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The Effect of Export Cultivations in Nineteenth-century Java

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Robert Van Niel
Robert Van Niel
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii
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Extract

When in 1913 Count van Hogendorp edited the letters and papers of his ancestor Willem, who had served in Java as one of the secretaries of the Commissioner General Du Bus from 1825 to 1829, he characterized the early nineteenth century in Java as a time of ‘systems.’ His use of this word was not meant to be complimentary. Ancestor Willem had taken great pride in being the inspirational genius behind one such ‘system’; one, incidentally, which was not adopted.The characterization of the time seems to me particularly relevant as an opening wedge into the contents and theme of this paper, for all 'systems' relative to nineteenth-century Java had at their core the stimulation of export commodities derived from the agricultural process. A system, as I use the term here and as it was used by nineteenth-century policy planners, was an orderly andlogical arrangement of thoughts and objects into a complex .whole according to some scheme which drew its inspiration from fundamental economic and social principles. Such systems for Java were devised bypersons in positions of high authority either in Europe or in Java on the basis of what they had seen or heard about Java. Invariably the purpose of the system was to make the island of Java profitable to its European‘possessor’; the prevailing colonial theory holding that through treatyand conquest the European power had gained sovereign rights over the land and its people and should make use of them in accordance with its best judgment. Such judgment was embodied in a ‘system’ which hopefully provided benefits for both the possessor and the possessed.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , February 1981 , pp. 25 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 Mrvan Hogendorp, H. Graaf (ed.), Willem van Hogendorp in Nederlandsch-Indie, 1825–1830 ('s-Gravenhage, 1913), p. 4.Google Scholar

2 The charter of the East India Company was terminated by the Estates General of the Dutch Republic at the end of 1795 but was then extended by the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic to the end of 1799. In 1800 the Company's territories were brought under the administration of the State.Google Scholar

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5 While such matters as declining vitality and morale are difficult to document, I have been much influenced in my thinking by Ricklefs, M. C., Modern Javanese Historical Tradition (London, 1978).Google Scholar

6 Many Europeans, mostly Hollanders, were writing all sorts of things about what they had seen or heard about Java. It is interesting to note, however, that in the first half of the nineteenth century the two English writers, Crawfurd and Raffles, were most frequently quoted and regarded as the leading authorities. However great our admiration and indebtedness to these two observers, their information about village life in Java leaves many questions unanswered. See: John, Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1820),Google Scholar and Stamford, Raffles Thomas, The History of Java, 2 vols (London, 1817).Google Scholar

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8 It is not easy to obtain an estimate for the size of the supravillage group in the nineteenth century. An 1874 report on Kedu Residency estimates the actual authorities at 0.18% of the total population. However, when village administrators, religious officials, and others who were regarded as socially above the peasant masses were added to this the total comes to 15%.Google ScholarDe Residentie Kadoe naar de uitkomsten der Statistieke opname en andere officiele bescheiden… (Batavia, 1874), pp. 72–3.Google ScholarInformation gathered in Cirebon in 1859 puts the supravillage elite, both active and retired, at 0.55% of the total male population. This source estimates the village administration and religious functionaries (i.e., persons free of work obligation) at about 2% of the adult male population. Netherlands State Archives (ARA), Ministerie Koloniën, Verbaal 12/18/1861, Nr. 52.Google Scholar

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18 For interesting concepts about the methods and devices used by the Javanese elite see: Wertheim, W. F., Indonesië van vorstenrijk tot neo-kolonie (Amsterdam, 1978), pp. 42–51;Google ScholarHeather, Sutherland, ‘Between Conflict and Accommodation: History, Colonialism, Politics and Southeast Asia,’ Review of Indonesia and Malayan Affairs, XII, 1 (June 1978), 1–25.Google Scholar

19 Without changing the provisions of the Fundamental Law which allowed rental of land, the government (Ind. besluit 25 February 1840 Nr. 2) forbade rentals which could operate to the disadvantage of the government's sugar cultivations. This greatly restricted new leaseholds until after 1855 (Ind. besluit 8 September 1855 Nr. 2) when villages were allowed to rent up to one-fifth of their lands for free sugar plantings. In 1856 (Stbl. Nr. 64) the rental of unused lands was again freely permitted.Google Scholar

20 The best critical account in English of the System is Day, C., The Policy and Administration of the Dutch in Java (New York, 1904).Google Scholar

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24 Staat der Verleende Voorschotten aan de Suiker Fabrijkanten en hetgeen daarop onder Ultimo December 1833 nog aantezuiveren bleef, ARA Ministerie van Koloniën Nr. 3203 shows that advances had been made in the early years of the System to Javanese villages in Jepara and Javanese individuals in Surabaya. A report by the Director of Cultivations, B. J. Elias, Aantooning der op Java gevestigde Suiker Etablissementen ten gevolge van gesloten Contracten met het Gouvernement, dd. Buitenzorg 11 Sep 1834, continues to show some small Javanese operators. Ibid. These Javanese names vanish from the later lists of sugar contractors.

25 A letter from Van der Vinne to Baud, dd. 21 April 1841, indicates that from the mid 1830s to the early 1840s more than two-thirds of the import of goods and specie into Java was in private hands and less than one-third in the hands of the NHM. ARA Ministerie van Koloniën Nr. 3204.Google Scholar

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27 This point is nicely developed in Fasseur, C., ‘Some Remarks on the Cultivation System in Java,’ Acta Historiae Neerlandicae, Vol. X, pp. 143–59.Google Scholar

28 Changing Economy in Indonesia, Vol. 1, p. 21.Google Scholar

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40 From 1870 to 1900 sugar exports rose from 172,000 to 744,000 metric tons, tobacco from 12,500 to 78,000 metric tons, and tea from 1,540 to 6,640 metric tons. Only coffee, which was still under government control, declined from 90,000 to 54,000 metric tons, but this was due to the coffee blight of the 1880s.Google Scholar

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42 The massive ‘Diminishing Prosperity’ investigation reports contain vast amounts of raw information which awaits careful historical analysis. By the time the printed reports appeared conditions had generally improved so the data contained in the reports were never acted upon. Onderzoek naar de mindere welvaart der Inlandsche bevolking op Java en Madoera, 10 vols (Batavia, 1905–1914).Google ScholarSee esp. De Volkswelvaart op Java en Madoera; Eindverhandeling, Xa, Pt I (1914), pp. 552ff.Google Scholar