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Computer Applications in Expansion History: Foreign Trade of the Outer Provinces of the Netherlands Indies, 1900–1940*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

J. Thomas Lindblad
J. Thomas Lindblad
Affiliation:
University of Leiden, The Netherlands
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Extract

The computer is rapidly gaining ground in the history of European overseas expansion. Vast amounts of systematic data are being processed with the aid of a whole host of automatic routines and programming devices. Use of modern computer technology may allow expansion historians to tackle problems on a larger scale and to furnish arguments with a more solid empirical foundation than was possible in previous days. Yet the road towards computerization is one full of pitfalls. The variety of available software options is truly bewildering and the accumulated knowhow in the field is not easily accessible. On the level of the individual researcher, there is a constant trade-off between investments in new skills and the actual processing of data and reporting of results. There is no single optimal path leading to maximal sophistication with a minimum of effort.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , July 1988 , pp. 71 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1988

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References

Notes

1 J.Th. Lindblad, ‘Computer applications in expansion history: A survey’, ESF-Bulletin 2.

2 This survey does not consider the dBase IV package, brought out recently by Ashton-Tate, nor the PC-version of SAS. The latest improvements in dBase-routines are not immediately relevant for a first introduction to this type of software. The PC-version of SAS is still itself very much in need of improvement.

3 Kindleberger, C.P., Foreign trade and the national economy (New Haven 1962) 211.Google Scholar

4 See further: J. Th. Lindblad, ‘International trade and colonial economic growth: the case of Indonesia 1874–1914’, in: Fischer, W., Mclnnis, R.M. & Schneider, J., eds., The emergence of a world economy 1500–1914 (Wiesbaden 1986) II, 665–705;Google ScholarLindblad, J.Th., Clemens, A.H.P. & Springvcld, W.B., ‘Buitenlandse handel en economische ontwikkeling 1900–1940’, Leidschrift 2(1986) VI, 6–23;Google ScholarLindblad, J.Th., ‘De handel tusscn Nederland en Nederlands-Indië, 1874–1939’, Economised en Sociaal-Historisch jaarboekb 51 (1988) 240–298Google Scholar.

5 Lindblad, J.Th., Between Dayak and Dutch; The economic history of Southeast Kalimantan 1880–1942 (Dordrecht/Providence 1988);Google ScholarWie, Thee Kian, Plantation agriculture and export growth; economic history of East Sumatra, 1863–1942 (Jakarta 1977)Google Scholar.

6 Siatistiek van den handel [de scheepvaart] en de in- en uitvoerrechten in Nederlandsch-Indië 1874–1923 (Batavia 1877–1924);Google Scholar ‘Jaaroverzicht van den in- en uitvoer van Nederlandsch-Indie, 1924–1939’, Mededelingen van het Centraal Kantoor voor de Statistiek 20, 36, 48, 56, 70, 83, 94, 107, 119, 126, 135, 142, 153, 172 (1925–1940); ‘Jaaroverzicht van den in- en uitvoer van Nederlandsch-Indië 1939, 1940’, Jaarbericht/Jaaroverzicht [van het Centraal Kantoor van Statistiek] (Batavia 1940–1941).

7 The export commodities are coffee, tea, tobacco, pepper, palm oil, copra, pinang nuts, fish, rubber, fibres, timber, rattan, getah-pertjah, tin, coal, crude and refined oil. The imported goods are rice, flour, cocoa oil, fish, cigars, textiles, clothes, automobiles, iron, machines, cans, cement, fertilizers and lamp-oil. There was a considerable degree of differentiation also within some of these commodity designations including for instance several types of textile fabrics.

8 Any further application of dBase III requires further study. See: J.-D.Carrabis, dBase III Plus; The complete reference (Berkeley 1987);Google ScholarTsu-der-Chou, G., dBase III handbook (Indianapolis 1985)Google Scholar.

9 One exception is the period 1930–1934 when budgetary cuts precluded publication of separate volumes with statistics per region. For those years, a second data base has to be constructed in which each record is defined by a combination of port and product. This data base is later merged with the original file that defines each record by year and region (cf. note 12 below).

10 Field names too may be altered but only one at a time and not while changing the width.

11 As YEAR was defined as a numeric rather than a character field, we must also correct for distortions in the year specification due to aggregations.

12 An example is the procedure to make a data base with records defined by port and product (cf. note 9 above) fit into the general data base defining records by year and region. We distinguish between a source file, PORTEXP.DBF, and a target file, EXP3034.DBF, of which the latter is created by first copying the structure from EXPORT.DBF and then entering years and regional codes. The two files are activated simultaneously and linked together by an alphanumeric expression combining year and regional code. Product designations are stored into a memory variable for identifying blank fields in the target file that are to be filled in. This memory variable in turn is used as a macro to sum up figures per port until all ports of a region have been covered. The total is written away as a second memory variable that in turn replaces the blank fields in the target file as located by the macro. The entire procedure is repeated region after another until end of file.

13 For further study see: SAS user's guide: Basics (Cary, N.C. 1985).Google Scholar

14 Positions an d length of variables have to be specified when values per variable are not separated by blanks in the raw data file.

15 The regions of the Outer Provinces are Aceh, Tapanuli, West Sumatra, East Sumatra, Riau, Bengkulu, Lampong, Palembang, Jambi, Banka, Billiton, West Borneo (Kalimantan), Southeast Borneo (Kalimantan), Celebes (Sulawesi), Menado, Ambon, Ternate, the Moluccas, New Guinea (Irian Barat), Bali (with Lombok) and Ximor.

16 Special graph facilities are provided by the GPLOT and GCHART procedures including pies and bar, star or block charts.

17 PROC FREQ does not apply to our example but it is a procedure mostly requiring little more programming than a mere specification of combinations of variables desired in the rows and columns of the matrix (a TABLES-statement). More elaborate descriptive statistics, including quantiles, are produced for numeric variables by PROC UNIVARIATE.

18 Whenever confusion may arise between variable and format names, the latter are indicated by a‘.’

19 See further: SAS user“s guide: Statistics (Cary, N.C. 1982);Google ScholarSAS/ETS user's guide (Cary, N.C. 1984)Google Scholar.