244 Voyage of the Novara. 



heavily taxed, 9 guilders (155.) per picul. The Netherlands 

 Trading Company [Nederlandsche Handeh-Maatsclmiiiiy')^ which 

 possesses the sole right of shipment, pays the Dutch Govern- 

 ment from 28 to 30 guilders (-±65. 8c/. to 505.) per picul of 

 coffee, which it sells in the European market for its own ac- 

 count. How thoroughly such a monopoly must check the 

 growth of trade and commerce may be best seen in the stag- 

 nation of haughty old Batavia, as compared with the youth- 

 ful, flourishing free port of Singapore. The Dutch Govern- 

 ment has, however, within the last few years taken a stride 

 in the direction of liberalism, and has thrown open a por- 

 tion of the products of the Island (as, for example, sugar, the 

 whole of which Government itself had hitherto sent to 

 Holland) to public auction on the spot ; and it is hoped this 

 system may ultimately be extended to other colonial products, 

 especially coffee, and that a little later, not alone Batavia, 

 Samarang, and Soerabaya may be declared free, but tliat all 

 the harbours may be thrown open to free trade. With this 

 question of free interchange of commodities is intimately bound 

 up that of compulsory labour, which consists in the natives of 

 the interior being compelled to work for the Government at 

 certain fixed rates. In all districts where the Government 

 owns coffee or other plantations, the cultivation of these must 

 be attended to by the natives of the nearest villages, for a remu- 

 neration fixed by the Government. The coolies or porters must, 

 for the fixed price of 2 J or 3 doits per paal, carry goods or do 

 service as runners or messengers, while free labour is at 



