590 



NETHERLANDS, THE. 



power to make laws and regulations subject to 

 the restrictions laid down in the code of regu- 

 lations adopted in 1854, and to the authority 

 reserved to the States-General. The Governor- 

 General is Frederik s' Jacob, who entered upon 

 his duties in July, 1881. 



The sales of colonial produce on account of 

 the Government are transacted in Holland on 

 the so-called consignation system by the Neth- 

 erlands Trading Company, which has been the 

 Government's agent since 1824. This company, 

 which has made enormous profits ever since 

 the establishment of the culture system in 1832, 

 originally advanced the capital to start that 

 system, on which the state guaranteed 4 per 

 cent interest. By a new contract concluded 

 with the company in November, 1882, the com- 

 missions on sales are reduced from 2 to 1^ per 

 cent, and the Government is relieved of the 

 costs of the factory in Batavia. 



The foreign trade of the Dutch East Indies, 

 in 1878 and 1879, was of the following 

 amounts, in guilders : 



The principal exports in 1879 were of the 

 following values : 



EXPORTS. Guilders. 



Coffee : By the Government 33,499,000 



li By individuals 32,257,000 



Sugar 47,867,000 



Tin : By the Government 3,772,000 



' By individuals 3.531,000 



Indigo 2,950,000 



Hides 1,895,000 



Cloves and nutmegs 2.508,000 



Eice 1,623,000 



Tobacco 14,612,000 



Tea 1,821,000 



The revolt of the Atchinese in Sumatra con- 

 tinued through the year 1882. In September 

 an important victory of the Dutch troops was 

 announced to have been achieved on the 13th, 

 by which the rebels lost their chief, Nyahas- 

 sin, and many men. Later dispatches showed 

 that the rebellion was spreading. The replace- 

 ment of the military by a civil government 

 seemed to have been premature, but Minister 

 de Brauw, when questioned on the subject of 

 restoring the military administration, expressed 

 unwillingness to interfere with the authority 

 of the Stadtholder of East India. 



ARMY AND NAVY. The Dutch army consists 

 of two distinct elements, the volunteers and the 

 militia. The militia was organized in 1861, to 

 supplement the volunteer forces. They are 

 drawn by lot, and serve nominally five years; 

 but after being drilled for a year they are al- 



lowed to go on furlough, and are only called in 

 for six weeks each year. Besides the regular 

 army, there is a civic guard called the Schut- 

 tery, composed of all the members of communes 

 between twenty-five and thirty-five years of 

 age. The regular army on the war footing 

 numbers 2,320 officers and 62,687 men. The 

 army of the Dutch East Indies is composed 

 entirely of volunteers. In 1881 it mustered 

 1,456 officers and 31,693 men. Of the rank 

 and file, 15,399 were Europeans, 156 Africans, 

 and 16,130 natives. 



The navy in 1882 consisted of 103 steamers 

 with 393 guns, and 19 sailing-vessels with 157 

 guns. (See NAVIES or EUEOPE.) 



FINANCE. The total revenues in the five 

 years 1873-'77 averaged 110,000,000 guilders, 

 the expenditures slightly more. The budget 

 estimates for 1882 place the total receipts at 

 the sum of 107,421,555 guilders, the expendi- 

 tures at 129,987,644 guilders. 



The public debt in 1882 stood at 941,308,450 

 guilders, including 10,000,000 of paper money; 

 613,294,400 guilders bore interest at 2 per 

 cent; 90,312,150 at 3 percent; 10,150,000 of 

 sinking-fund bonds at 3| per cent; and 186,- 

 239,400, being the old national debt, and 31,- 

 312,500 guilders of new bonds issued under the 

 law of 1878, at 4 per cent. 



FOREIGN RELATIONS. The operations of the 

 British in North Borneo gave rise to consider- 

 able mistrust and excitement in Holland, which 

 found expression in the Chamber in a request 

 to the ministry to have the boundary -line fixed 

 between this new British colony and the Dutch 

 possessions in Southern Borneo. The ministry 

 announced that they had the assurances of the 

 British Government that British sovereignty 

 would not be proclaimed on the island, and 

 that they would therefore not take the respon- 

 sibility of creating difficulties on the question. 

 A large part of the year was taken up with 

 settling a new commercial treaty with France, 

 which was framed on the principle of the most 

 favored nation. An international fishery con- 

 vention, between Holland, England, France, 

 Belgium, Germany, and Denmark, was signed 

 in May. It provides for guarding the fisheries 

 by cruisers from the navies of the contracting 

 powers, and for the decision of disputes be- 

 tween fishermen of the different nationalities. 



POLITICS. The year, which witnessed a re- 

 markable and prolonged ministerial crisis, ended 

 with no important results except that of spur- 

 ring the Government to take up the questions 

 which have been postponed for three years. 

 The financial difficulties of the Government 

 caused by the continued deficits in the home 

 and East Indian budgets reached no conclusion 

 in 1882, the proposition to raise a new loan to 

 cover the deficits and extend the railroads be- 

 ing postponed. There is a total deficiency 

 of 53,500,000 guilders in the accounts of tim 

 Netherlands and 44,000,000 in those of Java, 

 including the estimated deficits for 1883. The 

 question of amending the school laws was 



