JAVA REVENUE. 267 



allowance for the latter, would still leave a clear profit 

 of a million and a half pounds sterling, 



A similar system was carried out in the plains with 

 regard to sugar-cane. The natives had to cultivate a 

 certain quantity of cane, for which the manufacturer 

 paid them according to a tariff fixed l)y the Govern- 

 ment. The latter did not actually extract the sugar, 

 but left this to an engineer or tenant-at-will, to whom 

 it advanced, say, ten to fifteen thousand pounds for 

 twelve years, without interest, and who took the whole 

 management and responsibility of planting and refining, 

 the Government receiving two-thirds of the refined sugar 

 at a minimum price, leaving one-third to the refiner, 

 which he might dispose of at his pleasure, to indemnify 

 himself for all risk and expense incurred. The latter, in 

 order to make it a profitable enterprise, had to set to 

 work on a large scale. To the peasant, who w^as forced 

 to work for him, he paid at tlie rate of five shillings 

 per picul of sugar, two-thirds of which he had to 

 deliver to the Government for about ten shillings per 

 picul, then w^orth in Holland four to five times as 

 much, subject to freight and charges. The quantity 

 of land under suo-ar-cane was about the same as 

 that under coffee, requiring the labour of 200,000 

 families, and supplying ninety-seven factories, planted 

 in their midst, which produced about 136,000 tons 



