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Sugar Factory Workers and the Emergence of ‘Free Labour’ in Nineteenth-Century Java

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

R. E. Elson
R. E. Elson
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
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Extract

The Cultivation System, introduced by the Dutch in Java in 1830, was grounded on peasant coercion. Capitalizing on the colonial government's ability to force peasants to produce large, cheap and regular quantities of tropical agricultural goods and to labour unrelentingly at a great variety of other tasks, the System succeeded in its aim of transforming Java from a financial millstone around Holland's neck into a highly profitable resource. Coercion, in the eyes of the Cultivation System's founder and guiding light, Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch (1830–33), was the most appropriate and effective means of creating wealth from Java's peasant masses. The power of incentive alone, he argued, had failed in the recent past to spur the Javanese to greater productive activity because the peasant had not reached the required stage of social development. ‘Never forget’, he remarked in 1830, ‘that the javan has progressed no further in intellectual terms than our children of 12 or 13 years old, and possesses even much less knowledge than they do. They must be led and governed as children…’. Van den Bosch's branch of coercion, however, was not a blunt instrument. It was based upon the time-worn notion of domesticating the indigenous elite and employing its customary authority over the peasantry to achieve Dutch ends. Under the overall direction of the colonial authorities and their officials, then, peasants were to be ‘led and governed’ by their own leaders, for whom, Van den Bosch claimed, they possessed a ‘childlike respect’.

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Articles
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 139 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

I should like to thank Dr J. G. Butcher, Dr M. R. Fernando, Dr J. Ingleson, Dr G. R. Knight and Mr R. Hatley for their comments and advice, and the Australian Research Grants Scheme and the School of Modern Asian Studies, Griffith University, for research funding. This is a substantially revised version of a paper presented at the Eighth International Economic History Congress, Budapest, 1982.

1 Fasseur, C., Kultuurstelsel en Koloniale Baten (Universitaire Pers, Leiden, 1975), ch. VIII, esp. pp. 118–20.Google Scholar

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3 ‘Rapport van den Gouvernor-Generaal’, p. 358.Google Scholar

4 Writing to John Crawfurd many years later, Baud explained that ‘the experience acquired [after 1816] tended to prove that native industry, unless propelled by the ruling power, seldom leaves the narrow circle of the very limited want of the people’ (letter Baud to Crawfurd, 2 October 1857, Collectie Baud, no. 889, Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague [hereafter ARADH]).

5 ‘Rapport van den gouverneur-generaal ad interim, aan den minister van kolonien, omtrent eene inspektie-reis over Java’ [1834], in van Deventer, S., Bijdragen tot de Kennis van het Landelijk Stelsel op Java (Joh. Noman en Zoon, Zalt-Bommel, 1865–1866). vol. 2, p. 677.Google Scholar

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7 Van Deventer, , Bijdragen, vol. 2, pp. 356ff.Google Scholar The government's anxiety to attract manufacturers is exemplified by the circular of the Director of Cultivations, van Sevenhoven, J., 9 02 1832Google Scholar, published as Bijlaag B of Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek der (bij besluit van den Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch Indie van 8 December 1853, No 10) benoemde Commissie voor de Opname der Verschillende Suikerfabrieken op Java (n.p., n.d.), p. 3.Google Scholar For an example of an early contract, see that made with T. B. Holland in Van Deventer, Bijdragen, vol. 2, p. 176.Google Scholar The generous conditions are attested to in a ‘Nota’ written by E. A. van Vloten, owner of the Pangka factory in Tegal Residency (Archive of the Minister of Colonies [hereafter AMK], Verbaal [hereafter V] 21 April 1849/9, ARADH).

8 [J. van Sevenhoven] ‘Over de Kultures op het Eiland Java en voornamelijk van Producten voor de markt van Europa’, Exhibitum [hereafter Exh] 8 August 1840/265 Geh, ARADH.

9 ‘Kultuur Verslag’, 1834Google Scholar, AMK, Exh 15 October 1835/MI Kab Geh, ARADH.

10 Fasseur, , Kultuurstelsel, pp. 66–7.Google Scholar

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12 ‘Kultuur Verslag’, 1834.Google Scholar

13 ‘Kultuur Verslag’, 1837Google Scholar, AMK, V 2 April 1840/M5 Kab, ARADH; K. van Gorkom, ‘Historische Schets van de Suikerindustrie op java’, Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbouw in Nederlandsch-Indie [hereafter TNLNI], vol. 23, 1879, pp. 300–1.Google Scholar

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16 Van Deventer, , Bijdragen, vol. 2, pp. 159, 339–40.Google Scholar

17 To ease manufacturers' recruitment problems, the 1836 model contract allowed that voluntary workers employed during the season be exempted from compulsory public works labour (herendiensten) provided manufacturers reimburse the government for the costs of the labour foregone (Van Gorkom, , ‘Historische Schets’, pp. 304–5).Google Scholar

18 Van Gorkom, , ‘Historische Schets’, p. 310.Google Scholar

19 See the conditions of contract for the factories Pangka and Comal in Tegal in ‘Staat der verschillende kultuur-inrigtingen op Java onder ultimo 1848. Suiker Kultuur. La. B.’, AMK, Exh 9 May 1851/4, ARADH.

20 Koloniaal Verslag [hereafter KV], 1852, p. 88.Google Scholar

21 See, eg, KV, 1850, p. 65.Google Scholar

22 Based on information contained in the monographs of individual sugar factories in Probolinggo and Pasuruan Residencies. These form a small part of the voluminous materials compiled by the Umbgrove Commission of Inquiry into the government sugar system, AMK, Exh 30 April 1859/50, ARADH [hereafter Umbgrove Commission].

23 From the money he paid each of his 19 assistants a monthly wage of f8.50 (‘Monographic van Paiton’, Umbgrove Commission).

24 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Pasocroean), p. 4Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Rembang), p. 2.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., Bijlaag, IJ (Soerabaija), p. 4Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Cheribon), p. 4Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Kedirie), p. 3.Google Scholar

26 ‘Beantwoording der 12 vraagpunten opgenomen in de kabinetsmissive van Zijne Excellentie den Gouverneur Generaal dd. 14 Julij 1854, No 113b’ [Pasuruan Residency], Umbgrove Commission.

27 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Probolinggo), p. 2Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Banjoemas), p. 1.Google Scholar

28 See, e.g., ibid., Bijlaag, IJ (Bezoekic), pp. 2–3Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Samarang), pp. 3–4Google Scholar; Bijlaag, IJ (Japara), p. 3.Google Scholar

29 According to the Resident of Jepara, it was not until 1862 that his predecessor made the first serious attempt to obtain voluntary labourers in the Residency (letter to Governor-General, 29 April 1864, AMK, Exh 3 August 1864/44, ARADH). Again, the Resident of Probolinggo argued in the strongest terms in 1861 that it was simply impossible for manufacturers to dispense with the government's assistance in obtaining the necessary number of workers (letter to Governor-General, 9 November 1861, AMK, Exh 8 August 1863/22, ARADH).

30 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858, AMK., Exh 28 November 1861/41, ARADH. See also ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Kultuur Verslag, 1855’, Local Archive [hereafter AD], Pasuruan 23. Arsip Nasional, Jakarta [hereafter ANJ]; KV, 1850, p. 65Google Scholar; KV, 1856, p. 103.Google Scholar

31 Letter Resident of Tegal to H. P. Hoevenaar. 19 May 1848 (and Van Vloten's accompanying Nota), AMK, V 21 04 1849/9Google Scholar, ARADH; ‘Kultuur Verslag’, 1848, AMK, Exh 26 08 1850/8.Google Scholar ARADH; letter O. C. Holmberg de Beekvelt to Minister of Colonies, 8 May 1849, AMK, V 23 05 1849/1.Google Scholar ARADH; ‘Nota’ accompanying letter Governor-General to Minister of Colonies, 14 September 1849, AMK, V 5 12 1849/3Google Scholar, ARADH; letter Governor-General to Minister of Colonies, 19 June 1850. AMK, V 4 11 1850/3.Google Scholar ARADH; letter Director of Cultivations to Governor-General. 28 April 1853, AMK, V 27 03 1856/5Google Scholar, ARADH; Fasseur, , Kultuurstelsel, pp. 72–3. 162–3.Google Scholar

32 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; letter Resident of Pekalongan to Director of Internal Administration, 20 February 1869. AMK, Exh 7 March. 1870/1882, ARADH.

33 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858.

34 ‘Contract’. AD, Pasuruan 9, ANJ.

35 ‘Nota omtrent de aangelegenheden der Suikerkultuur in de residentie Pasocrocan (opname 1863)’, Archive of the Director of Cultivations [hereafter ADK], no. 525, ANJ.

36 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Japara), p. 3Google Scholar; ‘Rapport, betreffende de Suikerkultuur in de Residentie Japara’, AMK, Exh 16 05 1864/1862, ARADH.Google Scholar

37 Hasselman, B. R. P., Mijne Ervaring als Fabriekant in de Binnenlanden van Java (Martinus Nijhoff, 's Gravenhage, 1862), p. 27.Google Scholar Hasselman added that some manufacturers were not above providing their itinerant workers with opportunities to dispose of their wages recklessly, especially through gambling, thereby keeping them penniless and dependent upon the manufacturer for further income (p. 28). See also Burger, D. H.. Sociologisch-Economische Geschiedenis van Indonesie (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam, 1975), vol. 1, p. 110.Google Scholar

38 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Cheribon), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

39 ‘Nota omtrent de aangelegenheden der Suikerkultuur in de residentie Pasoeroean’; letter Resident of Semarang to Director of Internal Administration, 15 February 1869, AMK, Exh 7 03 1870/1882Google Scholar, ARADH; Knight, G. R.. ‘Capitalism, Commodities and the Transformation of Java’, paper presented at the Third National Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Griffith University, 1980, p. 22.Google Scholar

40 Indications are that these people were often in a majority in Javanese villages in the mid-nineteenth century. M. R. Fernando has calculated that more than half the farmers in Cirebon Residency in 1858 were landless (‘Peasants and Plantation Economy: The Social Impact of the European Plantation Economy in Cirebon Residency from the Cultivation System to the End of the First Decade of the Twentieth Century’, PhD dissertation, Monash University, 1982, p. 160Google Scholar). Even in the sugar districts of Pasuruan Residency, allegedly one of the most prosperous regions of java, 40 per cent of peasant households had no shares in village rice lands (calculated from statistics contained in the monographs for Pasuruan Residency, Umbgrove Commission). The author of the article ‘Rijst’ in Veth, P. J. (ed.), Aardrijkskundig en Statistisch Woordenboek van Nederlandsch Indie (P. N. van Kampen, Amsterdam, 1869), vol. 3, pp. 45–96Google Scholar, while using an admittedly crude measuring stick, comes to similar conclusions for most Residencies of Java.

41 ‘Algemeen Verslag der Residentie Besoeki over het jaar 1834’, AD, Besuki 15, ANJ; Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Probolingo), p. 3Google Scholar; Bijlaag IJ (Bezoekie), p. 2Google Scholar; KV, 1856, p. 104Google Scholar; Hageman, J., ‘Over de Nijverheid in Zuidoostelijk Java’, TNLNI, vol. 8, 1862, p. 44.Google Scholar

42 ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Bijlagen behoorende tot het Kultuur Verslag van 1859’, AD, Pasuruan 23, ANJ.

43 ‘Contract Fabriekskoelies’ in ‘Copie-Arbeidsenquete Suikerindustrie van het Algemeen Syndicaat van Suikerfabrikanten in Ned.-Indie. Fabrieksarbeid’, Koloniale Bank Archives, no. 1258, ARADH. See also Levert, Ph., Inheemsche Arbeid in de Java-Suikerindustrie (H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, 1934), p. 119Google Scholar, and Burger, , Sociologisch-Economische Geschiedenis, vol. 2, p. 72.Google Scholar

44 Letter Resident of Pasuruan to Director of Internal Administration, 2 November 1868, AMK, Exh 7 03 1870/1882, ARADH.Google Scholar

45 ‘Suikerkontrakten te Passoeroean’ [by H. J. Lion], AD, Pasuruan 20, ANJ; letter Van Delden to Governor-General, 4 August 1868, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82 ARADH; van Alphen, H., Java en het Kultuurstelsel (W. P. van Stockum, s' Gravenhage, 1869–1870), vol. 1, pp. 25–6.Google Scholar It may be relevant in this regard that in Pasuruan Residency, Chinese manufacturers used the least numbers of forced labourers (‘Nota omtrent de aangelegenheden’).

46 ‘Opium Farms in Nineteenth-Century Java: Institutional Continuity and Change in a Colonial Society, 1860–1910’, PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1977, p. 54.Google Scholar Rush suggests that opium was sought after for its stimulative as much as its relaxative qualities; if so, its widespread use would have been highly appropriate for sugar factory labour with its requirements for great physical exertion and long hours which sometimes involved a 12-hour night shift.

47 The Resident of Jepara noted in 1846 that when the price of rice was high, manufacturers had little difficulty getting voluntary wage workers (Anon., ‘Algemeen overzigt van den toestand van Nederlandsch Indie, gedurende het jaar 1846’, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie [hereafter TNI], vol. 10, 1847, p. 383).Google Scholar Knight (‘Capitalism and Commodity Production in Java’, in Alavi, H. et al. , Capitalism and Colonial Production (Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1982), p. 140)Google Scholar, cites evidence from Pekalongan about 1857 when crop failure seems to have had the same effect.

48 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Japara), p. 3.Google Scholar

49 ‘Rapport, betreffende de Suiker Kultuur in de Residentie Japara’.

50 ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Kultuur Verslag 1860’, AD, Pasuruan 24, ANJ.

51 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858.

52 In 1862 and 1863 there were cases reported of forced labourers being delivered before the milling season for such things as factory repair (‘Advies van den Raad van Nederlandsch Indie uitgebragt in de vergadering van den 19den Augustus 1864’, AMK, Exh 11 February 1865/1, ARADH. See also Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858). The practice was not in force everywhere. In 1835, for example, the Resident of Pasuruan had stopped the provision of forced labourers to factories in Bangil Regency when the season ended so that peasants could devote themselves fully to the tasks of wet season rice cultivation (letter Resident of Pasuruan to Bangil Sugar Manufacturers, 8 February 1835, AD, Pasuruan 1835 (bundle otherwise unnumbered), ANJ).

53 Letter Resident of Madiun to Governor-General, 28 March 1866, AMK, Exh 31 July 1866/46, ARADH; ‘Kultuur Verslag. Residentie Pasoeroean 1866’, AD, Pasuruan 31, ANJ.

54 Letter Holmberg de Beckvelt to Minister to Colonies, 8 May 1849.

55 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Cheribon), pp. 4–5Google Scholar; ‘Rapport over de Suiker Kultuur in de residentie Cheribon. Inspectie gedaan in de maand Augustus 1863’, ADK, no. 525, ANJ; letter Resident of Madiun to Governor-General, 28 March 1866; ‘Memorie van de vereeniging van suikerfabriekanten in de residentie Pasoeroean’, reproduced in letter Resident of Pasuruan to Director of Cultivations, 4 April 1866, AMK, Exh 10 July 1866/50, ARADH.

56 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Governor-General, 14 March 1861. AMK, Exh 28 November 1861/41, ARADH, and sources mentioned in note 55.

57 ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Politick Verslag over 1862’, AD, Pasuruan 1, ANJ.

58 Letter Assistant-Inspector of Cultivations to Director of Cultivations 30 November 1835, Collectie Baud, no. 457, ARADH; Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Japara), p. 3Google Scholar; letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; Levert, , Inheemsche Arbeid, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

59 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; ‘Rapport over de Suiker Kultuur in de residentie Cheribon’; letter Resident of Banyumas to Governor-General, 6 July 1867, AMK, Exh 20 October 1868/2, ARADH; Knight, , ‘Capitalism and Commodity Production’, p. 140.Google Scholar

60 As far as I can ascertain, this remission was available only in Pasuruan before the 1860s. From 1864 it became much more widespread and appears to have facilitated the recruitment of contracted labourers somewhat, if only because wealthier peasants sometimes volunteered for factory work, gained their remission, and then employed poorer villagers to take their place at the factory (‘Nota omtrent de aangelcgenheden’; letter Resident of jepara to Governor-General, 12 April 1864, AMK, V 9 November 1864/193 Geh, ARADH; letter Resident of Cirebon to Director of Internal Administration, 4 March 1869, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH; Bijblad 1748 (1865); Mandere, Van de, ‘De Suikerindustrie op Java’, p. 283).Google Scholar

61 [J. van Sevenhoven], ‘Over de Heerendiensten waaraan de Javaan onderworpen is, en de middelen om dezen last te verminderen’, AMK, V 8 August 1840/268 Geh; Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Cheribon), p. 5Google Scholar; letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; letter Resident of Probolinggo to Director of Cultivations, 6 January 1864. V 25 November 1865/211 Geh, ARADH; Knight, , ‘Capitalism and Commodity Production’, p. 134.Google Scholar

62 KV, 1860, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

63 Monographs for Pasuruan and Probolinggo Residencies, Umbgrove Commission; Fasseur, , ‘Organisatie en sociaal-economische betekenis van de gouvernementssuiker kultuur in enkele residences op Java omstreeks 1850’, BKI, vol. 133, 1977, pp. 282–3Google Scholar; letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; letter Director of Cultivations to Governor-General, 2 March 1865, AMK, V 2 October 1865/H15 Kab, ARADH.

64 Stukken betreffende het Onderzoek, Bijlaag IJ (Samarang), pp. 3–4Google Scholar; Bijlaag IJ (Pekalongan), p. 2Google Scholar; Fasseur, , ‘Organisatie’, p. 280Google Scholar; ‘Rapport over de Suiker Kultuur in de residentie Cheribon’.

65 The Cileduk factory in Cirebon, for instance, used 350 forced labourers a day from the district of Ciawi, 20 kilometres away across hills and valleys (van Soest, G. H., ‘De vrijwillige suikerkultuur in de residentie Cheribon’, TNI, vol. 23, pt 2, 1861, p. 103Google Scholar). A similar situation obtained in Jepara. See Fasseur, , ‘Organisatie’, p. 280Google Scholar, and Van Deventer, , Bijdragen, vol. 3, p. 123.Google Scholar

66 O., ‘De suikerkultuur in' t oosten en westen van Java’, TNI, vol. 14, pt I, 1852, pp. 237–8.Google Scholar

67 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858: letter Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 5 April 1861, AMK, Exh 25 November 1865/211 Geh, ARADH; letter Resident of Jepara to Director of Cultivations, 29 March 1864, AMK, V 9 November 1864/193 Geh, ARADH; ‘Kultuur Verslag. Residentie Pasoeroean 1866’; Knight, ‘Capitalism and Commodity Production’, pp. 138–9. There were other arrangements, of course, which had the same goal. In Semarang, for example, a certain number of landholders arranged with their peers to bind themselves to the factories for the duration of the season. In return, the remaining landholders took over their compulsory public works labour duties and granted them a share of the crop payments received for the village's cane. In the same Residency, four villages set aside for the provision of factory labourers regularly employed unattached workers from Pekalongan and elsewhere to replace them in the factories. This allowed them to pursue uninterrupted their livelihood as fishermen (Stukken betreffende het Onderzoeg, Bijlaag IJ (Samarang), pp. 3–4).Google Scholar

68 See Fasseur, Kultuurstelsel, especially ch. VII and following chapters.

69 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; letter Resident of Surabaya to Governor-General, 14 March 1861; letter Resident of Cirebon to Governor-General, 19 November 1861, AMK, Exh 8 August 1863/22, ARADH; ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Kultuur Verslag over het jaar 1863’, AD, Pasuruan 24. ANJ; letter Resident of Probolinggo to Director of Cultivations, 6 January 1864; letter Resident of Pekalongan to Governor-General, 12 June 1867, AMK, Exh 30 june 1868/38, ARADH.

70 ‘Nota, betrekkelijk het verrigten van Diensten door de bevolking in de Residentie Banjoemaas, ten behoeve van Gouvernements werken of voor den arbeid bij de suiker fabriek Kalibagor gedurende den maaltijd, zoo ten opzigte de dienstpligtigheid, als betaling, welke de bevolking hier voor erlangt’, AMK, V 24 january 1859/17, ARADH; ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Bijlagen behoorende tot het kultuur verslag van 1859’, AD, Pasuruan 23, ANJ; letter Resident of Tegal to Director of Cultivations. 11 May 1861, AMK, V 5 February 1864/Pl Kab, ARADH; Anon., ‘Wat is waarheid? Vrije arbeid blijkens officiele stukken’, TNI, vol. 22, pt 2, 1860, p. 226.Google Scholar

71 ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Kultuur Verslag over 1854’, AD, Pasuruan 23, ANJ.

72 KV, 1857, p. 36.Google Scholar

73 See tables 1 and 2.

74 Staatsblad 1863, no. 118, cf Bijblad 945 (1860).

75 Bijblad 1602 (1864).

76 Bijblad 1748 (1865).

77 Bijblad 1844 (1866). Forced labourers were to be paid at rates about 10 cents per day higher than the prevailing rates for voluntary labourers.

78 See, eg, Letter Resident of Jepara to Director of Internal Administration, 15 February 1869, and letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Internal Administration, 13 May 1869, both in AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH.

79 Indonesia: Once More Free Labour (Exposition Press, New York. 1948). p. 13.Google Scholar

80 KV, 1856, p. 37Google Scholar; KV, 1859, p. 19.Google Scholar

81 See Bijblad 1580 (1864); Staatsblad 1865 no. 69; KV, 1870, p. 47.Google Scholar Ironically, the slow pace with which these measures proceeded in practice was a result of the notion that herendiensten had to be retained because there were insufficient voluntary workers for the required tasks (letter Resident of Tegal to Director of Cultivations, 11 May 1861).

82 Three regulations gazetted in 1867 (Staatsblad 1867 nos 122, 123 and 125) forbade the delivery of goods to indigenous chiefs above the level of village head, limited and specified more closely the personal services due to them from the population, and increased their salaries in compensation.

83 Letter Resident of Tegal to Director of Cultinations, 11 May 1861.

84 Letter Resident of Pekalongan to Governor-General, 26 March 1864, AMK V 9 November 1864/193 Geh, ARADH; Knight, ‘Capitalism and Commodity Production’, pp. 140–1. It was probably due to these factors that the Sragi factory had been able to operate without forced labourers since at least 1859 (letter Resident of Pekalongan to Director of Internal Administration 20 February 1869).

85 Letter Resident of Tegal to Director of Cultivations, 13 February 1865, AMK, V2 October 1865/H15, ARADH.

86 Letter G. F. C. Rose to Governor-General, 6 August 1867, AMK, Exh 30 June 1868/38, ARADH.

87 ‘Peasants and Plantation Economy’, p. 263.Google Scholar

88 ‘Residentie Pasoerocan. Algemeen Jaarlijksch Verslag over het jaar 1876’, AD, Pasuruan 21, ANJ.

89 Letter Resident of Jepara to Director of Internal Administration, 15 February 1869. It was perhaps no coincidence that the Resident reported that, beginning in 1860, one factory had been able to engage voluntary workers without resorting to the enticement of voorschot.

90 Kruseman, the manufacturer at Waru factory in Surabaya, obtained most of his voluntary labourers through the agency of a Chinese who employed ‘all sorts of artful means, which no respectable European would wish to perpetrate’. Doubtless a man with strong rural links, he received a fixed amount from Kruseman for every worker he delivered (‘Beschouwingen over eenige punten betreffende de Suikerkultuur’ [by Kruseman, 14 February 1869], AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH).

91 This frankly speculative assertion is mostly grounded in information contained in ‘Inlandsche ambtenaren en hoofden in 1866’, AMK, Exh 23 February 1869/10, ARADH.

92 Letter Director of Cultivations to Governor-General, 2 October 1866, AMK, Exh 20 October 1868/2, ARADH; letter Resident of Pasuruan to Director of Internal Administration, 2 November 1868.

93 Letter G. F. C. Rose to Minister of Colonies, 22 February 1868, AMK, Exh 30 June 1868/38, ARADH. See also Levert, , Inheemsche Arbeid, p. 100Google Scholar, and Fernando, , ‘Peasants and Plantation Ecomomy’, pp. 261Google Scholar, 271–2. These sorts of arrangements paid scant regard to the provisions of Stbl. 1863, no. 152. which outlawed agreements made by village chiefs on behalf of their villages and recognized only agreements with individuals.

94 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Governor-General, 19 June 1866, AMK, Exh 7 October 1868/34, ARADH.

95 Letter Van Delden to Governor-General, 4 August 1868.

96 Letter former Chief Inspector of Cultivations to Minister of Colonies, 2 October 1867, AMK, Exh 7 October 1867/137 Geh, ARADH.

97 Letter Assistant-Resident of Kendal to Resident of Semarang, 5 February 1869, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH.

98 In 1862, for example, the Inspector of Cultivations criticized some Cirebon factories whose administrators ‘show little skill in dealings with the native and scarcely understand and speak Malay, let alone Sundanese’ (‘Rapport over de Suiker Kultuur in de residentie Cheribon’). A few years later the Resident of Surabaya emphasized the importance of personal qualities in forging links with peasants: ‘The humane man who deals tactfully with the common native shall achieve the desired goal far more easily and quickly than one who lacks these qualities’ (letter to Director of Internal Administration, 20 February 1869. AMK. Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH. See also KV, 1878, p. 190).Google Scholar

99 Letter Administrator Arjosari factory [Pasuruan] to Assistant-Resident of Bangil. 5 April 1868, AD, Pasuruan 5, ANJ; letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Internal Administration, 20 February 1869.

100 Knight, , ‘Capitalism and Commodity Production’, pp. 144–7.Google Scholar Knight has pursued this theme of the tenacity of indigenous aristocrats in retaining control of rural production in a highly enlightening discussion, ‘The Indigo Industry and the Organisation of Agricultural Production in Pekalongan Residency, North Java. 1800–1850’, paper presented at the Fourth National Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Monash University. 1982.

101 Letter Van Delden to Governor-General, 4 August 1868.

102 Letter Director of Cultivations to Governor-General, 22 February 1859, AMK, V 13 March 1861/28, ARADH.

103 ‘Politiek Verslag der Residentie Probolingo over den jare 1863’. AD, Probolinggo I, ANJ.

104 Letter Resident of Pekalongan to Governor-General. 7 October 1867, AMK, Exh 23 February 1869/10, ARADH.

105 See the cautionary note struck by an anonymous author about similar examples of apparently increasing independence enjoyed by villagers (De Indische Gids [hereafter IG], vol. 11, pt 2, 1889. pp. 1200–3.Google Scholar

106 Letter to Governor-General, 2 April 1870, AMK, Exh 14 January 1871/40, ARADH.

107 Letter Resident of Besuki to Director of Internal Administration, 21 February 1869, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH.

108 Letter Assistant-Resident of Bangil to Resident of Pasuruan. 5 October 1868, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH.

109 A good example of this was the fact that manufacturers had to raise their wages to unheard-of levels in East Java in the 1870s to prevent workers being lured away to construction sites for the state railway then being built between Surabaya and local centres of export cultivation (KV, 1877, p. 197).Google Scholar

110 One alleged ramification: a Surabaya manufacturer claimed that increased wages meant that the Javanese did not need to work so often; indeed, ‘he earns so much in one day that he can then be idle for three’ (letter Van Oven to Resident of Surabaya, 10 February 1869, AMK, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH).

111 This and the following paragraph, except where otherwise noted, are based on the extensive materials found in the following files: AMK, Exh 30 June 1868/38, Exh 20 October 1868/2, Exh 7 March 1870/82, ARADH.

112 See also KV, 1875, p. 187.Google ScholarKV, 1880, p. 169.Google Scholar

113 Letter Resident of Surabaya to Director of Cultivations, 26 August 1858; letter Saportas (a Cirebon manufacturer) to Resident of Cirebon, 31 August 1858, AMK, Exh 14 June 1859/W2 Kab, ARADH; ‘Residentie Pasoeroean. Bijlagen behoorende tot het kultuur verslag van 1859’; letter Resident of Probolinggo to Governor-General, 9 November 1861.

114 Generally they did this by interpreting a breach of contract as deliberate fraud, which was a punishable offence. It seems that the weight of legal opinion by the mid-1860s was that such an interpretation was invalid and in any case almost impossible to prove in law.

115 Tin-Fong, Tjoeng, Arbeidstoestanden en Arbeidsbescherming in Indonesie (Verzijl, Gouda, 1947), pp. 38–40Google Scholar; Angelino, A. D. A. de Kat, Colonial Policy (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1931), vol. 2, pp. 497–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

116 Mandere, Van der, ‘De Suikerindustrie’, p. 537Google Scholar; ‘Opgave der productie kosten van een picol suiker zoowel bij de fabrieken op contract met het Gouvernement werkende als bij eenige vrije fabrieken op Java’, AMK, V 25 September 1885/25, ARADH.

117 Onderzoek naar de Mindere Welvaart der Inlandsche Bevolking op Java en Madoera [hereafter MWO]. Overzicht van de Uitkomsten der Gewestelijke Onderzoekingen naar den nietInlandschen Handel en Nijverheid en daaruit gemaakte gevolgtrekkingen [hereafter HN]. Deel IV, Eigenlijk Overzicht (Drukkerij Papyrus, Batavia, 1912), pp. 16–17Google Scholar; Brooshooft, P., De Ethische Koers in de Koloniale Politiek (J. H. de Bussy, Amsterdam, 1901), p. 74Google Scholar; Schmalhausen, H. E. B., ‘Waaraan heeft Java behoefte?’, IG, vol. 24, pt 2, 1902, p. 1042Google Scholar; van Kol, H., Uit onze Kolonial. Uilvoerig reisverhaal (A. W. Sijthoff, Leiden, 1903), p. 693Google Scholar; E. de Vries (quoting from the 1906 landrent monograph for the district of Wangkal, Pasuruan Residency), Landbouw en Welvaart in het Regentschap Pasoeroen (H. Veenman, Wageningen, 1931), vol. 1, p. 111.Google Scholar

118 KV, 1882, p. 182.Google Scholar

119 KV, 1883, p. 181Google Scholar; KV, 1884, p. 173Google Scholar; KV, 1885, p. 165Google Scholar; KV, 1887, p. 168Google Scholar; KV, 1888, p. 207Google Scholar; KV, 1889, p. 210.Google Scholar

120 See, for example, Irawan, , ‘Het vervoer via de Spoorlijn Semarang-Vorstenlanden als Welvaartsindicator voor de bevolking in Java's Vorstenlanden (1874–1883)’, in van Anrooij, F. et al. , Between People and Statistics: Essays on Modern Indonesian History (Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1979), esp. p. 61.Google Scholar The Semarang-Vorstenlanden line carried 374,427 ‘fourth class’ passengers in 1874; by 1883, the number had risen to 509,218.

121 See, e.g., KV, 1888, p. 3.Google Scholar

122 ‘Overzicht betreffende den oeconomischen toestand van de verschillende gewesten van Java en Madura en van een vijftal gewesten der buitenbezittingen’, KV, 1892, Bijlage C. In this regard it is important to note that persistently low rice prices through the 1880s (KV, 1886, p. 206Google Scholar; KV, 1887, p. 172Google Scholar; KV, 1888, p. 252) would have been something of a boon for non-landholders, from whom the greatest number of factory labourers were drawn.Google Scholar

123 This region, still thinly populated and largely uncultivated by the early 20th century, enjoyed something of an economic boom at this time, especially with the establishment of large European-financed plantations like the Jatiroto sugar factory. As a result, labour relations were similar to those which had so confounded manufacturers elsewhere in Java half a century before. See AMK, Mail report no. 1331/1909, V 25 November 1909/17, ARADH, for an interesting file on Jatiroto's labour difficulties, and also L. G. C. [astens], ‘De regeling van het werkcontract op Java’, Archief voor de Java Suikerindustrie [hereafter AJS], vol. 16, 1908, Bijblad, pp. 683–4.Google Scholar In general, East Java remained much less economically constricted than other parts of java; sugar factories in places like Pasuruan, Surabaya and Kediri still experienced labour supply and discipline problems into the early 20th century. See, eg, ‘Copie-Arbeidscnquete … Algemeene Vragen [Gending]’, Koloniale Bank archives, no. 1258, ARADH.

124 This picture is freely drawn from the following sources: Schmalhausen, H. E. B., Over Java en de Javanen (P. W. van Kampen. Amsterdam, 1909)Google Scholar; Wilde, A. Neijtzell de, Een en Ander omtrent de Welvaartstoestand der Inlandsche Bevolking in de Gouvernements-landen van Java en Madoera (Boekh. Visser, Weltevreden, 1911–1913), vol. 1Google Scholar; MWO, De Volkswelvaart op Java en Madoera. Eindverhandeling van't onderzoek naar de mindere welvaart der inlandsche bevolking. Deel I (Drukkerij Ruygrok & Co, Batavia, 1914)Google Scholar; J. W. Meyer Ranneft, Laporan-Laporan Desa (Desa-Rapporten) (Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia. Penerbitan Sumber-sumber Sejarah. no. 6, Jakarta, 1974); Burger, D. H., Sociologisch-Economische Geschiedenis, vol. 2.Google Scholar

125 This regularity of employment seems to have become increasingly prevalent at this time. See Ramaer, J. W., ‘De grondhuurprijzen en de loonen bij de Java-Suiker-Industrie’, IG, vol. 32, pt 2, 1910, p. 1316Google Scholar; Levert, , Inheemsche Arbeid, p. 119.Google Scholar

126 KV, 1882, Bijlage C-10, p. 1.Google Scholar

127 van Musschenbroek, S. C. and Moll, J. F. A. C., ‘Het arbeidscontract op Java en de wettelijke regeling daarvan’, AJS, vol. 14, Bijblad, 1906, p. 105.Google Scholar See also Schmalhausen, , Over Java, p. 40.Google Scholar

128 ‘Notulen van eene op den 16 December in de Kaboepaten gehouden vergadering’ [Pasuruan], Mail report no. 417/1893, V 22 June 1893/25, ARADH; ‘CopieArbeidsenquete … Algemeene Vragen [Gending]’; MWO-HN, Deel IV, pp. 17–18Google Scholar; Deel V, p. 3.

129 Letter Governor-General to Heads of Regional Administration in Java, 5 February 1894, in AJS, vol. 2, p. 232, 1894Google Scholar; Anon., ‘De Vrije Suikercultuur in de Residentie Bezoeki’, IG, vol. 16, pt I, 1894, pp. 84–5Google Scholar; Nota over de ‘Werk- en Leveringscontracten’ ten behoeve van Ondernemingen van Landbouw en Nijverheid op Java en Madoera (Landsdrukkerij, Batavia, 1900). Bijlage VI, pp. 28–9Google Scholar; Verslag van de SuikerEnquete Commissie ' Fuhri. Surabaya, 1921;, pp. 238ff.Google Scholar

130 Van Kol, , Uit onze Kolonien, pp. 694–5.Google Scholar

131 Even the voorschot system retained its vitality, although its use declined somewhat (Nota over de ‘Werk- en Leverings-contracten, pp. 26–7Google Scholar). It became, however, much more a tool for reinforcing worker dependence than for enticing new recruits.