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Buitenzorg in 1805: The Role of Money and Credit in a Colonial Frontier Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Peter Boomgaard
Peter Boomgaard
Affiliation:
Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
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Extract

By an edict of 15 February 1805 the Governor-General ordered the Chinese moneylenders from the town of Buitenzorg to report to the Commissioner of Native Affairs how much money the inhabitants of the Buitenzorg Regency owed them. Non-compliance with this order would result in cancellation of the debts. The Commissioner compiled a list, based on these reports, dated 30 June 1805. In 45 pages, consisting of 672 entries, the debtors of and debts to 26 Chinese are listed. The debtors and debts are listed under their creditor, the Chinese moneylender. The entries are probably given as they were reported by the Chinese themselves, although there is no logic in the ordering of the names. An ‘ideal’ entry yields the following data: name of moneylender, name of debtor, his place of residence, year that the debt was incurred, amount of money borrowed with sawahs (wet rice fields) as collateral, number of pétak (embanked ricefield) sawah, amount borrowed with buffaloes as a collateral, number of buffaloes, amount of cash borrowed (without securities), amount of credit for merchandise, amount of annual interest, number of years paid, number of years still to be paid.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 33 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

Research in the Arsip Nasional in Jakarta was made possible by a grant from the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO) and by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. I am indebted to the personnel of the Arsip Nasional for their kind help, especially to Ristin Bratawidagda, head of the reading-room.

In this paper the inhabitants of Java will be indicated with the term Javanese, even though in many cases they might have been Sundanese; another fictitious notion that in this paper will be upheld is that the VOC or Dutch East India Company still existed after 1800. In reality it had been taken over by the Dutch Government, but the sources still refer to the Company, and there was hardly any change until the arrival of Governor-General Daendels.

1 Chijs, J. A. van der, Nederlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602–1811. 's-Gravenhage, 1885/1900, vol. XIV, Edict (Plakaat) 4.11.1806. Edicts published in the Plakaatboek will be quoted from now on as P. XIV, E. 4.11.1806.Google Scholar

2 Arsip Nasional (ARNAS), Arsip Daerah (AD) Priangan, 11: notitie der pretensien van de Chineesen …, P. Engelhard, 1805.

3 Burgers, D. H., De ontsluiting van Java's binnenland voor het wereldverkeer. (diss.) Wageningen, 1939, 1–4.Google Scholar

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6 ARA, Archief Ministerie van Koloniën (AMK), Verbaal 27.1.1848, 24: Chronologische opgave…, 1847, for more details on murdered landowners.

7 Idem. and ARA, Ministerie van Koophandel en Koloniën (MKK), 159: various reports on the Ommelanden and the Priangan, 1804/8.

8 Idem., P. XIV, E. 12.6.1807; Engelhard, N.: Overzigt van den Staat der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Bezittingen, onder het bestuur van GG H. W. Daendels. 's Gravenhage, 1816. 78.Google Scholar

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10 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 137 and 154; P. XIII, E. 16.4.1802.Google Scholar

11 Wilde, A. de, De Preanger Regentschappen op Java gelegen (Amsterdam, 1830).Google Scholar

12 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 364Google Scholar; ARA, AMK, Exh. 24.10.1861, 209a Geheim: Koffierapport, P. H. van Lawick van Pabst, 1818.

13 Berg, N. P. van den: Munt-, crediet- en bankwezen; handel en scheepvaart in Nederlandsch Indië ('s-Gravenhage, 1907), 58ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Haan, De, Priangan, I, 192Google Scholar; Het muntwesen van Nederlandsch Indië (Amsterdam, 1851), 20.Google Scholar

14 ARA, MKK, 147: Generaal Rapport der Commissie tot Inspectie der gezamentlijke Jacc. Regentschappen en Preanger Bovenlanden (Thalman, Smit, Bauer), 1808.

15 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 400–4.Google Scholar

16 Various reports, 1804/8.

17 Wilde, De: De Preanger, 90 and 222Google Scholar. De Wilde has mixed his languages: jalma is Sundanese, burung is Malay.

18 Various reports, 1804/8.

19 Most information on the high nobility is derived from Haan, De, Priangan, I, 131–80Google Scholar; additional information from Generaal Rapport, 1808.

20 P. XIV, E. 2.9.1806.

21 Generaal Rapport, 1808, has Cakradiningrat; apparently a mistake.

22 ARA, Collectie Van Alphen/Engelhard (Coll. v. A/E), 1900, 118: Dagregister P. Engelhard, 1802; Haan, De, Priangan, I, 384Google Scholar; Adatrechtbundel VIII ('s-Gravenhage, 1914), 31 and 44.Google Scholar

23 Sutherland, H., The Making of a Bureaucratic Elite (Singapore, etc., 1979), 13.Google Scholar

24 ARA, Coll. v. A/E, 1900, 117: Notitie van de Coffijplantagiën in het Regentschap Buitenzorg, P. Engelhard, 1801; ARNAS: AD Priangan, 10: Lijst van coffijplantagiën in het Regentschap Buitenzorg, P. Engelhard, 1803; ARNAS: AD Buitenzorg, 44/4: Koffierapport, 1810.

25 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 156Google Scholar dates the introduction from 1804, but a source from 1803 (lijst van coffijplantagiën) mentions it already; Adatrechtsbundel VIII, 4; see also P. XIV, E. 15.2.1805.Google Scholar

26 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 155.Google Scholar

27 Haan, De, Priangan, I, 187 Generaal Rapport, 1808.Google Scholar

28 Various reports, 1804/8; Engelhard, Overzigt, 77.

29 Procl. 19.8.1814, quoted in Haan, De, Priangan, III, 668.Google Scholar

30 ARA, Coll. v A/E, 1900: 100: Aankomende missiven van de Posthouders en Opzieners uit de Bovenlanden, 1794.

31 Bree, L. de: Gedenkboek van de Javasche Bank, 1828/1928, Weltevreden, s.a. (1), I, passimGoogle Scholar; Berg, Van den, Munt-, Crediet- en Bankwezen, passimGoogle Scholar; Haan, De, Priangan, III, 730/36.Google Scholar

32 JCzn, J. Hageman: Geschiedenis van het Bataafsch en Hollandsch Gouvernement, TBG, IV (1855), 366.Google Scholar

33 P. XV, E. 9.8.1808.

34 Haan, De, Priangan, IV, 863ff; Balubur and the pasar were sold to the Government.Google Scholar

35 Haan, De, Priangan, IV ff; P. XIV, E. 4.11.1806Google Scholar; Engelhard, , Overzigt, 47 on prices; on wages: P. XIV, E. 26.8.1806 and E. 5.5.1808.Google Scholar

36 In order to calculate ratios I used the original data and not the corrected ones. Therefore I use a population figure of 20,000. Two sources report a rice production of 120,000 pikuls, but they both state that Kampungbaru. with a production of 40,000 pikuls was not included in this figure. However, 160,000 pikuls is not likely, because a) an incredible high production per capita would be the result, and b) the reported yield of the cuke would be much too low. I therefore assume that the data of Kampungbaru are included in the Buitenzorg figures. This supposition is supported by a third source, which estimates the total padi production of Buitenzorg, including Kampungbaru, at 12,106 caengs. See Generaal Rapport, 1808; Hageman, , Geschiedenis, , 367Google Scholar; Engelhard, , Overzigt, , 111Google Scholar; ARA, Collection Schneither, 72: Engelhard, N.: Kort Verhaal…, 1816.Google Scholar

37 For the calculation of median and modus I have constructed a frequency table with categories 0–5, 5–10, etc. So the category with the highest frequency is 0–5, containing 25% of all debtors.

38 ARA, Coll. v A/E, 1916, 44: Engelhard, Dagregister N., 1791.Google Scholar

39 Voorstellen, 1794.Google Scholar

40 Generaal Rapport, 1808.Google Scholar

41 P. XVI, E. 7.3.1810.

42 Journal of the South Sea Society, IX (1953): the early accounts of Chinese in Batavia (a revised and annotated edition), 1–63. I have to thank Michële Boin for this reference. ARA, Coll. v A/E, 1916, 53: Advies over de staat dersuiker cultuur, 1800. The Chinese names will be rendered as found in the sources.Google Scholar

43 Generaal Rapport, 1808.

44 Engelhard, , Overzigt, 111.Google Scholar

45 ARNAS: AD Jacc. & Preanger, 3/2: Telling 1795. ARA, Coll. v A/E, 1900, 263: Report Moltman. 1809.

46 Ki is ambiguous: it can be short for aki. grandfather, but also a honorific for a local jago, or even the title of a Muslim functionary or a pesantren student, e.g. Ki Santri. I am indebted to Agrar Sudrajat, C. D. Grijns, Hasan Djafar, J. Noorduijn and Tundjung for their help with Javanese, Malay and Sundanese gender indicators.

47 ARNAS, AD Buitenzorg 51/2: Lists of the population of some Private Estates, 1815. Ma as a male gender indicator can be short for (r) ama or mama (father) or etymologically related to mamak (father) and mamang (uncle).

48 The four categories of debt do not add up to 672, the total number of entries, because some entries consisted of more than one category.

49 Voorstellen, 1794.Google Scholar

50 P. Carey: Waiting for the Ratu Adil (Just King): The Javanese Village Community on the Eve of the Java War (1825–30). Paper prepared for the Leiden Anglo-Dutch Conference on Comparative Colonial History, 1981. An earlier version of this article was presented at the fifth KOTA Conference, Leiden, 7–8 June 1984. I am grateful to Peter Carey, Wouter Hugenholtz, Heather Sutherland and Judith Van Oosterom for their critical remarks.