266 JAVA PRODUCE. 



Batavia is King, and the European Residents are his 

 generals, aided by a limited number of subordinates, and 

 supported by a handful of soldiers in each province. 

 The standing army, consisting of only 25,000 to 27,000 

 men, — about 11,000 Europeans, remainder natives, 

 excepting perhaps 1,000 Africans, — counted some years 

 ago but two generals, six colonels, and a certain 

 number of captains, who are often in charge of an 

 expedition ; thus economy is carried into every branch 

 of the service. 



The details of the labour-law promulgated in 1830 

 were these : — Every family in the mountain districts 

 had to cultivate a small coffee plantation of 600 trees,, 

 which would cover half an acre of land, along with a 

 nursery to supply vacancies ; this was subject tO' 

 Government inspection, and in due time the latter 

 took possession of the crop, paying the cultivator at a 

 fixed rate, which in those days w^as equal to about 

 twenty shillings per picul of 132 lbs., the same picul 

 then being worth in Holland about three times as 

 much, leaving, of course, an immense profit, considering 

 that at least 250,000 acres (or 300,000,000 trees) were 

 under coffee, producing nearly 70,000 tons, or five and 

 a half hundredweights per acre. The Government 

 thus bought for £1,190,000 what it sold for £3,400,000, 

 sul^ject to fi^eight and charges, which, making a liberal 



