Dutch and the Chinese (Cator 1936:75–7; Liem 1947:66).

Type
State Economic Policy and Social Division
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adam, L. 1916. “Hoe bakoels aan bedrijfskapitaal komen.”Koloniaal Tijdschrift, 5,1604–7.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. 1987. Trade, Traders and Trading in Rural Java. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, J.; Alexander, P.. 1980. “Sugar, Rice and Irrigation in Colonial JavaEthnohistory, 25,207–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, J.; Alexander, P.. 1982. “Shared Poverty as Ideology: Agrarian Relationships in Colonial Java.Man, 17, 597619.Google Scholar
Alexander, J.; Alexander, P.. n.d.Trade and Petty Commodity Production in Fin de Siècle Kebumen The Hague: European Social Science Java Network, 03 1990.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1858. “De toestand van Bagelan in 1830Tijdschrift voor Nederlandisch Indiä, 20, 6584.Google Scholar
Boeke, J.H. 1910, Tropisch-koloniale staathuishoudkunde: Het probleem. Ph.D.dissertation, University of Leiden. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Boeke, J.H.. 1919. “Pandcrediet als kleincredietKoloniale Studiän, 3,4360.Google Scholar
Boeke, J.H.. 1926. “Inlandsche BudgettenKoloniale Studiän, 10,272321.Google Scholar
Boeke, J.H.. 1931. “Rural Credit in the Dutch East IndiesYearbook of Agricultural Cooperation, 6,243–63.Google Scholar
Boeke, J.H.. 1953. Economics and Economic Policy of Dual Societies as Exemplified by Indonesia. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink.Google Scholar
Boomgaard, P.. 1986a. “Buitenzorg in 1805: The Role of Money and Credit in a Colonial Frontier SocietyModern Asian Studies, 20, 3358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boomgaard, P.. 1986b. “The Welfare Services in Indonesia, 1900–42Itinerario, 10:1,5781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boomgaard, P.. 1989a. Between Sovereign Domain and Servile Tenure: The Development of Rights to Land in Java, 1780–1870 (Comparative Asian Studies No. 4). Amsterdam: Free University Press.Google Scholar
Boomgaard, P.. 1989b. Children of the Colonial State: Population Growth and Economic Development in Java, 1795–1880. (CASA Monographs 1). Amsterdam: Free Universities Press.Google Scholar
Bray, F.. 1986. The Rice Economies: Technology and Development in Asian Societies. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Breman, J. 1983. Control of Land and Labour in Colonial Java. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, No. 101). Dordrecht: Fbris.Google Scholar
Brokx, W. 1925. Het Recht tot Wonen en tot Reizen in Nederlandsch-Indiä. 's-Hertogenbosch: C.N. Teulings' Koninklijke Drukkerijen.Google Scholar
Brooshooft, P. 1901. De Ethische Koers in de Koloniale Politiek. Amsterdam: De Bussy.Google Scholar
Burger, D.H. 1927. “Het niet-officieele crediet in het Regentschap Pati in 1927.” Koloniale Studiän, 14, 395412.Google Scholar
Burger, D.H. 1939. De Ontsluiting van Java's Binnenland voor het Wereldverkeer. Wageningen: Veenman.Google Scholar
Burger, D.H. 1975. Sociologische-Economische Geschiedenis van Indonesia, 2 vols. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Carey, P. 1984. “Changing Javanese Perceptions of the Chinese Communities in Central Java, 1755–1825.” Indonesia, 37:1,47.Google Scholar
Carey, P. 1986. “Waiting for the ‘Just King’: The Agrarian World of South-Central Java from Giyanti (1755) to the Java War (1825–30).”Modern Asian Studies, 20,59137.Google Scholar
Castles, L. 1967. Religion, Politics and Economic Behaviour in Java: The Kudus Cigarette Industry. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Cator, W.J. 1936. The Economic Position of the Chinese in Netherlands Indies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chandler, G. 1984. Market Trade in Rural Java (Monash Papers on Southeast Asia No. 11). Monash: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Cramer, J.C.W. 1929. Het Volkscreditwezen in Nederlandsch Indiä. Batavia: Kolff. Department of Agriculture,Google Scholar
Industry and Commerce. 1930. Handbook of the Netherlands East Indies. Batavia: Kolff.Google Scholar
Deventer, C. Th. van. 1904. Overzicht van den Economischen toestand der Inlandsche Bevolking van Java en Madoera. 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Dewey, A.G. 1962. Peasant Marketing in Java. Glencoe, 111: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Fruin, Th.A. 1938. “Popular and Rural Credit in the Netherlands Indies.”Bulletin of the Colonial Institute of Amsterdam, no. 1,106115, 161–75.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1963a Peddlers and Princes: Social Change and Economic Modernization in Two Indonesian Towns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1963b. Agricultural Involution: The Process of Ecological Change in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1965. The Social History of an Indonesian Town. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gelderen, J.van 1927 [1961]. Voorlezingen over tropisch-koloniale staathuiskunde. Haarlem. Reprinted as “The Economics of the Tropical Colony,” in Indonesian Economics, Wertheim, W.F., ed., 111–42. The Hague: Van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Ginkel, H.Fievez de Malines van 1926. Verslag van den economischen toestand der Inlandsche bevolking van 1924, 2 vols. Weltevreden: Kolff.Google Scholar
Gonggrijp, G. 1919. “Koloniale en theoretische economie.”Koloniaal Tijfdschrift, 8,1446–61.Google Scholar
Gonggrijp, G.. 1925. “Het arbeidsvraagstuk in Nederlandsh-Indiä.”Koloniaal Tijfdschrift, 14,485522, 618–48.Google Scholar
Gutem, V.B. van. 1919. “Tjina Mindering: Eenige aanteekeningen over het Chineesche geldschieterswezen op JavaKoloniale Studiän, 3,106–50.Google Scholar
Hart, G. 1989. “Agrarian Change in the Context of State Patronage,” in Agrarian Transformations: Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia, Hart, G. et al. , eds., 3151. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hart, G. et al. , eds. 1989. Agrarian Transformations: Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hasselman, C.J. 1914. Algemeen Overzicht van de uitkomsten van het Welvaart-Onderzoek gehouden op Java en Madoera in 1904–1905. 's-–Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Hefner, R.W. 1983. “The Problem of Preference: Economic and Ritual Change in Highlands Java.”Man, 18,669–89.Google Scholar
Huender, W. 1921. Overzicht van den economischen toestand der Inheemsche Bevolking van Java en Madoera. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Hiisken, F. 1989. “Cycles of Commercialization and Accumulation in a Central Javanese village,” in Agrarian Transformations: Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia, Hart, G. et al. , eds. 303–31, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hüsken, F.; White, B.. 1989. “Java: Social Differentiation, Food Production, and Agrarian Control,” in Agrarian Transformations: Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia, Hart, G. et al. , eds. 235–65, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kat Angelino, A.D.A. de. 1931. Colonial Policy, 2 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keers, J. 1928. “Het Pandcrediet op Java.”Koloniale Studiän, 12,367418.Google Scholar
Kemp, J. 1988. Seductive Mirage: The Search for the Village Community in Southeast Asia (Comparative Asian Studies 3). Dordrect: Foris.Google Scholar
Knight, G. 1982. “Capitalism and Commodity Production in Java,” in Capitalism and Colonial Production, Alavi, H. et al. , eds. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Kolff, G.H.van der. 1937. The Historical Development of Labour Relationships in a Remote Corner of Java as they Apply to the Cultivation of Rice. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations.Google Scholar
Kolff, G.H.van der. 1941 [1961]. “De economie van bruin en blank: anders en eenderKoloniaal Tijdschrift, 30, 413–45.Google Scholar
Reprinted as “Brown and White Economy: Unity in Diversity,” in Indonesian Economics, Wertheim, W.F., ed. 215–51, The Hague: Van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Kraft, A.J.C. 1929. Cooperatie in Indiä. Batavia: Kolff.Google Scholar
Leur, J.C.van. 1955. Indonesian Trade and Society. The Hague: Van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Levie, E.L. 1935. “Beteekenis van de kwart cent bij koop van voedsel in de desa.”Koloniale Studiän, 19,341–45.Google Scholar
Liem, Twan Djie. 1947. De Distribueerende Tusschenhandel der Chineezen op Java. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Meijer Ranneft, J.W.; Huender, W.. 1926. Onderzoek naar den Belastingdruk op de Inlandsche Bevolking op Java en Madoera. Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Nakamura, M. 1983. The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree. Yogyakarta: University of Gadjah Mada Press.Google Scholar
Noer, D. 1973. The Modernist Muslim Movement in Indonesia, 1900–1942. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, N.G. 1877. Koloniale Politiek. Amsterdam: De Bussy.Google Scholar
Raffles, T.S. 1817. The History of Java., 2 vols. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Svensson, T. 1985. Contractions and Expansion: Agrarian Change in Java Since 1830. Gothenberg: Historical-Anthropological Project.Google Scholar
Vleming, J.L., ed. 1926. Het Chineesche Zakenleven in Nederlandsch-Indiä.Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Volkstelling, op Java. 1905. Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Volkstelling, op Java. 1930. Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Vries, E.de. 1948. “Vijftig jaar economische wetenschap in Nederlandsch-Indiä: 1898–1948,” in Wetenschappelijk appel gehouden ter gelegenheid van het 50-jarig regeringsjubileum van H. M. Koningin Wilhelmina door de Koninklijke Vereeniging ‘Indisch Instituut’, 3040.Google Scholar
Vries, E.de; Cohen, H.. 1938. “On Village Shopkeeping in Java and Madura.”Bulletin of the Colonial Institute of Amsterdam, 1,263–73.Google Scholar
Wertheim, W.F., ed. 1961. Indonesian Economics: The Concept of Dualism in Theory and Policy. The Hague: Van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar