Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T03:12:57.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Tobacco Industry of North Borneo: A Distinctive Form of Plantation Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

David W. John  and
James C. Jackson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recently the validity of the standard portrayals of plantation agriculture — phrased as they are in essentially descriptive terms revealing little about the functioning of this particular system of crop production — was called into question. It was suggested that a deeper understanding of the nature and mechanisms of plantation agriculture required the explicit recognition that this is not an undifferentiated, unchanging agricultural system, but that there are in reality different types of plantation; in identifying these, it is essential to consider variations in the individual form and range of combinations of selected key elements central to the organisation of production. This led to the conclusion that in view of their structure and modes of operation certain large-scale agricultural enterprises producing for export which adopt rotational patterns of land use whereby specific sites are cleared, cropped, exhausted and then left to revert to secondary growth for varying periods should be seen not as commercial variants of shifting cultivation but as a distinctive type of plantation agriculture. Producing high-quality wrapper-leaf tobacco for cigars, the renowned plantations of the Deli region of north-east Sumatra provide a classic illustration of this point. Although, in the absence of a fully-documented review of its history and organisation, it rarely receives notice, a similar plantation industry also developed in what is now the Malaysian State of Sabah in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Roughly the size of Ireland, Sabah — then known as North Borneo — was administered from 1881 until 1946 by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company and this tobacco industry was of crucial significance in the economic history of the Company's territory. “Tobacco in the eighties,” wrote Rutter half a century ago, “played an even more important part in the destinies of the country than rubber has in later years. Until ousted by rubber it was the country's foremost planting industry…” This survey of the tobacco industry of North Borneo has a double objective therefore; it investigates the role of the industry in the process of economic development in the State and also seeks to indicate the particular features of this form of plantation agriculture.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 88 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1973

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

1 Jackson, James C., ”Towards an Understanding of Plantation Agriculture“, Area, No. 4, 1969, pp. 36–41Google Scholar.

2 The papers of the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company have survived and contain much rarely-used data on the territory's economic and social history. They are now housed the Public Records Office, London, as C.O.874/1–1014; subsequent references to these papers merely cite a brief title of the item and quote the appropriate number.

3 Rutter, O., British North Borneo: An Account of Its History, Resources and Native Tribes, London, 1922, p. 249Google Scholar.

4 Burkill, I.H., A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, London, 1935, Vol. 2, pp. 1551–3Google Scholar; Wernstedt, F. L. and Spencer, J. E., The Philippine Island World, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967, pp. 223–4Google Scholar.

5 John, S. St., Life in the Forests of the Far East; or Travels in Northern Borneo, London, 1863, p. 258Google Scholar; Crespigny, C.A.C. de, “Notes on Borneo”, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 2, No. IV, 1858, p. 349Google Scholar; Daly, D. D., “Explorations in British North Borneo, 1883–87“, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1888, pp. 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar and 15; and Whitehead, J., Exploration of Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo, London, 1893, p. 107Google Scholar.

6 Dobree, T.S., “Report on North Borneo”, 10, 1878Google Scholar, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library, Borneo File No. 1, and Mayne, R. C. “Summary of Explorations in British North Borneo”, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1888, pp. 134–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 , Rutter, op. cit., pp. 256–8Google Scholar.

8 Donop, L. S. von, Superintendant of Agriculture, “Report on the Agricultural Prospects of North Borneo”, 1882Google Scholar. (CO. 874/88).

9 ‘Diary of Mrs. L.S. von Donop's Travels in Sabah in 1882’, Sabah Society Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1968, p. 246Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., p. 225.

11 Government of Sabah and Chinese Sabah Land Farming Company: Deed, 27th December, 1882, Kudat. (CO. 874/61A).

12 British North Borneo Co. and Chinese Sabah Land Farming Company: Deed, 31st January, 1885. (CO. 874/58A). The Chartered Company agreed to make a loan to the Farming Company over a period of twenty-one months from 1st July, 1884, not exceeding $52,000. The Governor, with the sanction of the Court of Directors, was authorized to loan money ‘sufficient for the cultivation, management and upkeep of land and premises… for getting, preparing and the transport and shipment of the tobacco crop“.

13 Letter from Messrs Salmon and Gluckstein, June 4th, 1886, quoted in Cook, A., ‘Notes on the Recent Development, Exploration and Commercial Geography of British North Borneo’, Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society, 1890, p. 66Google Scholar.

14 Tregonning, K..G., A History of Modem Sabah, Singapore, 1965, p. 85Google Scholar.

15 Treacher, W.H., ‘British Borneo: Sketches of Brunei, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo’, JSBRS, No. 21, 06, 1890, pp. 81–82Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 74.

17 Quoted in ‘Report of the Fourth Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Company’, 17th December, 1884. (CO. 874/88).

18 Extract from Governor Treacher's Report, dated 10th April, 1886. (CO. 874/88).

19 , Treacher, op. cit., pp. 74–5Google Scholar.

20 “Memorandum on Tobacco Planting”, The Handbook of the State of British North Borneo, London, 1890Google Scholar; , Treacher, op. cit., p. 59Google Scholar.

21 , Rutter, op. cit., pp. 249–250Google Scholar.

22 Eg. Agreement between British North Borneo Co. and Baron von Stein, 31st December, 1886. (CO. 874/62A). See also , Treacher, op. cit., p. 82Google Scholar.

23 Report of the Tenth Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Co., 7th December, 1887. (CO. 874/88).

24 See, for example, British North Borneo Co. and C.J.G. van der Hoeven: Indenture, 5th March, 1888. (CO. 874/62A).

25 Letter from Managing Director to Secretary, dated 25th March, 1925. (CO. 874/432).

26 Governor's Despatch No. 295, 12th May, 1929. (CO. 874/432).

27 Administration Report of the State of North Borneo, 1913, p. 13.

28 See , Tregonning, op. cit. pp. 50–51Google Scholar.

29 For a time, a newly-established agricultural export industry usually tends to augment imports more rapidly than it contributes to a rise in exports, principally because its equipment and other requirements have to be imported before it can undertake active production and, even with a relatively short-maturing crop such as tobacco there is a time-lag between commencing a plantation and the first exports.

30 Report of the Fifteenth Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Co., 9th July, 1890. (CO. 874/88).

31 Views of British North Borneo, 1899.

32 Jackson, James C., Planters and Speculators: Chinese and European Agricultural Enterprise in Malaya, 1786–1921, Kuala Lumpur, 1968Google Scholar.

33 Handbook of the State of North Borneo, London, 1921, p. 72Google Scholar.

34 , Rutter, op. cit., p. 133Google Scholar.

35 Report of the Nineteenth Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Co., 5th July, 1892. (CO. 874/88).

36 Report of the Twenty-first Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Co., 4th July, 1893. (CO. 874/88).

37 Rutter, op. cit., pp. 137–8.

38 The Chartered Company guaranteed a loan of £5,000 to the Tobacco Company of British North Borneo hi June, 1891. (CO. 874/58A).

39 In February, 1890, the Chartered Company leased 50,000 acres for tobacco and another 50,000 acres for the cultivation of other crops to the Central Borneo Company; in return it received £20,000 in cash and 10,000 fully paid up shares of £1 each. (CO. 874/62A).

40 Report of the Twenty-First Half-Yearly Meeting of the British North Borneo Company, 4th July, 1893. (CO. 874/88).

41 Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 4347 Annual Series, The Trade of British North Borneo, London, 1898, p. 4.

42 State of North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1908, p. 1.

43 Details for 1909 are derived from State of North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1909, p. 1.

44 , Rutter, op. cit., p. 39Google Scholar.

45 Ibid., p. 41.

46 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1911, p. 1.

47 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1913, pp. 1–2.

48 Comparative Statement of Imports and Exports for 1913–14. (CO. 874/88).

49 Handbook of the State of North Borneo, 1921, p. 74.

50 Governor's Despatch No. 249, 26th November, 1925. (CO. 874/432).

51 Minute dated 4th September, 1929. (CO. 874/432).

52 Clutterbuck, W.J., About Ceylon and Borneo, London, 1891, p. 189Google Scholar.

53 Angier, A.G., The Far East Revisited, London, 1908, p. 48Google Scholar.

54 , Rutter, op. cit., p. 31Google Scholar.

55 , Tregonning, op. cit., p. 51Google Scholar.

57 See, for example, British North Borneo Co. and C.J.G. van der Hoeven: Indenture. 5th March, 1888. (CO. 874J62A).

58 , Rutter, op. cit., pp. 40–41Google Scholar.

58 Akehurst, B.C., Tobacco, London, 1968, p. 274Google Scholar; , Rutter, op. cit., p. 251Google Scholar.

59 The following outline of operations on the tobacco estates has been compiled from a variety of sources; see particularly , Treacher, op. cit., pp. 76–80Google Scholar and , Rutter, op. cit., pp. 249–253Google Scholar.

60 Lee, Y.L. “The Chinese in Sabah (North Borneo)”, Erdkunde, Band XIX, Lfg. 4, 1965, pp. 308–9Google Scholar.

61 , Angier, op. cit., p. 48Google Scholar.

62 , Treacher, op. cit., p. 81Google Scholar; , Rutter, op. cit., p. 31Google Scholar.

63 Ordinance 6 of 1913: , Ladang, The Ordinances and Rules of the State of North Borneo, 1881–1936, Sandakan, 1936, p. 74Google Scholar.

64 Pelzer, K.J., “Land Utilisation in the Humid Tropics: Agriculture”, Proceedings of the Ninth Pacific Science Congress, 1957, p. 128Google Scholar.

65 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1910, p. 4.

66 Governor's Despatch No. 233, 28th March, 1919. (CO. 874/478). See also , Rutter, op. cit., p. 38Google Scholar.

67 Handbook of the State of North Borneo, 1921, p. 75.

68 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1927, p. 5.

69 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1929, p. 6.

70 North Borneo: Annual Report on Agriculture, 1916, p. 4.

71 Garner, W. W., The Production of Tobacco, New York, 1951, p. 470.Google Scholar